The author explores specific manifestations of the phenomenon of syncretism in theMeroereligion, as well as the factors, which did significantly contribute to it. She traces these factors on a wide time scale starting from the early archaeological cultures of theNileValleyto the Hellenistic time. The main subject of research is the cult of the gods, as well as the myths and rituals, which did accompany worship. The article deals with concepts of ‘unity and multitude’, which were instrumental for creation of local concepts of Egyptian deities. According to the author, this was the beginning of syncretism. Both the subsequent adaptation and acculturation can be seen in rethinking and creating images that retained many primordial Egyptian features. The Meroe ‘friend or foe’ concept could be traced on specific forms of adaptation of ‘enemy’ images to the Meroitic culture and the subsequent perception of them as “own” or “local”. One can identify this process as “inversion”, which run in two directions: the “alien”, i.e. Egyptian gods in fullness of time became “own” gods inMeroe, the gods ofKush, in their turn became part of the Egyptian pantheon. The results of the process, which culminated in creation of a syncretic culture can be seen in emergence of new hitherto unknown deities, which were distinguished by combination of various Greek, Egyptian and Meroitic features. The Hellenistic features ofMeroedeities came to this culture viaEgypt. The formation of the syncreticMeroereligion up to the beginning of the Christian era was marked by the mutual influence and coexistence of “borrowed” deities as well as those, which came into being in course of the process of “borrowing”. The phenomenon of syncretism was spread through many aspects of religious life covering not just individual images of deities or various ritual practices, but also the whole theological system ofEgypt. In the history of the world religions this was the first recorded spread of religious teaching beyond its historical borders and the subsequent adaptation to an “alien”, Sudanese culture.

The publication provides a commented translation into Russian of the book VIII of Shinchō ō ki chronicle. The article continues the series of translations of books of Shinchō ō ki, published by the author. Shinchō ō ki is a biography of the so called “unifier of Japan” Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582). This is one of the most important sources on the history of Japan in the end of the Middle Ages – beginning of the Early Modern period. This present redaction dates back most likely to the 16th – beginning of the 17th cent. The author of the chronicle is O̅ ta Gyu̅ ichi (1527–1613?) the vassal of Nobunaga. This part of the chronicle describes the campaign of Oda Nobunaga in 1575 in the province of Echizen, which had previously come under the control of the Ikko̅ -ikki forces. Having brutally dealt with Ikko̅ -ikki’s supporters, Nobunaga regained his power over Echizen. Scroll VIII contains the text of Nobunaga's instructions to his vassal Shibata Katsuie. Katsuie was to be guided by these instructions when governing Echizen province. In addition, in this part of his work, O:̅ta Gyu̅ iti narrates about other important events, in particular, the assignment to the “unifier of Japan” posts at the Imperial court, as well as the transfer by Nobunaga of the headship of the Oda house to his eldest son Nobutada. The first academic translation of Shinchō ō ki into Russian is accompanied by a detailed commentary. The present author offers there a comparison between the data found in the chronicle against other sources. In addition, in the commentary comprises the authors interpretation of the difficult passages from the Shinchō ō ki along the traditional views on their meaning as expressed in the modern scholarship.

The ancient Indian aesthetic theory identifies bībhatsa, “disgust / aversion”, as one of the nine sensory states that determine the mood of dramatic and poetic works and by means of visual / verbal techniques affect a spectator/a reader. This term from Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra was adopted by Christian missions in India and used as an argument against the cultural traditions of the conquered subcontinent. The translation into Marathi (1864) of The Little Clay Cart, a Sanskrit drama by Shudraka, became the object of violent public controversy initiated by Rev. Henry Ballantine who found the image of the protagonist Vasantasena, a hereditary courtesan, “disgusting” and the play “shameful”. The final subjugation ofIndia after the defeat of the Sepoy Mutiny (1857–1858), and its transition under the British crown rule intensified the process of emotional indoctrination of subjects by resort to the notion of “disgusting” understood as anything not compatible with the Christian morality norms.

