On November 26-28, 2015, a regular, 5th anniversary problem-methodological conference was held under this title, organized, as before, by the Department of Monuments of Writing of the Peoples of the East of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, dedicated to the memory of the recently departed outstanding scientist Magomed-Nuri Osmanovich Osmanov (1924-2015), who for many years headed the textual and literary monuments of the department. In the last years of his life, M.-N. O. Osmanov lived and worked in his native Dagestan, and it is significant that this time a significant part of the program of the scientific forum was made up of reports from Dagestani source researchers.

Opening the conference, a corresponding member shared his memories of M.-N. O. Osmanov. V. M. Alpatov (Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences) and N. I. Prigarina (Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences), who succeeded M.-N. O. Osmanov as head of the sector of Textology and literary monuments, spoke about the personality of the scientist and his creative path.

An important part of M.-N. O. Osmanov's activity - work on a critical edition of the text of Firdousi's poem "Shah-nameh" - was discussed in the report of L. G. Lahuti (Institute of Islamic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences) "National Persian Epic between the Sufi tradition and the pre-Islamic past of Iran". She spoke about the connection between these two areas of scientific interests of the scientist. The researcher noted that "Shah-nameh" as a work of the pre-Islamic era was perceived in two ways. Sometimes it was interpreted as a simple collection of fairy tales and stories, devoid of inner meaning, while in other cases, on the contrary, Firdousi's involvement in the Sufi tradition was noted. The poet himself often spoke about symbols and riddles in his narrative, the inner meaning of which must be revealed. The report discussed the perception of the symbolic dimension of the national epic by various representatives of the Sufi tradition and its possible impact on the development of some specific features of Iranian Sufism.

N. Y. Chalisova (RSUH, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration), who presented the report "Sufi nafs as a term of doctrine and a character of hagiography: problems of translation", devoted it to one of the key concepts of Sufism - the animal principle in man. In Sufi psychology, the term has acquired a special meaning, and the vicissitudes of the struggle against nafs have formed a special cluster of Sufi life narrative plots. In the first part of the report, the history of the term nafs and the formation of the connotation "low soul"were traced. The second part discussed the functioning of the term in Farid al-Din Attar's "Remembrance of the Friends of God", where nafs appears as an independent character, endowed with power greater than Iblis himself. According to the researcher, in such contexts, translations like "low soul" are inconvenient and essentially incorrect. In conclusion, she suggested translation options that indicate not the" degree "of the soul, but the person's own" I".

Lyubov V. GORYAEVA-Candidate of Philological Sciences, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, l.goriaeva@yandex.ru.

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The report "Fihrist al-qutub" of the printing house of M. Mavraev "Al-Matba'a al-Islamiya" as a source on the cultural history of Dagestan at the beginning of the XX century " M. N. Osmanova (IAE DNC RAS) devoted to the activities of printing houses that produced lithographic products in Arabic during this period. The largest of them was the Islamic printing house of M. Mavraev "Al-Matba'a al-Islamiya", which used for advertising its products the trade catalogues " Fihrist al-qutub "("List of Books"), which are not only commercial, but also scientific and historical documents that give an idea of the state of science, education, and ideology and the culture of the region in the specified era. Each issue of the catalog was preceded by an introductory speech by M. Mavraev, describing him as a person who strives to make the book accessible to every Dagestani, regardless of his financial status and social status. According to the speaker, the translation of Fihrists from Arabic and their study will help to give a clearer picture of the cultural life of Dagestan society at the beginning of the XX century.

U. P. Strizhak (MSPU) in her report "Cognitive interpretation of a Japanese poetic text (based on the collection "One Hundred Poems of a Hundred Poets")" analyzed the interpretative possibilities of translating such texts using the example of poem No. 17 from the Japanese poetry anthology 1235. The author of the report traced the history of interpretation of one of the key images of this poem and noted that its variability For centuries, it continued to be the subject of indirect discussion by philologists of various historical eras.

An important element of the Arab folk culture of the recent past was discussed in the report of D. V. Mikulsky (IB RAS) "Tunisian editions of common (so-called yellow) books: from a personal collection". The researcher noted the popularity of such publications in the Arab countries, in particular in North Africa, which persisted until the 70s of the XX century, and gave a brief description of eleven "yellow books" from his own collection. According to the speaker, most of these publications are monuments of popular literature, both entertaining and religiously edifying. Despite the small number of samples of the " yellow books "available to scientists, they are able to give an idea of the interests of the mass North African reader of the recent past: these are popular narratives, treatises of a" practical "nature and" dissected " historical works.

