Articles

The article focuses on the main features of the spiritual life of Central Arabia in the first half of the 18th century including non-Islamic cults widely spread in Najd during the period before the rise of the first Wahhabi state. The study is based on works of the founder of Wahhabism Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) including his personal correspondence and public messages as well as the historical works of early Wahhabi scholars. Its study became the basis for the reconstruction of the religious situation in this part of the Arabian Peninsula and its comprehensive analysis allows to conclude that pagan cults represented by different variations of fetishism were one of the main components of the spiritual life of these agricultural regions. In addition to that its significance was comparable to the traditional and deviant forms of Islam.

Terentii F. Shtykov, the conductor of the Soviet policy on the Korean Peninsula after the liberation of Korea, played a key role in the realization of his country’s interests. The USSR set the main goal of its policy on the Korean Peninsula to create a Soviet-friendly government, so that the Korean Peninsula would not fall under the influence of other powers that posed a threat to its security. T. Shtykov was at the forefront of achieving these political goals. Since the establishment of the Provisional Government of Korea under the agreement between the USA and the USSR failed at the 2nd Joint US-Soviet Commission in 1947, the Soviet leadership sought a solution to the Korean problem through proposals such as the simultaneous withdrawal of US and Soviet troops. However, this plan had no choice but to be accepted as a justification for making the division of the country a fait accompli. Although T. Shtykov once considered holding a general election between North and South on population proportions in accordance of the US proposal, he was not sure that this would necessarily benefit his country. So when South Korea moved to establish a separate government, North Korea followed the same path. For T. Shtykov, the creation of a Soviet-friendly government on the Korean Peninsula, not socialist, but at least pro-Soviet, was a plan minimum.

In the article, the author explores the phenomenon of «Gathering Painting» kyehoedo in Korean traditional painting of the Chosŏn era (1392–1910). Within the genre of «Documentary Painting» kirokhwa, «Gathering Painting» has developed over the centuries as an independent artistic form, which had memorial significance and conveyed the intellectual and spiritual searches of Confucian scholars within the framework of a national corporate culture. Being a product of historical memory, kyehoedo painting reflected the socio-political context, showed certain forms of Korean everyday culture, described and explained the development of individual social groups. The work analyses the source of kyehoe meetings of Confucian scholars that originate from the ancient associations of community members of the pre-state period. Over time, gatherings of intellectuals became an indispensable part of the life of an official in Korea, being one of the types of social relations within the bureaucratic elite, and a means of close ties intensification. The evolution of the meetings of intellectuals reflected their gradual institutionalization as a result of the strengthening of the neo-Confucianism positions in Korean society, which strived for definition and hierarchy not only in the structure of the state apparatus, but also in interpersonal relations. The author traces changes in the composition and technique of kyehoedo paintings from idyllic landscapes, made in ink, to bright and detailed everyday scenes, and concludes that historical processes naturally led to transformation of typical plots and revision of aesthetic values of Korean officials, which mirrored their cultural needs and aspirations.

This article presents a general historical outline of medieval Korea legal system formation in the period of 1392–1484: from the Chosŏn Dynasty foundation to the approval and publication of the most important source on the matter — the Great Code of State Administration, the “Kyŏngguk Taejŏn” of the year Ŭlsa. The unified code of laws was intended to become the basis for the design of a new socio-political system, the fundamentals of which were determined by the tasks of overcoming regional autonomy, centralization, and unification of government as well as concentration of economic resources under state control. The publication briefly outlines the main stages of the legislative codification and reflects on the main aspects of the domestic political development of the country that influenced this process. The main sources for the writing are, in addition to the Great Code itself, the True Records of the Joseon Dynasty — the main annals of Korea in the 14th–19th centuries.

This article is devoted to the broad question of the connection of synchronous epigraphic sources of the Chunqiu era on the history of ancient East Asia and those types of texts that were included as components in later complex texts. The examples of two inscriptions on bronze vessels show the emergence of two different traditions of self-referencing inscriptions: the tradition of royal inscriptions and the tradition of inscriptions of dignitaries of hereditary aristocratic clans. The example of the second type of inscriptions shows the origin of the plot core of that type of texts, which will later become a type of historical and literary narratives in Chun qiu zuo zhuan, which are sometimes called “anecdotes”. The research shows the similarity between the plot in the inscription and the general outline of events in the written monument. The article assumes the parallel development of two different traditions of texts arising from different types of inscriptions, these processes are linked to the development of two types of statehood in . The article also describes the successive stages of the genesis of tradition of narratives: from inscriptions on bronze of the 7th century BC through the inscriptions on bamboo of the Zhangguo era to the time to the antologies and complex texts of the Western Han era. Thus, we can conclude that there is a continuous chain of transmission of historical information from synchronous primary sources to complex narratives of the later historical tradition. Our research establishes a connection between the productive type of preservation of historical memory and the winning imperial model.

