2014.4

This article examines issues related to the ownership of peasants by the Georgian Orthodox Church in the 16th–17th centuries: the sources from which the social group of church peasants was formed, its size and categories, the kinds of quitrents and duties, and the role of peasants in the functioning of the Church.

The article analyses the reasons for the intensification of the missionary activity of the London Jewish Society in Jerusalem in the 1840s and its results. In this decade the Anglo-Prussian Bishopric was established and the Church of Christ was built. This became possible thanks to the support of Great Britain and Prussia, which used the missionaries in their policies.

The following article focuses on transformation of official view on Islam of Turkey’s Republican People’s Party after World War II. The author analyses shifts in kemalist concept of state secularism. Special attention is paid to the discussion of secularity during the seventh Republican People’s Party congress, proposals on introduction of Islam to social life and their further embodiment.

The article concerns the analysis of the role and place of the Christians in the administration system of the Ottoman Syria and the degree of their involvement in the activities of the provincial governmental bodies. The study of this problem aims at showing the gradual changes in the position of the Christian population of the region in the framework of the multifaceted crisis, experienced by the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century.

The article is devoted to the interpretation of No 110 Sura Nasr of the Holy Muslim scripture – the Quran. Particular attention is paid to its eschatological significance and presence of authoritative interpreters of the Quran opinions in the past, relatively to the meaning of this sura. The results of the research have shown that proposed as the only correct traditional understanding of this sura may be revised as from the information that contained in the classical interpretations of the Quran point of view and of the Arabic language and the overall structure of the text.

The main achievements in the sphere of epistemology obtained in Jainism, one of the most interesting trends in religious and philosophical life of India in the 1st millennium BC, are briefly characterized in the paper. Two very important Jain theories of knowledge are analyzed: the seven-points scale of approaches towards a coordinated view upon objects, named ‘Naya-vaada’, and the relative-pluralistic doctrine of relations between the subject and object of cognition which is called ‘Syaad-vaada’ and which is based on seven fundamental assertions.

The article is devoted to the problem of transformation of the Qur‘anic story of Yusuf and its key motifs in Persian Classic poetry, both lyric and epic. On the basis of the examples from qasidas and ghazals composed by famous Persian poets like Khakani, ‘Attar, Sa‘di, Hafiz and some other the author of the article shows how the process of artistic transformation and canonization of key motifs of the Qur‘anic story took place. The citations of lyric poetry represent wide genre specter and specific individual interpretations of motifs connected with the story of Yusuf. Transformation of plot is shown on the example of Jami’s famous romance Yusuf and Zuleykha. All changes in the plot and in the list of personages are made in accordance with canon of Persian Classic verse romance.