Russian Orientalists and Arab-Islamic Civilization

Dr. Mahmoud al Hamza-Athens-September 2023

Dear colleagues

First of all, I would like to thank the members of the local organizers of the second conference of the International Academy of the History of Science.

On this occasion allow me to introduce you to today’s topic on the role of Russian Orientalists in the study of Arab-Islamic civilization. Since this topic in my opinion has received little attention in international research. Therefore, I would like to highlight the importance of the translation and study of Arabic manuscripts in the humanities and the sciences such as mathematics and astronomy.

2) The Russian Orientalism and Western Orientalism

– Orientalism in general, since its inception, has two different aspects:

– The first is to serve political and colonial purposes and deal negatively with the peoples of the East

– The second has a scientific-cognitive character to study the East, its culture, religions and deals with the peoples of the East objectively without a preconceived view

3) Western Orientalism:

– Orientalism originated in Europe initially under the supervision of the Catholic Church with the aim of studying the east to pave the way for the extension of control over it (Western colonization) – Edward Said.

– Eurocentrism: Ernest Renan about the backwardness of the Semitic mind and the superiority of the Aryan mind: since the Arabs belong to the Semitic race, they do not have scientific opinions or philosophical ideals.

– Renan has a negative image of Arabs, Muslims and Islam. He concluded this because the East needed help from the West in the administration (mandate) and this was a prelude to plundering the natural resources of Est.

4) Russian Orientalism:

– It originated during the reign of Peter I (The First) at the beginning of the 18th century AD and was aimed at getting to understand Muslims (the Ottoman Empire) and began to pay attention to teaching the Arabic language and translating the Koran

– Russian Orientalism was initially based on German and European Orientalists with such great scientists as Frein, Rosen and Dorn.

– The role of the Russian (Eastern) Church was much less hostile than the role of the Catholic Church in the Arabistica and in the formation of the image of the Muslim East.

5) The Russian School of Arabic Studies:

has two directions:

– First: it is interested in Arabic manuscripts in various fields and they are distinguished by their scientific and cognitive inclinations and their love for the Arabic language, literature and culture, represented by Krachkovsky (Institute of Oriental manuscripts and faculty of Oriental Languages-St. Petersburg)

6) Second: it is interested in contemporary studies of a political and economic nature on the situation of the Arab and Islamic Orient, and it provides direct services to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the key decision-makers in Russia (Institute of Oriental Studies-Moscow)

The next part of topic we are going to discuss today is:

7)-8) The experience of the Russian Arabist Ignatius Krachkovsky (d. 1951) and his sacrifices for the preservation of the school of Arabic studies in Russia

– Ignaty Yulianovich Krachkovsky (d. 1951, Leningrad)

– He was a Russian and Soviet Arabist, academician of the Russian Academy of Science

– Krachkovsky was one of the founders of the Soviet school of Arab studies. He is known for authoring the translation of Quran into Russian.

– In the twenties Krachkovsky was arrested on charges of spying for Finland

– During the Stalin era, he was subjected to enormous pressure, which reached the point of insults, because he was interested in the translation and study of Arabic and Islamic studies of ancient manuscripts.

– The political and scientific authorities in the Soviet Union were against paying attention to religions and against focusing on ancient manuscripts, but rather paying attention to contemporary political and Economic Studies in preparation for expanding the influence of communism in the world

– Krachkovsky defended the continuation of the School of Arabic Studies in St. Petersburg, stressed that these are purely cognitive scientific studies and refused to politicize this research.

– Krachkovsky expresses an image of freedom of thought and faith in the Islamic Civilization, showing how Al-Akhtal, a Christian, wrote poetry and used words about wine, and his poems were not banned, but, on the contrary, spread widely and were preserved by generations.

As well as the message of the Angels to Abou Al-Alaa, which Krachkovsky translated into Russian and published for the first time, he said that if there were any lists of forbidden books, The Book of Abou Al-Alaa would be at the top of this.

Abou Al-Alaa Al-Maari – great Arab poet

The famous Abu al-A’la al-Maari saying: The World Is Divided in Two: Those with Brains but No Religion, And Those with Religion but No Brain

عن كتب كراتشكوفسكي في الصفحة 8

– About the presence of Arabs in Andalusia, Krachkovsky wrote: “Through this bridge of Arabs, all the famous Greeks Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Galen and Hippocrates entered Europe. Europe recognized them through their works in Arabic, which were translated into Latin in the Renaissance, and the number of Greek manuscripts was very large.” Krachkovsky adds: “by expelling the Arabs. The Arabs were the soul of Spain.”

9) Piotrovsky says,”We are to a great extent Eastern and the same is with the Russian Orthodox Church. It is an Eastern Church and it is closer to Islam and in understanding Islam”. Islam, for the Russian church, was not an enemy, but a rival. The Russians insist on using the term “Arabistika” and not Orientalism, and Mikhail Piotrovsky considers that the division into Eastern and Western is an inhumane division

10) The influence of Islam in Russia through the countries of Central Asia and the fact that Muslims have coexisted in what is now known as the Russian Federation and not as expatriates, like in other parts of Europe.

11) Russian scientific “Arabistica” – Russian school of the history of mathematics

– This school was founded practically in the middle of the twentieth century (its headquarters is the Vavilov Institute for the history of Science and technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences)

– Adolf Yushkevich wrote his well-known research on algebra of Omar Khayyam during the Second World War and published it later.

– The most important Arabists in the field of the history of Arab Sciences where: Yushkevich, Rosenfeld, Matveevskaya and Rojanskaya

12) Adolf Yushkevich and the history of Arabic mathematics

– Adolph-Andrei Yushkevich was a Soviet historian of mathematics, leading expert in medieval mathematics of the East and the work of Leonhard Euler.

– His book, the History of mathematics in the Middle Ages – a rare encyclopedia in the evaluation of Arabic mathematics and its role in the development of mathematics in general

13-14) Galina Matvievskaya and Boris Rosenfeld:

-The Encyclopedia of the history of Muslim scholars in the Middle Ages. The book is divided into 3 parts (1000 Arab scholars)

– Matvievskaya’s book on the development of numbers in the Middle Ages and the role of the Arabs in the development of the concept of numbers. (Ibn al-Baghdadi).

15) Russian historians of science studied a lot of Arab scientists and translated their works into Russian and published them (al-Khwarizmi, Al-Khayyam, Al-Farabi, Al-Tusi, Ibn Sina, Al-Razi, Al-Biruni and others)

16) The Arab scientists in Russia

While the Russian Arabists were researching the Arabic ancient manuscripts they cooperated closely with the Arab scientists. Furthermore, some of them even took part in teaching Arabic at Russian universities for prolonged periods of time, and themselves contributed to the introduction of Arab-Islamic culture.

Finally, there was a bridge between the past and the present, and a growing interest in contemporary Arabic literature.

– The role of Arab scientists in the development of the school of Russian Arabic Studies (Tantawi, Murkus, Bandali, Kulthum Odeh)

17)-18)Conclusion

Finally I would like to summarize the main points of my findings:

– Western Orientalism has an intellectual background that emphasizes the conflicts of civilizations and the superiority of the West over the East.

– The Russian Arabistica reflected the positive and negative phenomena in the Arab Muslim East. However, they were not pre-judgmental, but lived it realistically and came across different aspects.

– The Russian arabists – cooperated closely with the Arab Scholars in the development of the school of Russian Arabic Studies

– Krachkovsky had a scientific principle to research of Arabic manuscripts. Therefore, his research has scientific cognitive motive, and was independent from political and religious views. As a result, his approach was purely humane.