ARABIC SCRIPT RARE BOOKS AT THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF KYRGYZSTAN: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52754/16948653_2026_1_6Keywords:
Kyrgyzstan, Arabic script, rare books, bibliographyAbstract
This bibliography lists and describes forty-one volumes of old and rare books in Arabic script held in the Library of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan located in Bishkek. This small but unique collection has been neglected, untouched, and uncatalogued due to lack of linguistic expertise. The publication dates of the books in the collection generally range from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Each bibliographic entry consists of the original Arabic title of the work, full imprint information, and a brief annotation. Most items described in this bibliography are not found in modern catalogs, including the WorldCat database. This bibliography is a first step in providing access to one of the many hidden and rare collections in Central Asia.
References
Each entry in this bibliography consists of a description number in sequence; full imprint information, including the author’s name (in the form authorized by the Library of Congress, if it is found), transliterated title based on the Library of Congress Romanization scheme, place of publication, publisher, and date of publication; and a brief annotation. Most items described in this bibliography do not appear in online catalogs, including the WorldCat data- base. This bibliography is a first step in providing access to one of the many hidden and rare collections in Central Asia.
Laknawī, Muh.ammad ʻAbd al-Ḥayy. Tarjumah’i al-Sā’il va-l-Masā’il li-Marām al-Mas’ūl va-l-Sā’il. Tashkent: Tipo-lit. O.A. Portseva, 1336 [1917–18].
Persian translation of the collection of legal opinions (fatāwā) by Indian h.anafī scholar Abū al-Ḥasanāt Muh.ammad ʻAbd al-Ḥayy al- Laknawī (1264/1848 – 1304/1886). The work’s original titles in Arabic are Majmūʻ al-Fatāwā, Fatāwā al-Laknawī, and Nafʻ al-Muftī. Translator is Mullā Muh.ammad Ẓarīf Qārī Tāshkandī. Copyist is Sirāj al-Dīn Makhdūm. The title page is beautifully decorated with golden floral motifs. The incipit page is decorated with ʻunwān, a panel above the text, where basmalah is inscribed. The text is
framed in a golden braid.
1
Zarnūjī, Burhān al-Dīn. Taʻlīm al-Mutaʻallim T.arīq al-Taʻallum. Kazan’: Tipografiia T-go D. Br. Karimovykh, 1902.
Arabic treatise on pedagogy and methods of attaining of knowledge by twelfth-thirteenth century scholar al- Zarnūjī. The treatise was translated into many languages including English by G. E. von Grunebaum and Theodora M. Abel. The author of the work is from Zarnūj, near Amu-Darya and he was the disciple of famous al- Marghinānī (530/1135–593/1197), author of al-Hidāyah.
2
Faizullin, Haris Zarifuly. Us. ūl-i Jughrāfiyā. Kazan’: Tipografiia Torgovogo Doma brat’ev Karimovykh, 1900.
Tatar textbook of geography, written by journalist and pedagogue Faizullin (1887–1938). His pen name is Hārith al-Chīstāpūlī, and he was an editor of the Tatar newspaper Akhbār, published in Kazan in 1907–1908.
Sămătăydăn Bir Būlum. Moskva: SSSR elderdin borbor basma mekemesi, 1925.
The part of the Kyrgyz heroic epic Manas orally narrated by mana- schi (performer/singer of Manas) Tynybek Zhapiev (1846–1902) and written by Ishenali Arabaev (1882–1933). Arabaev is a well-known
Kygyz scholar, educator and politician. He is author of several textbooks including one on the new Kyrgyz alphabet. Kyrgyz State University is named after him.
Tynystan uulu, Kasym. Qāsim Īrlārīnin Jīnāghī. Moskva: SSSR elder- din borbor basma mekemesi, 1925.
Collection of poems by (Qasym Tynystanov) Kasym Tynystan uulu (1901–1938), a well-known Kyrgyz politician and poet. He was the first Minister of Education of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and the founder of Kyrgyz alphabet based on Latin . He was executed in 1938 during Great terror of Stalin.
Mirzā Muh.ammad ughlī, Ibrāhim khwāja. [Poiezdka potiashnago na vysochaishii smotr˝]. N. P., n.d.
The title page is missing. The title of the work appears in Russian (Поъздка потъшнаго на высочайшiй смотръ) at the top of the first page. The work is in Uzbek (Arabic script) and is written by a young college student Mirzā Muh.ammad’s son Ibrăhim khwăja, who describes travelling to Saint Petersburt, Russia in 1911 to participate in a parade of members of the Potyoshnoe movement. It should be noted that the Potyoshnoe is the movement of youth who received extra- curricular military patriotic training. The work seems to be unique. The value of the book lies in the fact that the author describes not only the events he witnessed but also those in which he actively participated.
