The Presidential Library to digitize literary monuments of the East

16 January 2014

The Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of RAS and the Presidential Library signed an agreement to digitize a number of rare materials and documents of Buddhist culture, Islam, manuscripts of ancient East and materials on the expeditions of Russian researchers and other rarities.

Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the field of integrated study of written monuments of the East, as well as ancient and medieval history of countries of Asia and North Africa has a rich history. It was told about by IOM Director Irina Popova. The institute was established in November 1818, when the Asian Museum was created under the Academy of Sciences. Originally, it was a repository of Oriental manuscripts and books and until 1861 was housed in the Kunstkamera.

From 1849, the museum had been issuing "Asian notes" (in French). By the end of the first century of its existence, the Asian Museum became one of the largest centers of Oriental world. After a series of mergers and reorganizations of the Soviet period it was transformed into the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of USSR; in modern times it is the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts.

"The written heritage of the East as the basis of classical oriental studies is invaluable, I. Popova said. But the documents are decaying from year to year; it's time to take care of them and convert in the modern format using IT-technologies. The Presidential Library’s facilities enable us to do it at a high level, so we are going to intensively develop our partnership."

The backbone of the Arabic (and the entire Muslim) materials of the Asian Museum comprise two collections of a French diplomat Jean-Louis Rousseau acquired by the Russian government in 1819 and 1825. The first collection of 500 volumes (276 of which contained Arabic literary works) was described by the owner in a brief catalog in French. Today, experts are considering which materials of the Tibet collections of the IOM, collections of Korean studies, Indology, Arabic studies will be delivered to the Presidential Library for digitization in the first place. They are making a list of materials (handwritten, printed, photographic documents, microfilm in Persian), which by agreement of the parties will be processed.

"Currency of contract is 5 years, commented on the reached agreements Director for Information Resources of the Presidential Library, Elena Zhabko. During this time, we hope to enrich our holdings with digital copies of documents on the origin and development of diplomatic relations between the Russian Empire and a number of Eastern countries, as well as with materials on research of their history and culture.

The cooperation may also include the implementation of joint projects based on partnership between the Presidential Library and the Republic of Korea, China, and considering a large scope of documents and books, photographs related to the development of the eastern lands of the Russian Empire in the 19th – 20th centuries."