The review article is based on the materials of the talk given at the All-Union Barthold Readings in 1990. It comprises an analysis of the data regarding the monetary units circulating in the city ofTurkestanand its district (South Kazakhstan) during the period when it was subject to the Khoqand (Kokand) Khanate and subsequently to the Russian Empire. The sources are a large group of act and business documents written in oriental languages in Arabic script, which were discovered in the 1970s. The article provides a philological analysis of monetary terms and related metrology. It provides the relationship between local and Russian denominations as well as a general survey of monetary circulation in the region during the 19th century. Along with the coin types and some specific features of their circulation, the author supplies unique data regarding prices for goods, realty, food, etc., which existed in the region during that period.

The article offers a research on Mahakala cult in Tibet. Mahakala is a deity common to Hinduism and Buddhism. It appears also as protector deity known as dharmapala – the Protector of Buddhist Doctrine. The author addresses some issues regarding the genesis of this cult, namely materials and historical facts about how it did appear in the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon, and how it did subsequently receive its further development and became popular inTibet. The author uses the already published scholarly works to illustrate some of the main forms of the deity manifestation and their functional aspects. She also draws attention to the ways of Mahakala teaching lineages and transmissions as well as religious practices, which did exist in the early stages of the cult formation. The article emphasizes the importance of the deity cult inTibet, as well as the prevalence of the Mahakala Six-Armed manifestation. This ancient and multifaceted cult was tightly connected with that of the deities in ancientIndia became firmly rooted in the Buddhist pantheon. Subsequently it gained significant popularity not only in the “Land ofSnows” but also in all other areas where the Tibetan Buddhism was spread.

The article represents a kind of “postscriptum” to the author’s hypothesis about fundamental sources found in Pali canon and early post-canonic literature that gave birth to formation of the crowned Buddha image. This hypothesis underlies this study of early Buddhist iconography, in particular with respect to images belonging to the Amaravati school, which illustrate the relationship between the Buddha and Cakkavatti. The author substantiates the conclusion that the image of the crowned Buddha had emerged almost simultaneously with the anthropomorphic image of the Enlightened One.

The article is the third part of a study regarding the problem of the re-edition of Aristotle’s Categories in the work “The Healing” (ash-Shifā’) by the greatest philosopher of classical Islam, Ibn Sina (Avicenna; d. 1037). It is based on the immanent study of the source. The study highlights Avicenna’s revision of Aristotelian doctrine of the last of the four main categories – quality, as well as the other six categories, and also the concepts considered by Aristotle in the third section of his treatise (postpredicates), first of all – opposition, antecedence-succession, and movement. There is noted the intention to harmoniously synthesize of different expositions of ten categories and post-categorical notions in Aristotle’s Categories and Metaphysics. Special attention is paid to the efforts Ibn Sina made to “ontologize” the Aristotelian categories, namely not only the proof of the existence of each of them, but also the establishment of its substantiality or accidentality.

The author researches the widely used practice of the so-called maha-mantra (the “great mantra”) while offering short prayers in the tradition of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, It is based on the Upanishads, such as Kali-santarana-Upanishad and Chaitanya-Upanishad. The author evaluates the existing original commentaries. As “classical” may be considered the interpretations those by Brahmayogin Ramachandrendra Sarasvati (XVIII century) and Suhotra Tapovanachari (1950–2007) on the Kali Sandarana Upanishad and those by Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Madhusudana dasa Babaji on the Chaitanya Upanishad. The article provides a translation of both texts from Sanskrit into Russian, supplied with comments and other explanations. The methodology used is based upon V. I. Rudoy concept regarding the polymorphic nature of Sanskrit textual culture.

The present article is a continuation of the research on the chapter «Diverse Writings» (Za shu) from the famous “Book to Burn” (Fen shu), the opus magnum by the iconoclastic late Ming thinker Li Zhi (1527–1602). The article comprises the first translation into Russian of the essay by Li Zhi “Discourse on Armament and Food” (Bing shi lun) accompanied by introduction and comments. The tenor of the Chinese text is the social role of armament. Li Zhi revises the saying by Confucius regarding the priority of people’s trust to the food and armament. He also strongly criticizes Mengzi’s ideas. The latter recommended to enlighten people by educating them in village schools and to openly force them to follow the righteous way of the king. Li Zhi suggests an effective alternative to such approach by following the more flexible Daoist way. Following his suggestion, one should create special conditions in which people would self-regulate in natural way and could be manipulated without being able to notice it.