The report of L. D. Taneyeva (MSU ISAA) "The Chronicle of Muang Ngyn Yang Chiang Saen: the first results of the study" described a monument of the late Thai chronicle tradition, which was not previously translated into European languages and contains dated information on the history of a number of northern Muangs (state formations consisting of the capital and its subordinate territory) from VII to XIX century The speaker showed that the text of the monument is divided into two parts, and most of them are narrative - in turn, into legendary and actually historical parts. In general, the text of the Chronicles of Myang Ngyn Yang Chiang Saen is heterogeneous in composition and includes various stable elements - "structural and genre groups" that differ both in content, style and purpose.

Z. A. Magomedova (IAE DN RAS) devoted her report " Letters of the Naibs of Dagestan as a source on the socio-economic and political life of Dagestan society in the mid-19th century (based on the materials of the Manuscript Fund of the IAE DNC RAS)" to a collection of Arabic-language epistolary documents, which to this day are almost not reflected in scientific and reference literature. The researcher noted the variety of subjects of letters containing orders and instructions to the naibs on the imposition of fines and punishments, decisions on resolving disputes, correspondence with the tsarist authorities, appeals to individual societies, information about the internal situation in the imamate and the course of military operations, complaints and petitions to the naibs, etc. Correspondence covers almost all spheres of Dagestani society during this period and is thematically divided into two groups: letters of political content and letters containing socio-economic information.

In her report "Texts of the Pyramid of Pepi I: problems and prospects of study" Yu. A. Pronina (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) spoke about the reconstruction of inscriptions on the walls of underground rooms of the tomb of Pepi I, Pharaoh of the VI dynasty of ancient Egypt. She stressed that an important achievement of researchers from the French archaeological expedition to Saqqara was the creation of a new system of symbols based on the location of texts in the pyramid space. Analyzing the system of arrangement of a number of inscriptions in the tomb of Pepi I, she noted that there are some regularities between the content of texts and their location. However, in the era of the creation of the tomb, the canon of placing texts in the space of royal tombs is still very old.

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it has not yet been developed, and the problem of the order of reading pyramid texts remains one of the debatable issues for experts. Most convincing, the researcher believes, are the opinions of those scientists who read the texts of the pyramids, starting from the burial chamber - the sacred center of the pyramid - and then to the exit, where, according to the ancient Egyptians, the soul of the resurrected king rushed.

M. Sakhokia (Tbilisi State University, Georgia) presented a report on " The experience of literary translation of Ancient Persian inscriptions: Achaemenids in Georgian" interpretation of text materials of historical and epigraphic monuments and determination of their genre characteristics by analyzing the structure of the text. Such features of inscriptions as repetition of similar contexts, use of sacred formulas, paronomasia, etymological figures, tautologies, traditional definitions and epithets, as well as the meter and rhythm of individual sections of the text of Achaemenid inscriptions can be translated into Georgian. The author of the report analyzes the possibilities of creative interpretation of texts of this series, specific parameters of the ratio of the original and translation. According to the researcher, literary translations made by specialists serve to familiarize a wide range of readers with ancient cultures, existing in parallel with academic translations, more accurate footnotes or linguistic translations themselves, where exact correspondences of grammatical forms are reproduced.

The report of B. E. Rashkovsky (VGBIL) "Introduction (Table of Peoples) to the Arabic translation of the book "Josippon" as a source for the history of Early Medieval Europe "was devoted to the medieval translation of Josephus '"Jewish War", written in Hebrew by an anonymous author in the first half - middle of the tenth century in Southern Italy based on the Latin version of this text. of labor. The greatest interest among researchers is traditionally caused by the first chapter of the book - "Table of Peoples", or a list of names of nationalities and tribes of early medieval Europe, whose genealogy is traced by the author to the biblical patriarch Japheth. The speaker's attention was drawn to one of the five main editions of the Josippon-a translation of the book into Arabic, reflecting the earliest text of the book. The author also considered the question of the influence of Arabic-language sources on the emergence of the Arabic version of the book in the light of the controversy on this issue in the latest historiography of "Josippon".

