Review to monography “A.E. Schmidt: biography, scientific correspondence, selected works, bibliography”

Abstract

2018 was the year marking the 100th anniversary of the first university in Central Asia, the foundation of the Turkestan ASSR, and the end of the First World War. All these events are intertwined with the life of A.E. Schmidt (1871–1939), an orientalist, Islamic scholar, organizer of science, and a person with a difficult fate. Quite a lot has been written about Professor A.E. Schmidt, but none of the previous works considers the subject in such detail as in the given monograph. The monograph covers all aspects of his biography and scientific work. The author R.I. Bekkin is largely right relating A.E. Schmidt’s failures to the spirit of the times and the Soviet government policies. In this vein, the biography of Professor A.E. Schmidt represents the “resistance” of the orientalist and the organizer of science who defends the academic nature of Baron V.R. Rosen’s St. Petersburg Oriental School (Faculty of Oriental Languages, St. Petersburg Imperial University).

Keywords

• turkestan
• a.e. schmidt
• oriental studies
• tashkent
• st. petersburg
• university
• islam