The Department consists of

• Historical Sources Division (head – Dmitry Mikulsky)
• Literary Sources Division (head – Natalya Prigarina)
• M-N.O. Osmanov’sLibrary of Iranian Literature (curator – Leili Lahuti)

About Us

The Oriental Written Sources Department is a leading academic organization which preserves and develops the traditions of Russian Oriental Source Studies. It conducts comprehensive research of original Oriental written sources, which contain primary data on cultures and societies of medieval and modern Asia, Eastern Europe and North Africa.

Our research becomes a basis for other fields of Oriental Studies.;

Matters and Themes of Research:

1. Studying a literary source as an object of culture and history (its origin, form, technology of production, cultural and historical attribution; analyzing linguistic, paleographic, verbal and narrative features etc.);
2. Scientific reading, interpretation and translation of the texts, their critical analysis and preparation for publication;
3. Creating and publication of databases based on literary sources;
4. Comprehensive research and publication of Oriental numismatic objects (including hoards, collections, thematic groups of coins and individual objects);
5. Other auxiliary historical disciplines, connected with the study of literary sources (Oriental Epigraphics, Sigillography, Diplomatics, Paleography, Chronology, Metrology etc.);
6. Developing methodology for paleographic, textual and philological research and commenting of literary, historical, religious, philosophical, lexicographic and other written sources.

Areas of Research:

• comprehensive study of literary heritage, such as manuscripts, economic and legal documents, epigraphic, numismatic, sigillographic legacy as sources of philological, historical, social and cultural knowledge;
• textual analysis and preparation of commented editions of documental,
• literary and other written sources in their original languages (including Classic and Modern Arabic, Persian, languages of India, Malay, Chinese, Japanese etc.) and their translation into Russian and other European languages;
• historical and philological analysis of written sources;
• compilation of academic dictionaries and bio-bibliographic encyclopedias;
• developing the theory and methods for Oriental Source Studies connected with other humanities