55
the Academy of Sciences. German academician Cristian Martin Fren, who
was also the founder of Kazan Faculty of Oriental Studies, was appointed as
the first director of the museum. With the foundation of the Asian Museum,
the study of orient began in St. Petersburg. Until this date, St. Petersburg
had already taken the first place among the European cities with her eastern
manuscripts and objects belonging to the East. In spite of abundant
materials to study the east, there were not qualified researchers to study
these materials. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had founded a department to
teach Eastern languages to the diplomats of future and civil servants. A real
teaching of Eastern languages in St. Petersburg began in the Pedagogy
Institute with Arabic and Persian. The institute was transformed to a
university later in 1819, in 1819. The dean of the faculty was Kazem-Bek. J.
F. Demanj was teaching Arabic and Mirza Cafer Topchibasev was teaching
Persian courses. Ottoman Turkish was taught together with Arabic and
Persian in 1822. Later Muhlinsky (Muhlinsky was the dean of the faculty for
7 years after Kazem-Bek), who was the student of Senkovsky and the first
academician appointed to the Turkish chair, began to teach Ottoman Turkish
as a separate course. A special faculty was founded for the Eastern
languages in 1854. This faculty became the center of the Eastern studies in
the empire of the tsars and then surpassed all the other centers in the
country.
118
118
Bartold, op. cit., in note 106, pp. 55-106.
56
The Moscow school was formed both by studies in the Moscow
University and mostly studies in the Lazerevski Intstitut Vostochnykh
Yazykov (Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages) that was founded by the
rich Armenian Lazarev family in 1815. Oriental languages had begun to be
taught as early as the 1750’s in the Moscow University. Johann Mattias
Schaden, a professor at Tubingen University, had been invited to teach
Hebrew courses in 1756. A. V. Boldyrev, who was the student of the great
Arabia and Persia specialist Cilvestre de Sasi, joined to the Moscow
University in 1811. Boldyrev was an Arabist and specialist in Persian and
was regarded as the founder of the Moscow school, later he became the
rector of the Moscow University in 1833. After the dismissal of Boldyrev
from the university because of his democratic political thoughts, the center
of oriental studies in Moscow moved to the Lazarev Institute.
119
At the beginning the Armenian Lazarev School was founded to
educate the Armenian children in 1815. Later the name of the school was
changed as the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages by the state in 1827
and it was put under the administration of the Ministry of Public Education.
The Lazarev Institute functioned as a special gymnasium for 20 years by
teaching Armenian, Persian, Turkish and Arabic. The Institute was
transformed into a gymnasium and began to give a higher education in
mentioned languages. The Institute was training teachers for the Armenian
schools, the Armenian priests and most importantly civil servants and
119
Bartold, op. cit, in note 4, p. 467.
57
interpreters for Russian service. Thus the Lazarev Institute became an
instrument to supply civil servant need of Russian government.
120
There were also developments in Sinology in 19
th
century. An
Orthodox Church had been founded in Beijing in 1689 and Archimandrite
Khilarion Lezhajsky had come here with his entourage for missionary
activities. The forerunners of Sinology were I. K. Rossohin and A. L. Leonev.
Both of them knew Chinese very well and they were interested in translation
historical, philosophical and geographical texts.
121
However, the most distinguished place in the Russian Sinology école
belongs to Nikita Jakolovlevich Bichurin (1777-1853). Bichurin became a
monk in his 22 years of age and served as the head of the Russian Orthodox
mission in Beijing. He learned Chinese, Manchurian and Mongolian and
studied history, geography, religions and philosophy of these states.
Bichurin published 14 books related to the problems of China, Mongolia,
Central Asia, Tibet and Far East. The Beijing mission was following business
of Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as religious missions. Ministry of Foreign
Affairs was more aware of the value of information obtained by the ex-
members of the mission settled in Beijing in respect to high clergy. The
Ministry used information obtained by these people, including priest
Bichurin, after their return from China in the Asian Office founded in 1819.
120
Encyclopedia of Russian History. Editor in Chief James R. Millar. New York:
Macmillan, 2004, pp. 832-833.; Frye, op. cit., in note 31, pp. 40-42.
121
Bartold, op. cit., in note 4, 452-453.
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