2019.1

The article analyzes the film of the German film director Wim Wenders “Tokyo-ga” from the point of “questioning identity” of a Western man which was proposed by the French philosopher Y. Kristeva. The film shows the meanings and images opened to Wim Wenders as a result of a dialogue with the spiritual heritage of the Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu.

This article deals with an episode of the early mediaeval empires’ struggle for domination over Arabia, namely, an attempt of direct intervention which the Sasanids undertook in the middle of the 6th century with the help of Abū-l-Ǧabr, a prince from the South Arabic (Qaḥṭānite) tribal confederation, who had fled to them. Abū-l-Ǧabr’s initiative arose out of an internal struggle which broke among the Kindites after those of them who had advanced to the North-East of Arabia in the process of the conquests of the 5th and early 6th centuries were defeated by Sasanids and Laḫmids and retreated to Hadramawt. This period of the Kindites’ history is insufficiently explored, especially as compared to earlier times. This article presents an attempt to reconstruct the course and chronology of those events. For the Sasanids, Abū-l-Ǧabr’s initiative was a chance to set foot in Southern Arabia, especially valuable after the intensification of their struggle with Abraha, the Abissinian ruler of Yemen, in the middle of the 6th century.

In this paper we attempt to reconstruct the evolution of ideas in the studies of Soviet and post-Soviet Russian Orientalists about the Republic of Tripolitania, which existed on the territory of the modern State of Libya in 1918–1923. Based on the analysis of historiographic materials, we identified the main stages in the development of research in this area, as well as problematic issues and approaches to their comprehension. Specific examples show how changes in the sociopolitical context in the Russia and Libya, as well as the dynamics of interstate relations, influenced the transformation of ideas about the Tripolitan Republic and its role in the history of Libya in the 20th century.

Monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula and the adjacent islands remain a very specific part of the Arab world throughout the contemporary history. Before gaining independence, these countries represented the most economically and politically backward part of the Peninsula. In the final third of the last century they have overtaken their counterparts in such characteristics as the standard of living, becoming the forefront of the Arab region. The political elite of the country carried out fundamental political and socio-economic reforms, and showed that it is able to move society from medieval backwardness to modernity. The danger of this situation isn’t a secret for ruling houses is extinguished by elite which makes efforts on the different directions in the aspiration to preserve the social peace and the power. The work was written on the basis of data obtained from the studies of such authors as Rosmarin Zakhlan, Mehran Kamrava, Ali Khalifa Al Kuwari and others, as well as on the statistics of the international organization of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the national statistics of the ministry of information of Qatar, the Russian and Western press.

In Dagestan in the early XX century there were representatives of Muslim reformism who entered into a tough confrontation with local supporters of the traditional Shafi’i law school, mainly with the apologists of Sufism. The Sufi Sheikhs actively joined in the theological polemic with the Muslim reformers. The range of issues that caused the most heated discussion was quite traditional for the polemics between the supporters of “taclid” and “ijtihad”. This is the problem of “false sheikhs”, accusation of polytheism (shirk), mediation (tawassul), intercession (shafat), etc. The authors of this article, analyzing the course and content of this polemic, made commented translations of the most characteristic fragments from the works of the most active participants, especially of Sufi Sheikh Muhammad al-Asali.

The survived correspondence of Vasiliy V. Bartold and Agafangel E. Krymsky contains important data about crucial changes which took place in the Oriental science in the post-revolutionary Russia. The letters of two distinguished scholars, dated before 1918, were concerned mainly with discussion of the professional issues. Anyhow, the following correspondence increasingly touched upon social and political problems and included their thoughts about methods of their resolving. The correspondence of these two eminent scholars remains a significant factor in the history of the Oriental science.

This paper explores the novel “Ten Nights of Dreams” which is a series of short dream stories written in 1908 by the famous Japanese writer Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916). In this paper I explore Natsume’s technique called “dream” which employs images of Japanese folklore and world mythology. The dreams of the character of the “Ten Nights of Dreams” novel symbolize complexity and ambiguity of the human nature, and the world of the fantasy created by him demonstrates us both a unique stream of consciousness and the unconscious layer. I focus on the subjective attitude of the dreamer (dream-ego), as well as on images, symbols and motives of each dream. The whole series of the dreams is seen to have three levels of motives: 1) separation of man and woman by death; 2) confrontation with oneself; 3) tales concerning art and/or religion. Natsume Sōseki uses the following symbols in his novels: 1) number 100 as a symbol of eternity and wisdom in four novels and number 7 in two novels; 2) symbols of Buddhism and Shinto – in three novels; 3) animal as a symbol – once; 4) a flower as a symbol of pure eternal love – once; 5) allusions on the Japanese and world literature and folklore – in three novels.

This article describes the possibility of distinguishing the genre of the anecdote in Manden oral tradition and the specificity of the texts associated with the anecdote in bamana. In bamana and Maninka languages there is no special term for anecdotes, most often the words “joke” or “funny story” are used. The significance of bamana “funny stories” is in fact that the anecdote genre’s formation is taking place before our eyes. But so far, among these stories one can find full-fledged anecdotes as well as a large number of simple stories, from the point of view of the logic of their constructing, related to tales about animals or fools. First and foremost, such qualities as stupidity, laziness, cowardice, greed, and desire to gain one’s own profit are ridiculed. There are anecdotes that correspond to a visual-figurative type of thinking. They are based on comic situations, and represent the examples of stupidity, confusion, mistakes. Other anecdotes correspond to a verbal-logical type of thinking, the stories based on language errors, misreading, homonymy, etc.; as well as those that are based on various inconsistencies in the logic of action, on resourcefulness and wit and require the use of more complex logical chains, associations, concepts, etc. by the listener.

This publication includes the second part of a translation into Russian of the commentary to the sūra “The Opening One” (al-Fātiḥa) and the first five ayats of the sūra “the Cow” (al-Baqara) by the Russian Muslim theologian Musa Jarullah Bigiyev (1874–1949) written in Arabic and published in 1915 year in Petrograd under the name “Fiqh al-Qurʼān” (The Understanding of the Qurʼān). It covers the commentary to the last three (according to another numbering four) ayats of the sūra “The Opening One” (al-Fātiḥa), which reflects the position of M. Bigiev concerning the history of the Qurʼān, its grammar and vocabulary, the differences between the readings (qirāʼat), and his hermeneutic reasoning, which is a synthesis of reformist and mystical approaches.