The Western field of oriental studies and orientalism - criticised by Edward Said among others for encouraging the orient to be viewed in a particular way - has a counterpart in Russia and the Soviet Union. This book examines this Russian/Soviet intellectual tradition of oriental scholarship covering Islamic history and Muslim literatures of the USSR republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Orientalism – the idea that the standpoint of Western writers on the East greatly affected what they wrote about the East, the "Other" – applied also in Russia and the Soviet Union, where the study of the many exotic peoples incorporated into the Russian Empire, often in quite late imperial times, became a major academic industry, where, as in the West, the standpoint of writers greatly affected what they wrote. Russian/Soviet orientalism had a particularly important impact in Central Asia, where in early Soviet times new republics, later states, were created, often based on the distorted perceptions of scholars in St Petersburg and Moscow, and often cutting across previously existing political and cultural boundaries. The book explores how the Soviet orientalism academic industry influenced the creation of Central Asian nations. It discusses the content of oriental sources and discourses, considers the differences between scholars working in St Petersburg and Moscow and those working more locally in Central Asia, providing a rich picture of academic politics, and shows how academic cultural classification cemented political boundaries, often in unhelpful ways.
This collection of articles by leading Russian Orientalists, from different universities and research institutes of Russia, covers a wide range of research fields: politics and power, history, economics and society, language, philosophy and culture. The Russian authors base their works on rare sources. They examine here ancient and medieval history and culture of Oriental societies including articles on Indian mythology, kalam in Islam, classical Indonesian concepts of monarchy, Caucasus in the Abbasid period etc. There will also be a focus on modern Asian and African societies with articles on agriculture in India, monarchy in Cambodia, kleptocracy in Africa, Chinese migration to Siberia etc.). Furthermore in this volume, cultural vocabularies and sacred texts will be analysed. The volume will be useful for all academics and students interested in Asia and Africa.
Here, the author examines Russian thinking about the Orient before the Revolution of 1917. He argues that the Russian Empire's bi-continental geography and the complicated nature of its encounter with Asia have all resulted in a variegated understanding of the East among its people.