The author analyses the chronotope problem in the Ancient Indian texts written in Sanskrit (“Manu-Smriti”, “Arthashastra”, “Ramayana”, “Brihadaranyaka-Upanishad”) and Pali (“Simavisodhani”) languages. The “chronotope” is a category introduced by the Soviet scholar Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975). This category describes how configurations of time and space are represented in language and discourse. In particular, the author analyses the problem of the ideas of space regarding the “country” and “Kingdom” categories. The research has yielded two main results. In the first instance, the so-called “sacred space” in the ancient Indian texts is always represented in form of a square (or rectangle). It is similar to what is called a Vastu-mandala in the Vastu-Vidya, the traditional science of building and construction. In the second instance, thе so-called “sacred space” in the ancient Indian texts written in Sanskrit and Pali is associated with a set of heterogeneous phenomena: space, socium, time, etc. In a similar passage taken from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad the author discovers a remarkable phenomenon. In describing the spatial reality, the number of times where one refers to the category of “time” is higher than that, which refers to the spatial category. This fact invites a conclusion: in ancient Indian culture, the categories of space and time are inseparable and always go together. Therefore, the ancient Indian culture definitively included a category of the chronotope. As a result of this discovery one should not any longer take into consideration the common topic of the “ atemporal” character of the ancient Indian culture.

The publication presents the first translation into Russian of the 15th chapter from the hagiographic collection by Farid ad-Din ʻAttar (d. ca. 1221 AD) Memorial of God’s friends (Taẕkiratu’l-awliyā) originally written in Persian. The chapter deals with biography, exploits and sayings of ʻAbdallah b. al-Mubarak of Khorasan, a recognized collector and transmitter of hadith, a renown ascetic, successful merchant, and severe warrior, but first of all a devoted and true worshiper (ʻābid) of God. The translation has been completed from the critical edition by Muhammad Esteʻlami. It is introduced by short preface, which provides basic information on Ibn Mubarak’s life and his place in the tradition of Muslim piety. The translation is supplied with historical and linguistic commentary. The tranlator stresses the fact that although being constructed on Arabic sources the actual narrative created by ʻAttar fits into the framework of Iranian hagiography. In describing the life and deeds of ʻAbdallah b. al-Mubarak of Khorasan ʻAttar created an Iranian version of the “Sufi prototype”. He emphasized features, such as humility, self-abasement, miracle-working, and participation in miraculous events.

The article is a publication of the first commented translation into Russian of a large part of the philosophical and didactic poem (masnavi) Raušanāī-nāmeh – “The Book of Enlightenment” by the great Tajik-Persian poet and philosopher Nāṣir-i Xusrav (Nasir-i Khusrav). Nāṣir-i Xusrav (b. 1004 AD Kobadian d. 1072 AD Yumgan) later in his life adopted the teachings of Isma’ilism (a branch of Shi`a Islam). After traveling to the Middle East, he returned to Khorasan as da’i or Khujjat (the official preacher of Isma‘ilism). He had to hide from persecution in the mountain village of Yumgan. There he spent the last years of his life and wrote his main poetic and philosophical works, viz. Zād al-musāfirīn, Jāmi‘ al-ḥikmatayn and (masnavi) Raušanāī-nāmeh. The latter although comprises the main ideas of the two previous treatises, however, conveys them in a popular form. Nāṣir-i Xusrav’s mostly poetical heritage has already received sufficient attention of the Russian scholars of the 20th century (E. Bertels, V. Nikitina, A. Edelman and A. E. Bertels), however the translation into Russian of his philosophic works remains a desideratum. The translation offered in this article is an attempt to redress the balance. The authors offer a “philological translation”. Contrary to the “literary” translation, this type of translation in the most accurate way conveys the meaning and style of the original in particular, the lexical components, as well as the style. Out of the total 594 beyts the authors had published 162 beyts, which comprise the translation of the al-Ḥamd and the Faṣl fi al-naṣīḥat. The next 58 beyts were translated by M. Shakarbekova. Here we propose the translation of the the following 100 beyts. Nāṣir-i Xusrav deals there with the four elements, the three kingdoms of nature and the origin of the human body from these kingdoms. According to A. E. Bertels, the set of themes of this passage reflects “the scheme of the universe”, and, in general, contains the picture of the world, which was typical for Muslim authors. As one of the oldest poetic documents in the Persian language, this text is of great interest for the study of traditional ideas, as well as their evolution, among authors of other historical epochs and directions of Islam.

