Vasily Bartold

Vasily Barthold
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Born	15 November [O.S. 3 November] 1869 Saint Petersburg
Died	Leningrad
Nationality	Russian
Occupation	Historian

Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold (Russian: Васи́лий Влади́мирович Барто́льд; 1869 – 1930), who published in the West under his German baptism name, Wilhelm Barthold, was a Russian orientalist who specialized in the history of Islam and the Turkic peoples (Turkology).

Biography

Barthold was born in St. Petersburg to a Russianized German family. His career spanned the last decades of the Russian Empire and the first years of the Soviet Union.

Barthold's lectures at the University of Saint Petersburg were annually interrupted by extended field trips to Muslim countries. In the two volumes of his dissertation (Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion, 1898-1900), he pointed out the many benefits the Muslim world derived from Mongol rule after the initial conquests. Barthold was the first to publish obscure information from the early Arab historians on the Kievan Rus'. He also edited several scholarly journals of Muslim studies, and contributed extensively to the first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. In 1913, he was elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences. In February 1917 he was appointed to the Commission for the Study of the Tribal Composition of the Population of the Borderlands of Russia.

After the Russian Revolution, Barthold was appointed director of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, a post he held from 1918 to 1921. He wrote three authoritative monographs on the history of Islam, namely Islam (1918), Muslim Culture (1918) and The Muslim World (1922). He also contributed to the development of Cyrillic writing for the Muslim countries of Soviet Central Asia.

Most of his writings were translated to English, Arabic, and Persian. Barthold's collected works were reprinted in 9 volumes between 1963 and 1977, and whilst Soviet editors added footnotes deploring his 'bourgeois' attitudes, his prestige was such that the text was left uncensored, despite not conforming to a Marxist interpretation of history. Some of his works have been reprinted more recently in Moscow.

Works (selection)

12 lectures about ancient Turkic people

His lecture contains information about the sources of Turkic history, Orkhon Orkhon and Yenisei inscriptions, information in Chinese records regarding the various Turkish and Mongol tribes, earliest contacts with Iranian and Arab invaders, the first Turkish conversions to Islam and the economic and social conditions of Turkic people in Central Asia. Inscriptions don't give us clear answer which people called Turkic. Khan called his people Turk and the same moment Oguz or Tokuz- Oguz, but in some source mentioned that Oguz as Khan's enemies. In addition V.Radlov said in his work that Turkic people belongs to Oguz in the VI-VIIIc. and the Inscriptions support this idea. Oguzy divided into several nationalities such as: Kirgiz, Teles, Tardush, Karluk, Uygurs. However, no evidence that those people called themselves Turkic. Among the all nationalities from Orkhon inscription only one name of people known in Chinese source. Kirgiz also mentioned in a story about Khunn.

Turkic religion and Islam

The religion of Islam was successfully promoted among the Turkic people in the 9th-10th century along the river Amu Darya. In his work Barthold mentioned "Turkic Sky", "Turkic Earth and Water" and "Tengri" meaning the nature as a god. From other sources there is the word "Umai", "the child protector", whom the khan compared with his mother.

Gengiz Khan

In his work also mentioned about Gengiz Khan, his dynasty, his time and his sons.

• «Улугбек и его время» Ulugh-Beg (Leyden: 1918)
  • "Ulug Beg und seine Zeit". In Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 21, No. 1, (Leipzig:Brockhaus) 1935, ISSN 0567-4980 (Trans. Walther Hinz)
  • Ulugh-Beg, Leyden, 1958
• Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion (London: Luzac & Co) 1928 (Trans. T. Minorsky & C.E. Bosworth)
• Mussulman Culture (Kolkata: University of Calcutta) translated from Russian by Hasan Shaheed Suhrawardy 1934.
• "A Short History of Turkestan" (1920). In Four Studies on the History of Central Asia (Leiden: E.J. Brill) 1956 (Trans. V. & T.Minorsky)—Substantial excerpts of vol. 2, 1962
• An Historical Geography of Iran (Princeton: Princeton University Press) 1984 (translated by Svat Soucek; edited by C.E. Bosworth)
• Собрание сочинений (Москва: Издательство Восточной литературы) 1963-77 9 Vols.—Complete works
• Отчет о поездке в Среднюю Азию с научною целью (С.Пб.: Тип. Имп. Академии Наук) 1897
• История культурной жизни Туркестана (Москва: Изд. Академии наук СССР) 1927
• Работы по исторической географии (Москва: Изд. фирма «Восточная литература» РАН) 2002

References

Preceded by Vasily Radlov

Director of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography 1918–1921

Succeeded by Yefim Karskiy