Omar Khayyam. Rubāʻiyyāt-i Ḥakim Khayyām. [St. Petersburg]: Lit. Grobovoi, [1888].
A famous collection of rubāʻiyyāt [quatrains] by Persian poet ʻUmar Khayyām (1048–1131), copied by a student of the oriental languages
department of Saint Petersburg University. The text is authorized by Jukovskii Valentin Alekseevich (1858–1918), professor of Iranian studies.
Beyazîzade Ahmet. Ishārāt al-Marām. Kazan’: Tipo-litografiia Imperatorskogo universiteta, 1902.
Commentary in Arabic on statements of the eponymous founder of Ḥanafī school of Islamic law, Abū Ḥanīfah Nuʻmān b. Thābit (d. 767– 8). The author of the commentary is Bosnian scholar Kamāl al-Dīn Ah. mad b. Ḥasan al-Bayyāḍī (d. 1687) who was qāḍī of Istanbul.ө
.Sādiq, Mullā Muh.ammad. Ḥāshiyah Sharh. al-Isāghūjī li-Ḥusām al-Dīn
Ḥasan al-Kātī. Kazan: Tipografiia Brat. Karimovykh, 1902.
Supercommentary on commentaries of al-Kātī (d. 1359) on the Kitāb
al-Isāghūjī by Athīr al-Dīn Mufaḍḍal b. ʻUmar al-Abharī (d. 1265), an abridged Arabic translation of Porphyry’s Isagoge.
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Taftazānī, Masʻūd b. ʻUmar. Sharh. al-ʻAqā’id. Kazan: Tipo- Litografiia Imperatorskogo Universiteta, 1898.
Commentary on ʻUmar b. Muh.ammad al-Nasafī’s (d. 1142) popular treatise on Islamic doctrine al-ʻAqā’id al-Nasafiyah. al-Nasafī’s work had been used as textbook in madrasas and was an object of many commentaries and supercommentaries. Saʻd al-Dīn al-Taftazānī (d.
, author of this commentary, is a distinguished scholar who wrote several works on Arabic grammar, rhetoric, logic, law and tafsīr.
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Jundī, Mullā Ah.mad. Ḥāshiyah ʻalā Sharh. al-ʻAqā’id. Kazan: Tipo- Litografiia Imperatorskogo Universiteta, 1898.
Supercommentary on al-Taftazānī’s commentary on al-ʻAqā’id al-
Nasafiyah.
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Khayālī, Ah.mad b. Mūsā. Ḥāshiyah ʻalā Sharh. al-ʻAqā’id. Kazan: Tipo- Litografiia Imperatorskogo Universiteta, 1898.
Supercommentary by al- Khayālī (d. 1457?) on al-Taftazānī’s com- mentary on al-ʻAqā’id al-Nasafiyah.
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Is. mat’allah. Ḥāshiyah Mutaʻalliqah bi-l-Daftar al-Thānī min Sharh. al-ʻAqā’id. [Kazan]: Mat. baʻah al-Vichislavii, 1890.
Supercommentary on al-Taftazānī’s commentary on al-ʻAqā’id al-
Nasafiyah.
Qut. b al-Tah.tānī, Muh.ammad b. Muh.ammad. Sharh. Matn al-Shamsiyah. Kazan: Chīrkūf khātūni .tabʻkhānahsī, 1305 [1887].
Qut. b al-Dīn al-Tah.tānī’s (d. 1365) commentary on al-Risālah al-
Shamsiyah, a widespread textbook on logic written by Najm al-Dīn
ʻAlī b. ʻUmar al-Qazwīnī (d. 1277).
Jāmī. Nafah.āt al-’Uns. Lakhnaw: Munshī Naval Kishūr, 1915.
A hagiography compiled by Persian poet ʻAbd al-Rah.mān al-Jāmī (1414–1492) includes biographies and miracles of more than 600
s. ufī shaykhs. The full title of the work is Nafah.āt al-Uns min
Ḥaḍarāt al-Quds.
S. afī, ʻAlī b. Ḥusayn Kāshifī. Rashah.āt. Lakhnaw: Munshī Naval Kishūr, 1308 [1890].
Biographies of naqshbandī shaykhs compiled by ʻAlī al-.Safī b. Kamāl al-Dīn Ḥusayn al-Wāʻiz al-Kāshifī (d. 1532/33). The full title of the work is Rashah.āt ʻAyn al-Ḥayāt.
