Vol 9, No 1 (2023)

Nikolay P. Likhachev (1862–1936) was an outstanding specialist in diplomacy, sphragistics, numismatics, paleography and codicology of ancient and medieval manuscripts. His collection of various documents was exhibited in the Museum of Paleography that he founded in 1925. The Museum was closed in 1930, and manuscripts in Oriental languages were sent to the forerunner of the present IOM, RAS. Among the documents in Arabic, Syrian, Coptic, Hebrew, Ethiopian, Persian, Armenian, Georgian, Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Japanese and other languages there were two Manchu-Chinese diplomas. The diplomas were acquired by N.P. Likhachev from different people. The first one is dated by 1682, and bestows the civil official Yatu the 4th rank title zhongxian dafu, and his wife from the Tunggo clan a corresponding title. The second diploma is dated by 1881. According to its Chinese text, the patent of nobility is given to the official Wei Zhu and his wife from the Liu clan. The Manchu text of this diploma does not make sense, since it is a combination of disconnected phrases. It could be assumed that it was put into the diploma as a formal, decorative part of an official document which was supposed to be in two languages. The second diploma was issued almost at the end of the Qing empire, when the Manchu language was sometimes used as a formal attribute to the official court documents for the Chinese subjects. This statement is supported by other late Manchu-Chinese diplomas from the collection of the IOM, RAS. The article publishes two Manchu-Chinese diplomas from the collection of N.P. Likhachev with transcription and translation of the texts.

In 2022, Russia celebrated the 160th anniversary birthday of the famous Khakass scholar, Turkologist, teacher, traveler and educator Nikolaj Fedorovich Katanov (1862–1922), who played a significant role in the study of the language and culture of the Tuvan people. Katanov’s biography and research works allow us to study the origins and the contemporary state of development of the humanities. The biography and legacy of N.F. Katanov are of academic and especially scientific, educational, and humanistic interest. They reflect important trends in Oriental studies both in Russia and abroad, especially in Turkology. N.F. Katanov’s doctoral dissertation “A Study of the Uriankhai language” laid the foundation for the scientific study of the Tuvan language, and his handwritten diaries and materials from the period of travel in Tuva, Khakassia, Xinjiang and Eastern Turkestan, entered the golden fund of Russian and European Turkology. His comprehensive studies of Turkic peoples of Eurasia at the turn of the century remain relevant and valuable at present. The article presents the research work on the heritage of N.F. Katanov scattered in archival centers of Kazan, Moscow, St. Petersburg and several foreign institutions. For the most part, the written materials (diaries, letters, unfinished manuscripts, etc.) of N.F. Katanov, revealed by the authors, bear the stamp of the era of the late 19th — first decades of the 20th cc. and its socio-political life. Introduction into scientific circulation of N.F. Katanov’s manuscripts allows us to identify the directions and features of his research work and to form an objective basis for the preparation of an academic biography of the classic of Russian Turkology.

Two newly identified fragments of the Sanskrit Suvarṇabhāsottama-sūtra from Central Asia are stored in the St. Petersburg’s Serindia Collection of the IOM, RAS under the call numbers SI 3045 and SI 4646. The uniqueness of the Central Asian Sanskrit manuscript rarities lies in the fact that they represent the earliest known version of this popular Buddhist text of the Mahāyāna tradition. Found in the Southern oases of the Tarim Basin in a rather fragmented condition, the manuscripts of the Sanskrit Suvarṇabhāsottama-sūtra written in the Brāhmī script are currently scattered among various manuscript depositories of the world. Among the manuscripts of the Sanskrit part of the Serindia Collection eight fragments of this Sūtra have been identified so far, and this article aims to introduce two previously unpublished fragments. The fragments are parts of the pothi type folios of paper containing on both sides ten lines in Sanskrit recorded in the so-called Early Turkestan Brāhmī, and paleography permits to date these two manuscripts to the 5th c. AD. The set of codicological and paleographic features (the same number of lines and line spacing, identical writing style and form of Brāhmī akṣaras, similar paper characteristics and width of the fragments) allows to suggest that both fragments could belong to the folios of one and the same manuscript of Suvarṇabhāsottama-sūtra, or at least that they were created in one scriptorium. Moreover, these fragments also reveal similarities with other manuscripts of this sūtra in the Serindia Collection. The introduction of these newly identified Sanskrit fragments into scientific circulation will provide additional material for solving the problems related to the source studies of the Suvarṇabhāsottama-sūtra.

The article is devoted to the Arab medical written monument of the Middle Ages — “Hundred Books on the Skills of Medicine” by the physician and polymath Abu Sahl Isa b. Yahya al-Masihi (approx. 970–1010). Of special interest is the first chapter titled “The Book of Introduction to the Art of Healing”. In this “book”, al-Masihi aims to add and correct already known theoretical medical knowledge, and points out the need for a shorter and simpler presentation of the practical part. The article provides historiographic information to show that al-Masihi’s work was the program and the model for “The Canon of Medicine”, the fundamental and basic work of the great Arab-Islamic physician and polymath Abu Ali Ibn Sina. Having compared the structure and content of these two medical encyclopedic works and considering the historical fact that al-Masihi was a teacher of Avicenna in the art of healing, the author of the article arrives at the conclusion that the treatise “Hundred Books on the Skills of Medicine” could become a forerunner of Ibn Sina’s “Canon of Medicine”. It could be the basis on which the great scientist relied in compiling his fundamental work.

In Russia, collections of Arabic papyri and documents on paper are kept in Moscow (the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts) and St. Petersburg (the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts and the State Hermitage). Each of them has its own formation history. The Moscow collection, which is the main focus of the article, is associated with the name of Vladimir S. Golenishchev, Russian Egyptologist and collector of ancient Egyptian and Coptic antiquities. All three collections have not yet been studied relying on the latest data and up-to-date research tools. Victor I. Belyaev made an attempt to draw up a catalogue of the Pushkin Museum and IOM collections together with transcription of the documents, but did not finish his work. Now his notes are a good foundation for future research, even though they need to be revised. The article presents a short description of the Pushkin Museum papyri collection and verifies the date of the papyrus I 1 б 732. It became clear that I 1 б 732 was written half a century earlier than stated by V.I. Belyaev.