Rabiga Arat – “a dedicated doctor with a subtle soul”

Abstract

The article analyses a letter by Rabiga Arat addressed to her husband, the famous scholar, Turkologist, Rashit Rahmati Arat. In the submitted document, Rabiga khanum writes about family news and the life of the Tatar emigrant community. This document of personal origin allows us to recreate a picture of the life of Tatar emigrants abroad. Rabiga Arat's letter contains information about daily life, relationships in the family and with friends. Information is also provided showing the place of the Tatar woman in the social life of Turkey. The leitmotif of the text is Rabiga khanum’s experiences about her professional activities in exile. Having received higher education in a European country, her knowledge and professional experience in Turkey were not in demand. Brought up in a Tatar-Muslim environment, Rabiga khanum chooses family values. The purpose of the article is to show the result of the analysis of Rabiga Arat’s letter, which describes her daily life in the new country and her attitude to current problems and various events. The work presents the original letter of Rabiga khanum with a translation into the modern Tatar language, which presents the woman’s personal life, experiences and mental wanderings about her career, relationships with Tatar figures and her personal perception of everything that happens. Encounter with this archive material allows to reveal unknown facts about the life of Rashit Rahmati Arat’s family. The letter is being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.

Keywords

• rabiga arat
• turkey
• private archives
• epistolary genre
• biography.