Archaeographical expeditions of Kazan University.

Abstract

The article highlights the study of the history of the archaeological expeditions undertaken by Kazan University, their scientific and social significance and their role in the Tatar people’s life. The study is based on a review of handwritten and rare printed books found during these expeditions, organised over the course of half a century.Having worked in 900 settlements in 15 regions of five autonomous Russian republics, the archaeographic expeditions of Kazan University returned to the Tatar reader more than 10,000 manuscripts in the Turkic-Tatar, Arabic and Persian languages, about one and a half thousand printed books. Among the found manuscripts, the most prevalent are records of religious content: the Koran, Karim, Havtiyak, hadiths, prayer books, religious works on the history of the prophets, monuments of language, literature, oral folklore, history, medicine and ethics. The significance of these expeditions was not limited to the collection, accumulation and scientific study of the manuscript monuments, but at one time, it was the only way to preserve them from disappearance forever. This article makes this process the main object of our study, it specifies the contribution of archaeographic expeditions both to the history of the Tatar people, and to the development of literary criticism, determining its novelty and relevance.The main objective of the research within the article is to study the history, scientific and national cultural significance of the archaeographic expeditions carried out at Kazan University.