Abstract

A comprehensive study of the characteristics of the dissemination of Muslim manuscripts and printed books in the Steppe Region, based on the patterns of circulation of Arabic-language books in various regions of Kazakhstan and their influence on the spiritual culture of local society, constitutes an important and timely topic. Its significance stems from the absence in domestic scholarship of a comprehensive and fundamental study of the dissemination of Muslim manuscripts and printed books in the Steppe Region. At the same time, a number of works produced by Kazakhstani and foreign scholars contain certain omissions and gaps. This is generally due to a narrower research focus or the inability to utilize sources written in Arabic script. At the same time, researchers have often underestimated cross-cultural and linguistic influences, as well as the fact that the book culture of many Muslim intellectuals was universal in nature – they read not only religious literature, but also works on mathematics, medicine, astronomy, geography and history, which were brought from Iran, the Ottoman Empire, India and Egypt. From this perspective, one should not limit oneself solely to studying the circulation of printed works in Kazakh and Russian.

The aim of the round table is to provide a forum for discussion on the prospects for studying Muslim book culture in the Steppe Region, and the dissemination of Muslim printed and manuscript books in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The main focus of the round table will be a discussion of the following issues: the channels through which Muslim books reached the Steppe Region, links with the spiritual and intellectual centres of the Russian Empire and the Muslim world as a whole, the history of Muslim public libraries in Semipalatinsk and Petropavlovsk, personal book collections, the activity of Kazakh and Tatar merchants, mullahs and representatives of the Turkic intelligentsia in the dissemination and development of Muslim book culture.

Research into the dissemination of Muslim manuscripts and printed books opens up new avenues for in-depth analysis in the fields of the history of book traditions, microhistory, the study of everyday life, and methods and approaches to preserving cultural memory. The study of private collections of manuscripts and early printed editions, as well as periodicals and other materials, may lead to the discovery of rare and valuable sources and artefacts that could enrich museum, library and archive collections, thereby becoming part of the cultural heritage.