The paper explores the military industry development in the Ottoman Empire during the period of active reorganization of its armed forces and implementation of Western technical innovations (1826–1880). The paper scrutinizes the activities of the most important Ottoman industrial centers: the Imperial Arsenal, the Imperial Weapons Workshop, the Powder Workshop and the sewing factory. These centers provided all kinds of troops with the necessary supplies, producing cannons, small arms, ammunition and uniforms for military personnel. The multifaceted analysis of the Ottoman military transformations allowed to highlight a number of important research findings: first, the ambivalent nature of the reforms, which improved the technical equipment, but worsened the economic situation in the empire; second, the dependence of the Ottoman Empire on imports from Europe and America, which was relevant for all aspects of the military; third, the insufficient technical and economic basis for the reforms; four, the subordinate position of the Ottoman state relative to Western military-technical thought. Reformers found themselves trapped in a vicious circle, being forced to rebuild the whole industry from scratch for each new model of weapons created in Europe. Several unsuccessful attempts of organization of the military industry resulted in the degradation of the Ottoman military production and the beginning of purchases for the entire army. At the same time, the reformers did not take into account the expenses of the innovations. This practice contributed to both economic and political collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

The article analyzes the complex and tangled relationship between members of the military-political elite of Ottoman Egypt at the end of the 18th century. Based on the materials of the chronicle of the Egyptian annalist Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti the article aims to reveal the principal motives for the murder of one of the key figures in the neo-Mamluk hierarchy — Emir al-Hajj Yusuf-Bek. At the same time, the author examines the role of Islamic religious leaders, namely the Egyptian Alim corps, in this notorious affair. As a result of the case study, a finding is made about the necessity of observing the norms of behavior set in the Egyptian society by holders of secular power towards the religious spiritual authorities.

The paper explores the development of Iranian-Turkish relations through the prism of Turkish press coverage of Reza Shah’s visit to Turkey from 10 June to 7 July 1934. The research is based on the content analysis of the flagship Kemalist media outlets — namely, the newspapers Akşam, Cumhurriyet, Hakimiyet-i Milliye and Son Posta. Founded at the turn of the late 1910s and early 1920s with the personal support of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), these newspapers became the mouthpiece of the ruling People’s Republican Party and an instrument of Kemalist political propaganda. The visit of Reza Shah Pahlavi to Turkey in 1934 became an important event in the history of Iranian-Turkish relations, which experienced in the 1930s a new stage in its development characterized by both the overcoming century-old confrontation legacy and the imperatives of modernization and Westernization. The state visit of Reza Shah and his meetings with Ataturk marked the course for establishing good neighborly relations and cooperation between Ankara and Tehran. The Kemalist propaganda, mixing the problematic issues of bilateral relations, played a significant role in covering these events and giving them an official solemn gloss. Although there is a number of publications analyzing the record-breaking visit of Reza Shah to Turkey, none of the well-known works attempted to analyze the events through the prism of Turkish press coverage and Kemalist propaganda’s activities. The content analysis of Turkish press revealed the mechanisms for creating a positive image of Iran, the ruling Shah and relations between Tehran and Ankara in an exclusively positive way using a variety of propaganda techniques. The state visit of the Iranian Shah became a manifestation for the policy of good neighborliness, set by the 1932 agreement between Turkey and Iran, and continued in the subsequent years.

The present article based on local chronicles and diplomatic correspondence as well as on the accounts of European and Russian visitors to the khanate focuses on the issue of specific traits and evolution of courtly ceremonial and official titles adopted by the khans of Khiva in the 1st half of the 19th century. This source material supports the idea of the styling of Khivan rulers being deeply rooted into epic Iranian and Quranic traditions. The titles used equally reflect the polyethnic nature of the Qongrat khans’ authority, appealing to Turkic, Mongol, Arabic and Iranic elements.

The article deals with the situation of Antiochian Orthodox Church in contemporary Syria and Lebanon. With the example of Antioch Patriarch Theodosius’s reign the author makes an attempt to analyze the Patriarchate’s inner life as well as a set of external factors that had an influence on it. In the middle of the 20th century, the canonical territory of the Antioch Patriarchate became an object of intense rivalry between the Cold War blocs. The traditional competition between Damascus and Beirut is coupled with the emergence of the independent states of Syria and Lebanon, which leads to a church management crisis, which has repeatedly been on the verge of a split. At the same time, the Greek and Russian influence, which has a long history, is filled with a new content, becoming an internal factor in the life of the Orthodox community. The Lebanese region and the Greek party within the patriarchy had a pronounced pro-Western orientation, while the Syrian group was closer to an alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church and the USSR. Great value in the transformation of the patriarchate was played by “The Orthodox Youth Movement”, which by the end of Patriarch Theodosius’s reign had won key synodal positions and determined the pro-Greek bias in the external church relations.