O. I. Lebedeva (RSUH) in her report "Toyama Seichi's article "The Future of Japanese Painting" in the context of art history discussions at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries" spoke about the controversy surrounding subjects related to art and aesthetics that unfolded in Japan during the Meiji era-the time of building the "national state". It revolved around the nihonga-yoga dichotomy ("Japanese paintings" - "Western-style paintings"). The speaker drew attention to the discussion around painting on historical subjects, which began after the publication in 1890 of Toyama Seichi's lecture "The Future of Japanese Painting" ("Nihon Kaiga-no Mirai"), which had not been translated into Russian before. According to Toyama, yoga artists only copy the works and stylistics of European masters, while art should correspond to its time. Toyama Seichi suggested "genre scenes from everyday life"as suitable subjects. The lecture had a great resonance and caused a sharp controversy. Nevertheless, since the 1890s, traditional painting has become the" old story "celebrated in nationalist discourse, and oil painting in the European style - its "literary" design.

The theological controversy between "Salafists" and "traditionalists" in Dagestan at the beginning of the XX century was discussed in the report of R. S. Abdulmazhidov (Institute of International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences) "Criticism of" Salafism "in the work of Sufi Sheikh Muhammad al-Asali" al-Ajwiba al-Asaliya fi raddi shubah al-wahhabiyya " ("Assabets' Answers for refutation Wahhabi doubts")". In the course of polemics with "Salafists", in particular with Muhammad, the son of Abdurashid al-Harakani, the author of the report published an essay written in the traditional form for Muslim polemical literature, when a quote is taken from the opponent's essay and then an answer is given to it. Muhammad al-Asali explained his motivation for writing the essay by saying that according to Islamic canons, a person with knowledge should express his position. The author focuses on the issues of following legal schools( madhhabs), giving someone other than Allah supernatural power, accusations of not following the Koran and Sunnah, accusations of polytheism (shirk), which means worshipping sheikhs, issues related to mediation (tawasul) and intercession (shafaat) , the status of the Prophet in Islam. The speaker emphasized that the tone of the discussion between the two Dagestani theologians at the beginning of the XX century was much less violent than at present.

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E. V. Tyulina (IV RAS), who presented the report "Sculpture and sacrifice (based on texts about construction and fine arts from the Puranas)", relied on the material of treatises on vastuvidya , a traditional branch of knowledge in ancient and medieval India related to construction, architecture and fine arts. It was noted that some of these treatises were devoted to the creation of sculptural images of the main gods of Hinduism, and this process was considered and described as a rite of sacrifice. At all stages of creating the statue, numerous sacrifices and rituals were prescribed to breathe life into the body of the created image of the god. Such rites and their descriptions formed a special idea of creation and birth as a construction of separate parts and elements, and the creation of a text also began to be perceived as such a construction. This is especially evident in the form of the construction of the puranas of huge collections of knowledge about objects that simultaneously form the body of the universe, the history of its formation, as well as God himself, who manifests himself in the diversity of the world.

In her report "Problems of translation and interpretation "of measurements of the" Euxine Pontus at Herodotus" S. V. Bratashova (Saratov) considered the methods of calculating distances proposed by the" father of history " - Herodotus in relation to the south-eastern coast of the Black Sea, which was part of the Lhemenid empire in the V century BC. The speaker noted that Herodotus measured the length of the so-called Royal Road in Persian farsakhs (parasangs). To measure the ship's mileage, the Persians used the length of the coastline in Farsakhi. When summing up the intervals of the pharsakhi route, it becomes clear that it was from it that Herodotus borrowed the thirty-day journey of the "light pedestrian" for his journey from Maeotis to Phasis. The researcher emphasized that the new interpretation of Pontus ' "Herodotus measurements"and the understanding of the true age of the sources of topographical knowledge of Herodotus are confirmed by the real speed of geological processes. Knowing this age also allows us to take a slightly different view of the extremely important discrepancies between the Arrian and Pseudo-Arrian lots created at different times.

