2022.3

The article consists of two blocks: in the first block, based on the analysis of original documents, the evolution of the formation of an alliance under the auspices of the United States between Israel and the Arab countries that acceded to the Declaration on the Accords of Abraham is considered. The second block contains an assessment of the positive and unfavorable consequences that may manifest themselves in the Middle East in connection with the formation of new political realities. The authors consider that “normalization” plan’s main goal is the weakening of the role of Russia and China while maintaining US influence in the region. The United States failed to draw its Middle Eastern allies into the anti-Russian front: the Arab monarchies, Egypt and Israel ignored Washington’s insistent calls to impose sanctions against Russia. A consensus has formed among US Middle Eastern partners that does not imply active US involvement in regional politics. This consensus is clearly manifested in passive support for Russia and increased business ties with China. According to authors, given the continued potential for conflict in relations between the Arab world and Israel, on the one hand, and Iran, on the other, Russia could play the role of a mediator, using the accumulated baggage of positive cooperation with these countries. We believe, it seems important to use in the region both the capabilities and experience of Russian diplomacy and the domestic foreign economic potential. The consolidated recommendations presented in the article are based on Russian foreign policy interests.

The article centres upon the second period of life of Johann Gericke, the pioneer of Dutch Javanology. His works influenced a lot on development of this branch of Dutch Oriental studies. He was not the only specialist in this area, but it was he who laid the foundation stone of it. By force of circumstances (which are observed in this article) he became the key figure conditioning its progress. From the point of view of his authorities at the Netherlands Bible Society he should have concentrated mainly on finishing the Javanese translation of the New Testament. But Gericke himself thought it more to the point first to complete two tasks. The first task, a literary one, was to prepare the publication of Sěrat Wiwaha Jarwa (1778), a modern Javanese version of Arjuna Wiwaha (c. 1030 AD), a literary classic paving the way for studying the Javanese literary classics. The second task, a linguistic one, was to finish compiling the Great Javanese-Dutch Dictionary. These goals met resulted in shaping of the corpus of academic Javanology.

The present article is focused on the historical role of the Idrisi Sharifs — the most ancient and numerous clan of the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, who founded the first Moroccan state in the VIIIth century. After the collapse of the Idrisids the descendants of the Idrisi rulers had to live in the backstage for centuries and didn’t play any significant role in socio-political life of the Islamic Far West. However the rule of the Marini dynasty (1269–1465) became a turning-point for the Idrisi Sharifs: the Marini Sharifian policy based at the promotion of Sharifism led to the resurgence of the Sharifian cult. Since that moment the Idrisi Sharifs gained a privileged position in society and became an essential part of urban and rural elites in Morocco. Since the XVIth century Morocco saw the raise of the Sharifian dynasties — the Saadians (1511–1659) and later the Alawis (1631–present time). These dynasties took legitimacy from their noble descent from the Prophet (sharaf). The most ancient and powerful Sharifian lineages obviously had to adapt themselves in this new situation. The aim of this paper is to explore the character of the relations between the Idrisi Sharifs and the first Alawi monarchs. Basing on the Moroccan chronicles and hagiographic works the author analyses the dynamics of interaction between the Idrisi families and the Alawi sultans at the moment when they came to power and during the first century of their rule. The analysis shows that the Alawi monarchs realised the supreme position of the Idrisi Sharifs and didn’t seek to undermine their influence. Instead of this, the rulers developed a well-balanced policy towards the Idrisis which allowed them to turn the most powerful and popular Sharifian groups into the allies of the throne.

The author investigates such an important aspect of Sufi role in sociopolitical life of Iran and Central Asia under Timur (Tamerlane) as conflicts. She also attempts to analyze some noticeable incidents involving famous Sufi mentors of the 14th–15th centuries. The author considers the above-mentioned conflicts in a context of power struggle in Iran and Transoxiana that preceded the reign of Tamerlane and focuses on the interior Sufi competition between the local shaykhs for influence. A thorough study of resolution methods adopted by Tamerlane demonstrates the transformation of his priorities due to various factors — from political to personal, considering the position of the close Sufi circle.

The article focuses on the main features of the socio-political life of the Emirate of Diriyah in the period preceding the emergence of the First Saudi State. The basis of the study is formed by a number of recently published Najdi chronicles of the 17th and 18th centuries. The new scientific material made it possible to reconstruct the mentioned historical period and analyze it comprehensively. The results of the study show that by the time the First Saudi State was founded in 1744, Diriyah was only a small agricultural settlement in Southern Najd. Its political and economic influence was undermined both by difficult natural conditions and constant political upheavals.

The mechanism of the conceptual metaphor is similar to the mechanism of the functioning of the language. Accurate understanding of a language is associated with many factors: speaker, listener, linguistic means, word semantics, context, and others. All these elements complement each other, in the process of interaction they form a single whole, thereby forming a single communicative community. The study of the mechanism of metaphor cannot do without describing the concepts associated with metaphor: a cognitive subject, an object of a metaphor, an arbitrary component of a metaphor, a metaphorical basis and context. The need to clarify the above concepts is due to the fact that the metaphorical meaning is the result of the actions of several parties.

