On July 8, 2019, the delegation of the Sultanate of Oman led by the Head of the National Bureau of Oman for the Preservation of Archives and Documents (Status of Minister) Mr. Al-Dhawuani Hamed Mohammed Dhuwaihi and members of the delegation (Deputy Head of the International Cooperation Department - Al-Hijri Paradise Amir Mohammed, the head of the department - Al-Sheqaili Hamid Soif Mohammed and others) visited the Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences. The guests got acquainted with the activities and the new building of the Institute and outlined the forthcoming horizons of cooperation.

At the end of the visit, taking into account the excellent relations between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Sultanate of Oman in the field of scientific research and preservation of manuscripts and historical documents, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences and the the National Bureau of Oman for the Preservation of Archives and Documents. A documentary film was shown about the works done in the Sultanate of Oman in the field of preserving historical documents and archives.
Guests will be in Uzbekistan until July 12 of this year. Tomorrow, July 10, members of the delegation will visit the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan and the Center of Islamic Civilization in Uzbekistan to discuss prospects for mutual cooperation.

Sanjar Golomov is a senior scholar at the Al-Biruni Institute in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In Leiden he will deliver two lectures and one masterclass for MA and PhD students as part of the Erasmus Mobility Plus project between Leiden University and the Al-Biruni Institute. The project is coordinated and hosted by the Central Asia Initiative at Leiden University.

Sanjar Gulomov

Sanjar Golomov is a senior scholar at the Al-BiruniInstitute in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He has supervised the creation of an electronic catalogue of the manuscript fund of the Institute, a project funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, Germany. Sanjar Gulomov studied Persian and has published several translations and editions of Persian manuscripts from the Al-Biruni collection.

 

 

Lecture on Monday, 10 December: Central Asian historical documents: types and peculiarities

Time: 15:15-17:00 hrs
Venue: M. de Vrieshof 4, Room 007

The manuscript collection of the Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan contains a large quantity of historical documents in Persian, Turkic and Arabic drafted on the territory of the Central Asian khanates. These include legislative documents (decrees, orders, and instructions), private legal documents (documents concerning sales, wills, marriage certificates, deeds of gift, leases, mortgages, waqf promissory notes), clerical documents (orders, notices, and petitions), and other legal documents.

 

 

Masterclass on Wednesday, 12 December: Manuscripts of mixed content - Miscellany, Varia: who were their customers and why were they created?

Time: 9:30-12:00 hrs
Venue: Lipsius, Room 001

Manuscripts containing large and small fragments from various works are usually recorded in catalogues in the sections «Miscellany», «Miscellanea» or “Manuscripts of mixed content”. In the manuscript catalogues published in the Soviet period, the term «Varia was preferred. In general, western catalogues provide a more detailed description of all contents of such collections. As a result, even small fragments and author names are reflected in the indexes. On the contrary, in many Central Asian catalogues, the structure of the collections is described shortly, frequently superficially in the section «Varia». Thus titles and author names have been omitted. It is clear that the description of such collections (identification of their compositions, author information, copies of epistolary sources, various records, etc.) requires a lot of time and effort on behalf of the cataloger. Yet, these collections can contain valuable information, which cannot be found in other sources.

Registration
If you would like to attend the masterclass, please register with Elena Paskaleva at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

 

Lecture on Thursday, 13 December: On a type of administrative documents of the Bukharan Emirate issued by the late Manghit rulers: letters – orders. What changes have occurred in the external attributes and in the internal form of the documents?

Time: 13:15-15:00 hrs
Venue: M. de Vrieshof 2, Room 002

Orders and decrees of governors (khans, emirs) are of great value within the Central Asian archival materials. Traditionally, these types of documents are known as yarliq. The majority of the yarliqs have an extraordinary external form and were written eloquently. But there are also exceptions, which offer new research possibilities. In the decrees and orders of the Bukharan emirs issued in the 19^th and at the beginning of the 20^th centuries, we can observe changes both in the external and in the internal form of the documents. Therefore, certain Bukharan decrees have been referred to as "Letter -order" instead of "yarliq". The governor’s seal has an important place on the yarliq.Usually, they were imprinted in the top right corner of the document, near the initial lines of the text. In the orders of the Bukharan Emirate, issued by late Manghit rulers, the seals were imprinted on the verso side of the document.

In the monography on the basis of the Chinese sources and new works of the scholars of the Peoples Republic of China are considered little known and debatable issues related to ethnic origin and tribal structure of the ancient people of Central Asia, called in these sources Sac,Kyunna(syunnu-hunns), Uhu (ugu-oguz), Hueyhe(huejge-Uigur), Kyan (Xian), Tiey (Di); transcriptions of their self-names in the Chinese written monuments. There are comments on many Chinese ethnonyms as well.

         Thework also deals with some etymologies met in ancient Chinese toponymalsources of Sute, Davan, Van, Van-chen, Ershi and Jujchen.

         The book is addressed to orientalists, historians, teachers, students of the main subjects and a wide range of readers, who are interested in ancient history of Central Asia.

The monograph is produced within the framework of the grant «(ОТ-А1-41. Data on the history of statehood of Central Asia (Translations and researches from pre-Islamic sources), planned for 2017-2018  . Tashkent. Publishing house "Navruz", 2017. 364 pp.

Information on the traditional "15^th scientific and practical conference of young orientalists named after the Academician Ubaidulla Karimov ", which was held at the Abu Rayhon Beruni of Institute Oriental Studies,

Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences

On April 4 at the Abu Rayhon Beruni of Institute Oriental Studies, Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences (IOS) was held the traditional "15^th scientific and practical conference of young orientalists named after Ubaidulla Karimov". About 100 students from universities and specialists took part in the conference. Works of 75 authors were published in the proceedings of the conference. In particular, the thesis of Uzbek Orientalists in English was published abroad. 15 scientific papers and presentations were heard at the conference. The reports focused on the issues of historiography and source study of Central Asia, the interpretation of documents in the Central State Archive of Uzbekistan, research in Uzbek linguistics, relations between Uzbekistan and foreign countries, the life and work of prominent Eastern scholars.

Results of the conference. At the end of the event, U.Palvanov (Tashkent Islamic University), H. Nazirova (IOS), A. Nazarov (National University of Uzbekistan), O. Madaliyeva (IOS) took 1, 2, 3 places and were awarded with special diplomas and prizes.

The traditional annual conference this year also continued to contribute to strengthening the scientific life and activities of young researchers of our country.