L. S. Gushchyan (REM, St. Petersburg) in her report "REM Museum documents as a historical source (based on the materials of A. A. Miller's expedition to the Van region in 1916)" addressed such an important type of written monuments as descriptions of subject collections, which allow determining the system of fixing exhibits throughout the entire period of the museum's activity. During the expedition, the head of the ethnographic department of the Russian Museum, A. A. Miller, followed the accepted scheme of registration of collections, including the indication of the place of acquisition and the local, i.e. dialect name of the object, which made it possible to conduct linguistic and ethnographic research. Along with everyday objects, he collected extensive linguistic material, mainly terminological, toponymic and onomastic. According to the author of the report, the documents related to the Van expedition indicate a short-term return to a comprehensive linguistic and ethnographic approach to the study of traditional culture, which museum researchers later abandoned in favor of studying the subject aspect of monuments of material culture.

The topic was continued in the report of R. S. Zelnitskaya (REM, St. Petersburg) "Abkhazian traditional terminology in the museum documentation of REM (based on the materials of A. A. Miller's expedition to Abkhazia in 1907)", in which an attempt was made to analyze the linguistic aspect of ethnographic research conducted by the scientist in the Caucasus regions. The main sources are the report of A. A. Miller and the collection inventory of REM, which was first introduced into scientific use. As a result of the expedition, clothing material was collected that fully reflects the way of life of the Abkhazian people, and both general and narrow-local terms were recorded, denoting a number of realities and concepts.

Fereshte Rafi (Iran) in her report "The plot similarity of Velimir Khlebnikov's poem Medlum and Leyli with the Persian folklore versions of Leyli and Majnun "continued the topic of Russian-Persian literary relations, which is in the center of her research. She noted the role of Nizami Ganjavi in popularizing this story, emphasizing that traces of the love story of Leyli and Majnun are also found in Persian folklore-oral traditions of different regions of Iran. The author of the report found a number of correspondences between V. Khlebnikov's poem "Medlum and Leyli "(1911) and Persian folk legends.

Funerary and funeral rituals recorded in the oldest Egyptian texts - the topic of O. I. Zubova's report "Osiris-King and King-Osiris in the Pyramid Texts". She emphasized that it was precisely in these rituals that the myth of Osiris, which was the essence of ancient Egyptian soteriology, was revealed.-

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It was reflected most vividly. By revealing the image of Osiris, acquiring his flesh, name, and related traditions, the deceased king retained his own personality traits. The name of Osiris as an independent entity is much less common in the Pyramid Texts than the name of the King-Osiris, Osiris-namyarek. The researcher notes that in the era of the Pyramid Texts, the king, like any other person, was afraid of being judged at the afterlife, but, as a rule, the names of the risen one and Osiris were seen to be in complete harmony. The comparison of the images of the king and Osiris reveals the deep theological meaning of their relationship: the deification of the mortal flesh and its transformation into the Osiric - immortal one; the inseparability and non-fusion of the human and divine natures of the risen one in Osiris.

M. B. Demchenko (St. John the Theologian Russian Pedagogical University) in his report "Peculiarities of the use of Sufi lexemes in medieval North Indian mystical poetry (on the example of Yugalananya Sharan's poem "Sri Namakanti")", addressed the problem of mutual influence of mystical poetry in the synthetic language of Sant-bhasha, on the one hand, and Sufi poetry-on the other another one. He reviewed individual lines from the collection of the classic poetry of the Rasik-Ramaits of the XVIII century. Yugalananyi Sharana "Sri Namakanti", where the author repeatedly resorts to expressive means borrowed from Sufi poetry, including individual lexemes and poetic images. As the speaker noted, the researcher of such texts should determine the purpose of the author's use of these expressive means, and the translator should try to convey the lexical and stylistic features of the passages under consideration, without missing their Islamic (Sufi) connotation and without deviating from the general outline of the narrative.

M. V. Babkova's report "Direct transmission of the teaching and Dogen's treatise" Buddhist Sutras "" was devoted to the translation of the teaching of the Chan school of Caodong in the works of the Japanese thinker, "mentor of contemplation" Eihei Dogen (1200-1253). In Dogen's tendai school, the chan school's principle of "faithful transmission" of teaching from mentor to student was replaced by a balance between the need for personal communication with the mentor and reliance on the scriptures. Dogen's treatise "Buddhist Sutras" states that the one true reality - the Buddha nature-is manifested in every phenomenon of the world and that in the life of the community, reading sutras should be a mandatory practice. The speaker emphasized that in the treatise "Buddhist Sutras" Dogen adapts the principle of direct transmission of the teaching to his views, while remaining in line with tradition.

