Paper long abstract:

The Rihlah of Ibn Fadlan is most commonly read for its unique description of a Viking burning-ship funeral, and as a cabinet of medieval ethnographic curiosities. In this particular approach, the historical relevance of the Rihal, in fact an official report of a diplomatic mission in the twilight years of the Abbasid Caliphate, is generally ignored. In fact, as a fascinating record of diplomatic competition to maintain control of the Steppe zone west of the Urals, this account is a rare document of world history. Seen in the context of diplomatic and socio-economic competition between the Caliphate and the nascent Samanid Kingdom, the journey of Ibn Fadlan can shed light on the rise of Central Asia as an important world historical region, away from older models of understanding the history of the 10th century such as the Iranian Intermezzo. The present paper, by contextuatlising the Rihlah in this way and by using sources such as numismatics, Scandinavian Sagas, and the rise of the Kievan Rus', will present a new reading of the text outside a purely Middle Eastern context.

Paper long abstract:

This past year, while serving a Fulbright grant based at Baku State University (BSU), I was fortunate to explore Azerbaijan's known manuscript collections. In the course of such explorations, I learned what I could about the history of such collections, their current state of preservation, and their place in regional book culture.

In this paper, I plan to first provide a brief historical summary of Azerbaijan's manuscript holdings, and an overview of what I understand to be the state of the country's manuscript collections currently. As is widely known, manuscript collections in Azerbaijan suffered great disruption in the wake of the 19th century Russian imperial conquest, the Great War, and 1930s Soviet anti-religion campaigns. In light of these developments, I will provide my views on the region's early modern and modern manuscript history.

Following this overview, I shall concentrate on describing the history and current state of the "AMEA M. Fuzuli adina El Yazmalar Institutu," or "Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Manuscript Institute named after M. Fuzuli." For this portion, I shall describe the institute's manuscript holdings, the importance of the most prominent texts, and the practicalities of conducting research at this institution. I also plan to make general observations on the periods which this collection primarily covers, and the broader significance of this collection for national and regional historical research.

Paper long abstract:

Diplomatiс correspondences are important written sources in studying the history of Central Asia. Diplomatic correspondence is highlighted a clear description of the real situation of the political, socio-economic and cultural life of the country in a certain period.

In the early nineteenth century the Khoqand khanate tried to establish diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire. Such rulers as Madali Khan, Khudayar Khan and Sultan Sayyid Khan sought to intensify and strengthen the relationship by sending embassy missions. There are several key factors that contributed to these relations. One of them was activization of geopolitical actions of the Russian Empire in the Khoqand khanate. In the first Khoqand-Istanbul correspondences, we can see a desire of the Khoqand khanate for leadership in the Central Asian region along with the Russian factor. In the paper will considered these problems and learn dynamics of the embassy missions. Letters sent by Khoqand rulers to Istanbul and documents reflected the attitude of the Ottoman government towards them are stored in the Ottoman archives in Istanbul. In the initial letters of Khoqand rulers, we can see an attempt to reform and improve military defense of the country. These letters give us information about the state strategy shown by the Khoqand rulers for the future of the country. The letter sent from Khoqand to Istanbul in 1864 gave us information about asking for serious military assistance from the Ottoman Empire to repel the military invasion of Russia to Chimkent, Turkistan, Auliyaata and Tashkent. Also, in the letter wrote that the Ottoman ruler has the status of caliph, and therefore the sultan and his state are responsible for the security of Muslims in the world.