"A Letter Is a Half of the Meeting": the Mechanism of Correspondence and Book Exchange between the Russian Orientalists and Muslim Intellectuals in the Beginning of the 20th Century

Abstract

This article deals with the correspondence between the Russian orientalists and their informants, Muslim intellectuals of the Russian Empire. It reveals the impact of the practice of correspondence on the process of knowledge formation about the Muslim regions of the Empire. This task requires the concentration on the conditions of such practice. Subsequently, it is important to study different methodologies of the explication of the meanings the main actors use in their texts. The senior generation of Muslim intellectuals were interested in Orientalists' abilities to preserve the local knowledge and provide the inter-generational transition. The younger generation of intellectuals were seeking new communicative methodologies to ensure further progress of their communities. These factors were the basis of interaction between different groups of experts. This interaction led to the reconfiguration of the knowledge about the Muslim communities in the modern era.