E. N. Levchenko (Moscow), in her report "Makura-kotoba in the Ancient Japanese language: morphology, semantics, hermeneutics", focused on one of the specific means of artistic expression inherent in Japanese poetry. After conducting a linguistic analysis of makura-kotob and offering its hermeneutical interpretation, she tried to explain to the Western reader the meaning and purpose of using makura-kotob in early poetic forms. It was noted that this element of artistic language is usually defined as a permanent epithet, although, on the one hand, this definition does not cover all its characteristics, and on the other hand, some permanent epithets are beyond the scope of makura - kotoba. In world Japanese studies, makura-kotoba remains a poorly studied subject, although it reflects in a very concise form the initial stage of the development of Japanese culture, as well as the Japanese worldview and religious attitudes.

In her report "Apologetics of Sufism in the writings of Dagestani theologians of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries: a brief overview of sources", M. G. Shekhmagomedova addressed the controversy that broke out among the Muslims of the North Caucasus during the period when the ideas of "Salafism" were introduced to the region, when Dagestani scholars and theologians (Sufi sheikhs) created a number of articles on the subject. works in Arabic refuting this teaching. The researcher analyzed four works written by Sufi theologians Hasan-Helmi al-Qahi and Muhammad al-Asali, giving a detailed idea of the nature and content of the ideological confrontation between Dagestani Sufis and "Salafis".

Sh. R. Mingazov (Moscow) in his report "John of Nikiusa: the Consequences of an erroneous translation of the source" devoted himself to the misinterpretation of a number of proper names found in the "Chronicle" written by a Coptic bishop at the end of the seventh century. St. John of Nikius. As the speaker noted, the first translator of the Chronicle, H. Zotenberg, arbitrarily changed the names of some of its characters. Thus, on the basis of an inaccurate translation and dubious historical interpretation, Zotenberg identified the personality of Ketrades, mentioned only in the Chronicle, with Kubrat, the ruler of Great Bulgaria, and this misconception began to be repeated in later scientific literature. After studying all the available manuscripts of the Chronicle, the speaker pointed out the additional information provided by the author.-

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[Zotenberg made a valuable mistake and proposed his own translation of the corresponding text fragment from Old Ethiopian into Russian.

New, modern methods of working with sources were discussed in the report of I. R. Saidbattalov (Bash. GU) "Problems and prospects of studying Arabic written monuments of Bashkortostan by means of computer philology". According to the author, digitization of the monument is necessary to expand access to them and ensure greater safety of paper originals, which significantly facilitates the possibility of their accounting and allows them to be presented as a single system. The speaker pointed out the difficulties associated with translating texts into a machine-readable format, since none of the available programs for optical recognition of signs of the Arabic alphabet is adapted to the language of Turki, which was used in Bashkortostan before 1920, not to mention that all these programs are unsuitable for working with handwritten Arabic handwriting. The only possible digitization option is to use self-learning programs for printed texts and manual input for handwritten texts, followed by statistical processing of spelling variants, compilation of indexes, and then dictionaries of word forms and morphemes of the Ural-Volga Turki language.

S. C. Ofertas (IV RAS), in the report " Does the Goddess speak in a dream? Explaining the difficulties of using the perfect word in Abhinavagupta's Paratrishikavivarana, I analyzed the interpretation of one of the grammatical forms that this philosopher gave in his commentary on a fragment from the Rudrayamala Tantra known as Paratrishika. As the speaker noted, in the ancient Indian language, verb forms related to the past differ in the degree of evidentiality: in relation to what happened - "aorist", non-current - "imperfect", with a distance from the evidence - "perfect". Later grammarians began to interpret this series on the basis of the opposite, which led to errors in the interpretation of their use: the aorist became adyatane and pratyakse - related to the present day and visibility, and the perfect - as an apratyakse action in absentia, not related to direct perception. Abhinavagupta gave his own interpretation of the use of the words devi uvaca "The Goddess said" in perfect, and reduced the meaning of this expression to the first person, making it a means of "pratyabhijni" - recognition of what the subject himself is.

