THE LIFE AND WORK OF A PROMINENT SCHOLAR AND EDUCATOR ISMAILDIBIR FROM SHULANI

Abstract

Ismaildibir from Shulani – a scholar-enlightener who contributed greatly to the intellectual sphere of Dagestan in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. He was part of the Dagestan cohort of scholars that produced a substantial layer of spiritual literature, popularized Islamic knowledge and made a significant contribution to the cultural heritage of the peoples of Dagestan. His life and work, as well as many other Dagestan scholars, theologians, educators, have been studied poorly.
 With the aim of compiling the biographical portrait of the scholar and studying his bibliographical heritage, the authors conducted a field trip to the village of Shulani, Gunibsky district of the Republic of Dagestan. We had an opportunity to meet Ismaildibir’s granddaughter, Bagzhat Alikhanova, and to study his private library.
 Ismaildibir translated works of Arab scholars to the Avar language and published them in Muhammadmirza Mavraev’ typography in Temir-Khan-Shura. He also made copies of popular Arabic works due to having calligraphic handwriting. The paper gives a list of these works.
 In 1996, a manuscript with Ismaildibir’s poems in the Avar language was returned from Turkey to Dagestan. During the trip to Shulani, we studied the aforementioned collection of poems. The paper provides the table of the collection’s contents and an annotation to his works.
 As a result of the study, we managed to clarify and supplement the biography of the scholar. A list of his works was compiled, features of Ismaildibir’s creative heritage were extended. The introduction of the works of Ismaildibir from Shulani in the Avar language, written in the Ajam script, his translations of theological works of Arab scholars into the native Avar language is an essential contribution to the study of the history of spiritual literature and esthetic thought of the peoples of Dagestan.