Turkic and Persian Manuscripts and Documents in the Collection of Nikolay Veselovsky at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (Moscow): a Brief Overview

Abstract

Nikolai Ivanovich Veselovsky (1848—1918), a Russian orientalist and researcher of Central Asia, was without exaggeration an outstanding man: almost with the medieval scope of a polyhistor scientist, he managed to leave his mark in almost all areas of Oriental historical knowledge at that time. As often happens, the works of scientists of such a wide range, then sometimes obscured by the more capital and well-founded writings of followers, but their merits as discoverers should not be forgotten in any case. A brief overview of the Turkic and Persian manuscripts and documents of Nikolay Veselovsky in the Russian State Archive of Litearture and Art in Moscow presents monuments of the Kazakh historical epic of the 19th century, important historical documents of Khiva and Kokand (17th — 19th centuries), letters of Turkestan religious and political figures, as well as excerpts of Persian Medieval works on Geography and Islamic Creed.