Report ""Assessments of famous Song artists" by Liu Daochun. What the text can tell about the author, when the sources are silent" O. S. Panova (IVKA RSUH) dedicated to one of the earliest works on the history of Chinese painting in the late X-first half of the XI century, the authorship of which tradition attributes to Liu Daochun. Indirect data allowed us to determine the years of the author's life, the time of creation of the essay and the dates of his biography, as well as the honorary and posthumous titles of historical persons mentioned in the essay. As the researcher found out, the work was completed between 1055 and 1059, and its author found most of the reign of the fourth Sung ruler Ren-tsung. A careful reading of the text revealed that Liu Daochun's writing was based not only on literary sources, but also on oral reports and personal memories. The proposed approach to studying his biography partially filled in the existing gaps, but left many unresolved issues that require additional work with a large array of texts.

The report of A. A. Yankovskaya (MAE RAS, St. Petersburg) "Travelers and compilers: "scattered" authorship in medieval Arabic geographical literature " discussed the difficulties of attribution and dating of texts of this genre. The speaker identified three main ways to create them : describing your own observations, recording oral stories from other people's words, and copying fragments from other authors ' works. The forms that collective authorship took in medieval Arabic geographical literature were considered in the report on the example of several works of various genres - such as "News of China and India" by Abu Zeid al-Sirafi, "Wonders of India" by Buzurg ibn Shahriyar, "The Book of Ways and Countries" by Ibn Khordadbeh and "Journey" by Ibn Khordadbeh. Battles.

E. B. Smagina (IV RAS) in her report "Names of precious stones in the Bible and Apocrypha: Problems of translation" considered the motif of likening the Twelve Apostles to the twelve precious stones contained in the Coptic text dating from the 7th-8th centuries. Such a comparison is repeatedly found in early Christian literature, starting with the New Testament, but the corresponding section in the Coptic encomium and the list of stones itself do not coincide with any of the known comparisons. The Coptic list of the twelve gems is based on a legend from the apocrypha attributed to Ezekiel. The researcher drew attention to the apocryphal book of the first century A.D. "Biblical Antiquities" by Philo of Alexandria.-

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the legend of the precious stones that adorn pagan statues, endowed with supernatural properties. The twelve gems on the high priest's robe are here the antipodes of pagan stones. According to the author of the report, this motif is one of the variants of the reconstructed legend of the twelve miraculous gems, dating back to the apocrypha, which could have been based on the Haggadic midrash.

In his report " Copyright in Japanese Medieval Poetry: list of "words that have a master" (nusi aru kotoba) Fujiwara no Tamee (1198-1275) "M. V. Toropygina (IB RAS) considered the honkadori technique - "following the original song", which consisted in the fact that the new poem included material from a well-known poetic text. She followed the way in which this technique was interpreted by poets participating in poetry tournaments, and in particular Fujiwara no Tamee, who compiled a list of works that should not be used as a" basis " for new poems. It included 42 poems by 19 authors of the XI-XIII centuries, and, according to Tamee, they could not be used, since they were the property of the one who composed them (vaga mono to motitaru). Thus, the Tamee list established a kind of "copyright" in medieval Japanese poetry.

E. D. Zarubina (IB RAS) in her report "Ritual formulas and stable combinations in the manuscript of the divinatory book "Magid Davar" noted that the ritual formulas found in the colophon and introduction had the functions of legitimation, carried out by referring to a holy place, a person and a written context, as well as introducing the text into the cultural space. while formulas and stable combinations in the main part of the manuscript constructed a sequence of thematic groups and showed the structure of the community's values and the system of their interests. The composition of formulas and expressions indicates the pseudo-epigraphic nature of the manuscript, the structure of the society from which the text originates, and the system of values of the target audience of the book.

D. A. Nosov (IVR RAS) and R. Y. Pochekaev (Higher School of Economics, Saint Petersburg) presented a joint report " The significance of Mongolian translations of Russian Legal acts for the study of Mongolian law in the XVIII-early XX centuries . (based on documents from the collection of the Institute of Internal Affairs of the Russian Academy of Sciences)", which describes the collection of translations of legislative acts and official documents of the Russian Empire into Mongolian, starting from the era of Peter the Great. It was noted that the Mongol rulers already in the first half of the 17th century maintained diplomatic, political and economic relations with Russia. Although most of the mentioned manuscripts were of Buryat origin, they were also used by representatives of the Mongolian nobility. This is confirmed by the presence in the collection of the IVR RAS of two woodcuts, which contain basic information about the political structure of the Russian Empire in Mongolian, as well as translations of some laws. Speaking about the tasks and prospects of studying these documents, the speakers pointed out that it requires the cooperation of representatives of different sciences and disciplines. Such a comprehensive approach will contribute to a significant development of the legal situation in Mongolia during the period under review.

