Ars Islamica

Ars Islamica

Ars Islamica

In Honor of Stanislav Mikhailovich PROZOROV

Editor-compilator: Alikberov Alikber, Piotrovsky Mikhail

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Москва, 2016, 871 p.

This long-awaited volume is dedicated to Stanislav Mikhailovich Prozorov, a prominent Russian Islamologist, and one of the founders of the Leningrad/St. Petersburg school of Islamic studies. Few, if any, researchers in Russia can equal Prozorov’s expertise in the study of classical Islam.
The catalogue of his published works includes translations of important Islamic treatises, critical editions of Arabic texts, facsimile editions of sources, ground-breaking monographs, and didactic works on Islam, all of which are unrivalled in Russia.
The two encyclopaedic dictionaries of Islam prepared and published by Prozorov deserve particular attention. The first, entitled Islam: An Encyclopedic Dictionary, was published in Moscow in 1991, and constituted an important milestone in the history of Islamic studies in Russian. The second, Islam in the Territory of the Former Russian Empire, currently consists of five volumes and has been reprinted twice. This title, work on which is still ongoing, brought together Russian and foreign orientalists, resulting in an edition which contains unique material.
Stanislav Prozorov continued to develop the scholarly traditions of the St. Petersburg school of Russian Oriental Studies, established by A.E. Schmidt, V.V. Barthold, I.Y. Krachkovsky, E.A. Belyaev and I.P. Petrushevsky among others. The methods of this school are based on the study of original sources and classical texts, using specific research methods and techniques developed within the framework of the school. As noted in one of the articles in this Festschrift, Stanislav Prozorov managed to fulfill the dream of A.E. Schmidt by establishing an independent academic school of classical Islamic Studies in St. Petersburg, and so was central to the development of these disciplines.
After the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, it became clear that the Soviet Union with its extensive Muslim population badly needed an objective and comprehensive knowledge of Islam. By the time Soviet officials became aware of this state of affairs, Stanislav Prozorov had already been working in the field of classical Islamic Studies for two decades, despite the ideological restrictions on, and state aversion to, religious studies at that time.
The uncompromising attitude of Stanislav Prozorov to Islamic studies as a serious subject of study stemmed from an approach which required rigorous objectivity and so deserves the highest respect and admiration. In general, his highly principled attitude towards scholarship is one of the most remarkable traits of our colleague and one which he fully demonstrated in his capacity as Deputy Director of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (until his resignation in 2015).
Nowadays, when Islam is at the centre of intense public scrutiny, an unbiased and objective study which does not accept either fanatical proselytism or narrow-minded Islamophobia is of overarching importance.
Stanislav Prozorov’s rigorous methodological approach bases itself on the most accurate transmission of reliable knowledge about Islam as a comprehensive religion and philosophical worldview. Prozorov has not shied away from any uncomfortable facts and has striven to counter any belittling of the significant role of this religion in world culture. One can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is an example of devoted service to a noble cause.
This volume consists of several dozen articles, mostly written by Prozorov’s close colleagues, associates and former students. The editors felt it improper to intervene in the contributions by these authors and hence the published version of these articles may display differences in transliteration and other stylistic conventions.

