Dīvān-i Hikmat Copies at the St. Petersburg Institute of Oriental Manuscripts

Abstract

Divan-i Hikmet was written by Pir-i Turkistan Ahmad Yasawi, the mystic poet and founder of the Yasawiyya sect, with the aim of teaching Islam to the Turks. This work is still one of the important sources on the history of thought and wisdom of the Turkic-Islamic world. Researchers such as Professor C. Eraslan, Professor I. Hakkul, Professor N. Hassan and H. Bijeh, made efforts to prepare this valuable work for publication and deliver it to its readers. Current article examines the publications of Divan-i Hikmet in the Turkic world, and we seek the answer to the question what handwritten copies are used in these publications. As a result of these studies, it turned out that important manuscripts in St. Petersburg are not used in the popular and scientific-critical publications of Divan-i Hikmet. To help researchers prepare a better text for Divan-i Hikmet in the future, we sought to identify and describe the manuscripts of this work, which are protected at the St. Petersburg Institute of Oriental Manuscripts. First of all, in our article, the history of the establishment of the St. Petersburg Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (Asian Museum) was examined. Then, on the basis of the protocols of the Russian Academy of Sciences, it was determined that by what decisions, by what institutions and by whom the manuscripts were delivered from Central Asia and the Volga region to St. Petersburg. At the same time, the main attention was paid to collections containing copies of Divan-i Hikmet brought to the St. Petersburg Institute of Oriental Manuscripts. As a result of our studies, it was found that 23 copies of Divan-i Hikmet are stored in the said institute.