The article deals with the period of the first monarch of the Western Han state — Liu Ban, better known as Han Gao-tsu (202–195 B.C.). This period is investigated in the context of collision of different paradigms of future development of the new Han Empire as the largest and longest-lasting state formation of the imperial type in ancient East Asia.

The paper discusses issues in the contemporary historiography of Telugu (Andhra) ethnonationalism as part of research on national movements and development of political consciousness of the peoples of independent India. The growth of religious and ethnic nationalisms, separatism and autonomous movements in the contemporary world has put forward the necessity of rethinking the above processes within the framework of ethnonational policies pursued by states. In the Republic of India whose 1.5 billion people speak 19.5 thousand languages and dialects and represent more than ten religions (including three world religions) as well as many religious beliefs, the problems of ethno-linguistic and ethno-confessional belonging get increasingly politicized as a powerful resource for regional and all-India political, economic, cultural and other elites. Authors of this paper discuss aspects of foreign and Soviet/Russian scholarly studies along the following lines: 1) nationalism and federalism within the all-India context (with a particular focus on South India); 2) the setting up of Vishalandhra and building it into India’s administrative territorial framework of the 1950s; 3) the Telangana movement, or the ‘Greater Andhra’ restructuring process.

The paper is dedicated to analysis of the problems of presenting the grammatical information in the text of ‘Dhātupāṭha’ which is treated by the Indian grammatical tradition as created by Pāṇini himself (V cent. b.c.) in the form of an ‘Appendix’ to his Sanskrit Grammar ‘Aṣṭādhyāyī’. Having shortly characterized certain historical problems associated with ‘Dhātupāṭha’, the author puts special stress on the fact that all the nowadays available versions of the ‘Appendix’ have reached us in presentation of the later commentators and grammarians, and thus the problem of Pāṇini’s authorship of the treatise is still remaining unsolved. The grammatical information found in ‘Dhātupāṭha’ and not quite consistently presented in it needs to be explicitly opened. That is why the most basic tenets of Sanskrit verbal grammar are — in the shortest way possible — explicated in the paper.- Thus, the paper is supplied with the data concerning verbs’ classification into 10 classes through the help of the so called “presence basis”; the roots are characterized in accordance with their correspondences with the grammemes of Active and Middle voices; the information on the so called “accentuation” in verbal roots and in forms produced from them and on the meta-lingual properties of Sanskrit tones is given; the principles of the distribution of the ‘Dhātupāṭha’ roots into 3 different groups (‘seṭ’, ‘ániṭ’and ‘veṭ’) in accordance with their interaction with the connective ‘-i-‘ are explained; the information concerning the meanings references applied to a number of roots in the ‘Dhātupāṭha’ is also provided. In conclusion, the devices of coding the grammatical information which has been important for ‘pāṇinists’ of all times and which is present in the treatise are explained through the help of the two illustrative samples extracted from one of the versions of ‘Dhātupāṭha’ (S.Katre’s).

The article examines the determining factors of the formation and development of one of the most acute disputes in the interstate relations between Indonesia and Malaysia, namely territorial dispute. The author turns to its origin in the historical past of the region. Based on the analysis of several agreements concluded between Great Britain and the Netherlands in the colonial era, the main reasons for the development of contradictions are revealed. Special attention is given to the problem of interpretation of the corresponding agreements.

In the shadow of the Emergency declaration in 1975, the Indian government suspended a number of basic human rights including the freedom of conscience, peaceful assembly and association. Eventually it banned some 20 rightwing religious organizations opposed to the socio-political course of Indira Gandhi and attacked their leaders on the grounds of causing unrest, inciting religious riots and provoking communal violence. Though religious and sectarian groups tried to maintain a united front against the government, they lost that battle. As a result, various religious communities were predictably deprived of legal representation and protection at courts, which intensified the violation of human rights and highlighted a need of negotiation process between the government and respective leaders of Indian religious groups. The anti-secular onslaught shed light on the discrimination treatment of minorities, primarily Muslims and Sikhs. The initiation of a forced sterilization campaign of male population predominantly in Muslim areas along with demolition of slums with a large number of Muslim population revealed the glaring hypocrisy of Indian democracy based on the principles of secularism and inclusiveness. This article examines the mid-1970s ban on a number of religious organizations in India and attempts to explore its influence on the Indian society in the subsequent decades. Currently, in the light of ideological confrontation between secularist forces and radical religious groups the study of the “dark” Emergency period implicates the importance of the constitutionally based principle of freedom of conscience and its implementation in real life.