Pis'mennye pamiatniki Vostoka

This article presents a translation of the first chapter from the manuscript Emu Tangū Orin Sakda-i Gisun by the Mongol bannerman Sungyun (1752–1835), with introduction and comments. This chapter is concerned with the history of the Qing dynasty, listing the deeds of Manchu emperors, with the emphasis on the merits of the living Qianlong emperor, most of which comprise the so-called “ten military achievements”. The author intended to prove the validity of the claims of the Qing emperors to the eternal rule of their dynasty. Besides, according to both the norms of Confucian morality and the Manchu way of life, the key to the upholding of the “great peace” (taiping 太平) is the education of the younger generation of standard bearers. The result of such education would be a faithful service to the dynasty by the later generations of bannermen.

This article is devoted to a set of epigraphic monuments of the Hadramawt of the late Medieval period, being published for the first time. These monuments are gravestones, photographed in the vicinity of the settlement of Qārat al-Ṣanāhiǧa during the field works of the Soviet-Yemeni Complex Expedition in 1988. The publication of tombstones from Qārat al-Ṣanāhiǧa is a valuable source on genealogy. As part of our research, we have prepared their Arabic text, Russian translation and necessary commentaries, which include descriptions of social relations as well as various cultural and historical aspects of the Hadrami society. As a result of analysis of the paleography and text of the epitaphs, we came to the conclusion that this group of tombstones represents a local type of decoration. Due to the uniformly standard language of epitaphs, some poorly preserved inscriptions can be restored to the last word.

The province of Khorasan, which was a part of Iran since the Sassanids (224–651), has been the scene of conflict between Persians, Uzbeks and Moguls over its territory for several centuries. A new wave of aggravation of this internecine struggle occurred during the reign of Shah Safi (1629–1642). Shah Safi I is associated with the weakening of the central authority in Iran and the loss of a number of territories that had previously been part of the Safavid State. The information about it is given in the Khulasat al-Siyar by the Shah’s court historiographer Muhammad Ma‘sum (1586/87–1647). As far as we know, this is the only manuscript of the period written in Persian and covering all thirteen years of Shah Safi’s reign. Analyzing the data of this source, one can follow the course of military clashes in the province of Khorasan, as well as find out the circumstances of the loss by the Persians of the city Kandahar (1638), reveal the names of local rulers, both those who were loyal to the Shah and those, who “put on the robe of betrayal”. Muhammad Maʻsum’s information about this period of the Safavid dynasty’s history (1501–1736) remains unclaimed by modern scholars and investigators.

This article is the first to offer a consolidated list and a brief description of manuscripts and printed works from the collection of Khusain Faizkhanov (1854) housed in the funds of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The source base of the study consists of catalogues of Oriental manuscripts of the 19th and 20th centuries in three languages (Russian, German and French) and a list of works mentioned in the receipt dated October 26, 1854, from the archive of Orientalists of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The array of analyzed sources consisting of 26 manuscripts attributed to the collection of Kh. Faizkhanov made it possible to identify a total of 35 works in Arabic, Persian and Turkic (Ottoman and Turkic) languages. In conclusion, a consolidated list of works included in the identified manuscripts is given, and the results of correlating the identified works with the names from the above-mentioned list dated 1854 are presented.