About Manuscripts, Lithographs and Early Printed Books of the Karakalpak Institute of Humanities

In the course of work in the manuscript collection of the Karakalpak Institute of Humanities (Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan), a collection of manuscripts, lithographs and old-printed books was identified. It consists mainly of new arrivals (the so-called “Chimbay collection” at the place of origin of most of the manuscripts, from the city of Chimbay, formerly Shakhtemir, now in the Republic of Karakalpakstan). According to the information of the Institute's employees, Uzak Rakhmatullayev (born in 1920 in the territory of the modern Chimbay district of Karakalpakstan) collected more than 300 manuscripts and printed publications in Arabic, Persian and Turkic languages and subsequently transferred the collection to the Institute. We started its scientific description.  A preliminary list of manuscripts, lithographs, and old-printed books was compiled, and they were distributed by language, chronology and subject. Among these manuscripts are works on Muslim dogmatics, Korans, poetic works (poems by Ajiniyaz, Berdakh, Suleyman Bakyrghani, Ahmad Yasavi, various destans, etc.), treatises on the grammar of the Arabic language (“Tarkib al-Awamil”), historical works, samples of calligraphy on separate folios, etc., in Arabic, Persian and Turkic languages (Chagatai, Tatar, Karakalpak). Together, they represent the area of reading of a Muslim of that era (19-first half of the 20th century) and are one of the illustrations of the close literary and cultural ties between the Aral Sea region (then the Khanate of Khiva), the Volga region, and the Ottoman Empire (where a number of manuscripts were copied).