The paper provides a summary of the 10th anniversary conference “Written Monuments of the East. Problems of Translation and Interpretation”, which took place at theInstituteofOriental Studiesof theRussianAcademyof Sciences (October 12–14, 2020). The participants, came from academic and educational institutions inMoscow,St. Petersburg,Makhachkala,Ufa, Elista,Irkutsk, andBaku(RepublicofAzerbaijan). They gave talks on the study of literary sources both written and oral, history (chronicles), inscriptions (epigraphy) as well as other genres and types of texts (“belles-letres”, documents, philosophy, etc.). All the participants had in common special attention to the original source/s, their historic and literary place, the traces of the spiritual and material aspects of life in the countries of the East as reflected there. The meeting was held in a remote format, which made it possible to significantly expand its audience.

The territorial expansion of the Russian Empire in the 18th–19th cent. resulted in urgent need to study both the peoples of the newly acquired Eastern territories, which becameRussiaas well as and their neighbours. A special role in this process was played by the military servicemen who stationed on the borders. Since the second half of the 18th century in the Russian military schools was developed a system of teaching Oriental languages. In his recent monograph “The History of the Study of Oriental Languages in the Russian Imperial Army” (St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoria; 2018) the author M. K. Baskhanov provides a detailed description of the history and teaching process in 24 Russian military schools where the cadettes were taught Oriental languages. M. K. Baskhanov outlines strengths and weaknesses of the teaching curricula, as well as the results gained by the Russian servicemen subject to this training. The author pays special attention to prospected plans in Orientalist training, which have never been implemented. The summary of M. K. Baskhanov’s research is that in spite of significant intellectual potential of the military specialists in Eastern countries their knowledge and experience were not used in full ‒ either in Imperial Russia or during the Soviet time. The monograph by M. K. Baskhanov is a remarkable piece of modern historical studies, which will be a reference book for many years to come for those who studyRussia’s foreign policy in 18^th–20^th cent.

The article is a survey of the Russian translation of “Laws of the Great Ming dynasty” in four volumes published since 1997 to 2019. The introduction of this legal monument to the Russian scientific society is of great importance as it substantially expands contemporary idea on Chinese traditional legal system and meets a lack in the history of law ofChinain 14th–17th cc.

To survey the legal monument there special legal scientific methods were used. Historical legal approach allowed to trace the creation and acting of this codification in the specific historical circumstances, value its urgency for the epoch of Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Comparative legal method gave an opportunity to compare this legal monument with other codifications of traditional Chinese law since the ancient times to the legislation of Qing, last dynasty of the imperialChina(1644–1911). Formal legal approach provided the analysis of the legal technique of the document, specific features of its structure and content, characteristic of legal terminology, etc.

The analysis allowed to appreciate the “Laws of the Great Ming dynasty” at its high value as a source on history, state and law of medievalChina. It had similarities and differences with other sources of traditional Chinese law. Besides, it is of great importance for the further development of legislation of imperialChina.

The codification is an important document on statehood and law of the Ming China as it contains valuable information on power system and competence of authorities, basic fields of legal relations in the medieval Chinese society. Its structure is traditional (based on the example of codification of Tang dynasty, 618–907), at the same time it has larger volume and regulates new fields of legal relations, takes into account changes in the internal and externaln status ofChinaafter the expelling the Mongolian Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) and foundation of “national” Ming dynasty. Some principles of domestic and foreign policy of Qing dynasty were legally fixed during the epoch of Ming.

The analyzed legal monument is of great interest for researchers of the history ofChina, its state and law. In fact, each chapter as well as specific articles and supplement statements could be a subject of investigation. “Laws of the Great Ming dynasty” also could be used by lecturers of history of state and law and for students who study this discipline.