T. A. Denisova (Institute of Islamic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Center for Islamic Studies, Malaysia), who presented the report "Arab personalities in the Muslim historiography of Johor in the XVIII-XIX centuries: two interesting clarifications", based on the Johor chronicles and, in particular, on "Tuhfat al-Nafis "("Precious Gift") Raji Ali Haji, analyzed data on the religious activity of Muslim scholars and mentors (both local and Middle Eastern) in the Malay-Indonesian region. She pointed out that the Malay chronicles, which follow the general canons of Muslim annalism, contain a rich and diverse factual material. This allowed the speaker to identify a number of characters mentioned in "Tuhfat al-Nafis", correct some dates and circumstances related to the social and intellectual life of Johor and its contacts with other areas of the Muslim world.

The theme of the author's work "Tuhfat al-Nafis" was continued by Khalif Muammar (Center for Islamic Studies, Malaysia) in the report "Raja Ali Haji on politics and state structure: manuscripts of "Tamarat al-Muhimmah and Muqaddima fi Intizam Wazaif al-Malik". The speaker showed that in them Raja Ali Haji focused not on the history of the dynasty or the regime of power, but on issues of state administration. His goal was to show that the ruler should conduct his affairs based on the principles of religion. According to the speaker, Raja Ali Haji fully mastered the art of directing the ruler by the method of "checks and balances", not allowing him to cross the boundaries of what is allowed by religion.

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Z. B. Ibragimova (IAE DNC RAS) in her report "The problem of "false leadership" in Dagestani Arabic-language polemical works of the early XX century" offered an overview of the most significant and large-scale works that gave rise to the controversy on the problem of "false leadership". These are writings written by Shuaib al-Baghini and Sheikh Hassan al-Qaha, where figures who undeservedly enjoy the reputation of Sufi spiritual mentors of Murshids among believers were mentioned in the most unflattering form. This provoked a backlash from Murshid followers. An example of such a "response" to the tabakats of al-Baghini is a short essay by Muhammad al-Habshi "Makalatu al-waliyi Muhammad bnu Ahmad al-Habshi li masaili al-arif Shuaib afandi al-Baghini", in which the author speaks out in defense of his spiritual mentors. The speaker stressed that the problem of "false religion" still remains relevant in Dagestan among Sufis, but now it is only a lost echo of the polemic that took place among local theologians at the beginning of the XX century.

An attempt to reconstruct the structural and geometric elements of the content of the ancient Chinese " Book of Changes "was discussed in the report of V. V. Tkachenko (Stavropol) "Hieroglyphs of structure in the I Ching text". The researcher noted that some of the hieroglyphs in the monument relate to geometric constructions on the plane and in space, and suggested the method she developed for applying the basic elements of ancient Chinese hieroglyphs to the structure of the drawing of the "Great Limit". She associated this method with the concept of "wen", which reflects the origin of ancient Chinese writing (hieroglyphics) in the form of symbols displayed on the" surface " of the Universe, which are identical to a tattoo on the human body. To confirm the need to take into account geometric structures in the translation of ancient Chinese philosophical texts, the speaker cited a fragment of the philosophical treatise of Xun Tzu (313-238 BC) and stressed that its meaning, if excluded from the analysis of geometric constructions, is approximate and adapted only to the culture of the translator, but not the author himself.

Summing up the results of the conference, I would like to note the expansion of the circle of participants. In 2015, reports were presented not only by Moscow Orientalists, but also by scientists from St. Petersburg, Saratov, Makhachkala, Stavropol and Ufa, as well as researchers from Malaysia, Georgia and Iran. The interdisciplinary nature of the conference, its focus not so much on regional specifics as on methods of working with sources, includes scientists of different specialties in the general discussion, helps to develop general principles and approaches to the study of written monuments of the East, thereby contributing to the preservation and strengthening of the best traditions of classical Oriental studies.

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