The paper provides a critical analysis of the interpretation of Shinkichi Takahashi (1901–1987) early intellectual views. Using the example of essays and samples of early poetry works, the unambiguous involvement of the poet’s work with the Zen philosophy is disputed. The “rebellious” spirit of Dada poetry, although it has common features with the ideas of Zen nihilism generally accepted in the academic circles, has a slightly different nature and properties. The deliberately provocative creative method of the poet of the early period is not probably the result of a conscious intellectual choice, but a derivative of a difficult biography and personality traits. Perhaps the early works and the image of the poet himself was largely mythologized by his immediate circles, and the poet himself, in numerous essays and notes, subsequently treated his early “verses” and painful spiritual searches very critically.

In the folklore and literature all over the world, there is a range of plots, motifs, and images based on understanding the non-obvious processes associated with the redistribution of property, and assumptions about the randomness or regularity of such redistribution. This includes all sorts of stories about the search for treasures, the notion that treasures can search for the owner proactively, and money can run away from the owners; images of animals/guardians or incarnations of treasures. Abundant material in this regard is provided by medieval Chinese “records of anomalies”. When analyzing stories about treasures contained in collections composed in the 3rd–7th centuries, a group of tales mentioning a golden bull on a golden chain, usually existing underwater or underground, attracts attention. Unlike other varieties of animal treasures, the golden bull itself is inaccessible to treasure hunters. Chinese researchers had suggested that these reports might have influenced the image of the Wuzhiqi monster in Li Gongzuo’s short story “The Ancient Canon of Mountains and Rivers”. References to the golden bull as the embodiment of wealth are not uncommon in fairy tales recorded in the PRC in the 20th century; at the same time, in a modern folk tale, this image is predictably interpreted differently than in medieval mythological stories. The article attempts to determine the basic features of some plots concerning the golden bull as the embodiment of a treasure in the early medieval Chinese prose.

The article considers the milestones of evolution of the Department of Near and Middle East History since its establishment within the Faculty of History of Lomonosov Moscow State University and up to the collapse of the USSR. The research is based on the analysis of scientific and pedagogical activities of prominent Soviet professors and scientists who worked at the department and considerably influenced the development of Russian Oriental Studies within the walls of the Moscow University. During the existence of the Soviet state the teaching staff of the Department worked actively and effectively on creation of new quality curricula and training programs for oriental studies, development of innovative lecture courses and corresponding textbooks taking into account the latest trends and tendencies in teaching. This helped to provide the Soviet generation of students with a sufficiently complete understanding of the historical development and current state of the socioeconomic and cultural life of the countries and regions under study. The scientific life of the Department during the Soviet period was characterized by a gradual shift in the focus of research interests of its staff from topics describing the national liberation struggle of the peoples of the Near and Middle East against colonial oppression, the history of the labor movement, the activities of communist parties and trade union organizations, towards the issues of civilizational development of the East, the ways of development of the nations in the context of the bipolar world, etc. The most significant polemical subjects were reflected in the capital scientific works of the Department, which over time acquired a more diverse and analytically profound character.

In recent years, many Russian students have chosen Taiwan as a place to study Chinese. During the pandemic, Taiwan, much earlier than Mainland China, opened its borders to foreign students, including Russian students and undergraduates. But it should not be forgotten that the Chinese language on the mainland and in Taiwan is different: the mainlanders speak Putonghua, the Taiwanese speak Guoyu. The differences concern not only writing systems (traditional and simplified characters), phonetic notation systems (Pinyin and Zhuyin), vocabulary, grammar, but also punctuation. This is primarily due to the fact that governments on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been pursuing different language policies since 1949. During this time, punctuation on the mainland and on the island has also undergone changes. This article explains the difference between punctuation marks in mainland China and Taiwan in detail, thereby introducing students and teachers of the Chinese language to the features of Guoyu. The authors retrospectively consider the policy of the mainland and the island in relation to punctuation, and also analyze those features of punctuation that are necessary to know in order to avoid mistakes or misunderstanding of what is written with examples. The article describes the differences between Mainland China and Taiwan in the use of quotation marks, smart quotation marks, brackets, and raises the issue of quotation formatting. In addition, the problem of different arrangement of punctuation marks on the line is touched upon. This article will be useful to anyone who studies or teaches Chinese, as well as to those who write scientific papers and works in Chinese.

Pāṇini’s grammar of Sanskrit contains, among others, interpretative rules called paribhāṣās which guide the correct reading of grammatical rules expressed in a concise form by means of special terms, denotations and other shortening techniques. A careful study of Pāṇini’s grammar shows that paribhāṣās formulated by him are not enough to clarify all the nuances of various grammatical rules. Therefore commentators formulated additional paribhāṣās that allowed them to interpret correctly the rules of Pāṇini’s grammar and to resolve conflicts between the grammatical operations prescribed by it. Not only is a description of these additional interpretative rules unavailable in Russian literature, but even mentions of this phenomenon of Sanskrit grammatical literature are rare. The article highlights the history and principles of compilation of commented lists of post-Pāṇinian paribhāṣās by medieval Sanskrit grammarians of different schools. A comparative analysis of these lists is carried out and the traditional classification of paribhāṣās is discussed. It can be concluded that for at least one and a half thousand years (4th–18th centuries) a brief but exhaustive set of commented rules of interpretation of Pāṇini’s grammar was being compiled. The works of commentators differed both in the composition and order of presentation of the rules and in the understanding of each of them. This process was crowned by the 18th-century work of Nāgojībhaṭṭa, “The Lunar Diadem of Paribhāṣās” (Paribhāṣenduśekhara), which remains canonical today.