11 FOREWORD
14 PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
18 Mikhail Piotrovsky
Unity in Diversity
INSTEAD OF INTRODUCTION
24 Stanislav Mikhailovich Prozorov
Autobiography
List of Academic Articles
ISLAMIC STUDIES AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE
43 Mikhail Piotrovsky
Some Principles of the Concept of Teaching the History and Culture
of Islam in Russia
51 Alikber Alikberov
Russian Islamic Studies, its Object and Place in the System
of Humanitarian Knowledge (On the Trail of a Scholarly Debate)
77 Renat Bekkin
Department of Islamic Studies of Petrograd University
(On a Little-Known Episode From the Biography of A.E. Schmidt)
96 Rafik Mukhametshin
Islamic Studies in Tatarstan
105 Alexander Knysh
Islamic Studies in the American Classroom: Between Pedagogy and Scholarship
METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF ISLAMIC STUDIES
129 Maxim Romanov
Digital Age, Digital Methods
157 Dmitriy Mikulsky
The Biographies of Muslim Scholars in al-Manhal al-‘azb
fi ta’rikh Tarabulus al-Gharb
223 Ara Margaryan
Methods of Generating “Profiles” of Hadith Transmitters on the Basis
of the Early Historical and Biographical Shi‘ite Sources
247 Maxim Romanov
After the Classical World: The Social Geography of Islam (661–1300 CE)
SOURCES OF THE EARLY ISLAMIC TRADITIONS
279 Alikber Alikberov
About the Sources and the Historical Base of the Qur’anic Story
of Ya’djudj, Ma’djudj and Dhu’l-Qarnayn
357 Vitaly Naumkin, Leonid Kogan
Cow-Ghost a Hundred Years Later (One Remarkable Story
From Socotrian Folklore)
TEXTOLOGY AND THE PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION
371 Vitaly Naumkin
Revisiting the Issue of the Translation of Muslim Sacred
Formula SALA-'L-LAHU ‘AL AYHI WA-SALL A M A into Russian
382 Natalia Prigarina
The Reflection of the Incorruptible Face (Intertextuality in the Depths
of the Persian Sufi Poetry)
392 Alexey Khismatulin
Medieval ta‘lif: Textual Analysis and Translation
of the Risala-yi Abdaliya by Ya‘qub Charkhi
TRANSLATIONS OF ISLAMIC SOURCES
438 Ibn Sina
“Healing” (al-Shifa’). A Chapter of the Book “Theology”: The Existence
of God and His Attributes. Transl., Introd. and Notes by Taufik Ibrahim
482 Ibn Rushd
“The Great Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics” (Tafsir ma’ ba‘d al-tabi‘a).
On the Rationale for the Existence of God and His Attributes. Transl., Introd.
and notes by Natalia Efremova
523 Sadr al-Din al-Qunavi
“The Guiding Message” (al-Risala al-Hadiya). Transl. from Arabic
and commentary by Janis Eshots
544 Farid al-Din ‘Attar
“Biographies of the Saints” (Tadhkirat al-awliya’). Biography of Abu Bakr Shibli.
Translation from Persian and Comments by Tatyana Zaglubotskaya
573 Shu‘ayb al-Bagini
“The Classes of the Khwajagan-Naqshbandiya and Khalidiya-Mahmudiya”
(Tabaqat al-khwajagan al-naqshbandiya wa-sadat masha’ikh khalidiya
al-mahmudiya). Biography of Shaykh Ahmad-afandi al-Talali.
Transl. from Arabic by Shamil Shikhaliyev and Makhach Musayev
ISLAMIC LAW AND CUSTOMS
604 Leonid Syukiyaynen
Shari‘a, Fiqh, Islamic Law: the Problem of the Correlation
620 Vladimir Bobrovnikov
Crime or Custom Between Islamic and Imperial Laws: Demystifying Ishkil
in 17th–19th Centuries Dagestan
ISLAMIC TRADITIONS AND INSTITUTIONS
647 Ashirbek Muminov
Shi‘ite Cultural Impact on Central Asia (On the Example of the Activities
of the ‘Аlids)
729 Alfrid Bustanov, Michael Kemper
Mirasizm in Tatar Environment: The Transformation of the Islamic Heritage
in the Tatar Enlightenment
746 Aftandil Erkinov
The Islamic Institute of M addahs (Preachers) in Turkestan: The Ideologization
of the Repertoire of Their Sermons by the Russian Colonial Administration
MUSLIM EPIGRAPHY, ARCHITECTURE AND MANUSCRIPTS
798 Murtazali Gadjiev, Amri Shikhsaidov, Alikber Alikberov
Arab Epigraphic Texts of the 11th — 12th Centuries on the Fence
of the Re-Opened Historical Memorial Complex Bab al-Abwab
819 Bakhtiyar Babadjanov
Epygraphica of the Ulugbek M adrasa in Samarkand (The 15th Century)
829 Elizaveta Nekrasova
The main Architectural Ensemble and the Khadhira of the “Greats”
of the Chor-Bakr Necropolis in Sumitan (Bukhara)
853 Ilya Zaitsev
On the History of Collection of the Arab, Persian and Turkish Manuscripts
in the Institute of the World Literature in Moscow
866 APPENDIX