Ghazzālī. Kīmiyā-yi Saʻādat. Lakhnaw: Mat. baʻa-i Muh.ammadi, 1281 [1864].
Persian abridged version of the Arabic work Ih.yā’ ʻUlūm al-Dīn, written by the prominent Muslim philosopher Abū Ḥāmid Muh.ammad
b. Muh.ammad al-Ghazzālī (d. 1111). The work is about Islamic ritual
requirements.
Mah.būbī, ʻUbayd Allāh b. Masʻūd. Mukhtas. ar al-Wiqāyah. Kazan.. Tipografiia brat. Karymovykh, 1901.
The abridged version of the al-Wiqāyah fī al-Masā’il al-Hidāyah, written by the author’s uncle S. adr al-Sharīʻah Mah.mūd b. ʻUbayd Allāh al-Mah.būbī (d. 1274-75). Another title of the work is al- Nuqāyah. The book includes Turkic (tatar) translation of the text made by Shihāb al-Dīn b. Mullā ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz. The book is about Islamic practices according to the Hanafī school.
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[Ḥadīs Imāmlarīning Is. .tilāh.ātindin Bir Āz Maʻlūmāt].
The title page is missing, and the author is unidentifiable. The book is an explanatory Uzbek dictionary of h.adīth terminology.
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Urbagarī, Kamāl al-Dīn b. Sirāj al-Dīn. Wasīlat al-Falāh. fī ʻIlm al- Ḥadīth. Kazan: Tipo-litografiia Imperatorskogo universiteta, 1906.
Textbook of h.adīth containing Tatar translations of sayings of the Prophet Muh.ammad with parallel original Arabic text.
Balʻamī, Abū ʻAlī Muh.ammad b. Muh.ammad. Tārīkh-i T.abarī. Lakhnaw: Munshī Naval Kishūr, 1322 [1904].
Persian version of the general history, Tārīkh al-Rusūl wa- l-Mulūk, starting from creation of the world to the early centu- ries of Islam. The author of the Arabic original is Muh.ammad
b. Jarīr al-T.abarī (d. 923), a well-known historian and theologian
from Tabaristan. He wrote several works including Tafsīr al-
T.abarī, the most famous commentary on the Qur’ān.
Qārī al-Harawī, ʻAlī b. Sult. ān Muh.ammad. Sharh. ʻAyn al-ʻIlm. [Istanbul]: Muh.ammad Asʻad, n.d.
Commentary on ʻAyn al-ʻIlm wa Zayn al-Ḥilm, an abridged version of
Ih.yā al-ʻUlūm of al-Ghazzālī (d. 1111), written by Muh.ammad
b. ʻUthmān al-Balkhī (d. 1397). The author of the commentary ʻAlī al- Qārī al-Harawī (d. 1605–06) is an Islamic scholar of the Ḥanafī school. He is also author of the most popular al-Ḥizb al-Aʻz. am
collection of prayers (duʻā).
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Māwardī, ʻAlī b. Muh.ammad. Kitāb Adab al-Dunyā wa-l-Dīn. Mis. r: Mus. .tafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa akhawayhi, [1880].
A work on Islamic ethics and morality, composed by Shāfiʻī faqīh al-
Māwardī (d. 1058), who is the author of several works including al- Ah.kām al-Sult. āniyah, a book on Islamic governance.
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Ibn Miskawayh, Ah.mad b. Muh.ammad. Kitāb Tahdhīb al-Akhlāq. Mis. r: Mus. .tafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa akhawayhi, [1880].
A work on Islamic ethics composed by Ibn Miskawayh (d. 1030),
a Persian philosopher and historian who wrote in Arabic. He is the author of several works including well-known history Tajārib al-Umam.
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Bayḍāwī, ʻAbd Allāh b. ʻUmar. Anwār al-Tanzīl wa Asrār al-Ta’wīl. [Istanbul]: Şirket-i hayriye-i sahafiye, n.d.
One of the most popular and the most studied commentaries to the Qur’ān, composed by the Muslim sunnī scholar al- Bayḍāwī (d. 1286).
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Suyūt. i, and Jalāl al-Dīn Muh.ammad b. Ah.mad al-Mah.allī. Tafsīr al- Jalālayn. [Istanbul]: Şirket-i hayriye-i sahafiye, n.d.
One of the popular sunnī commentaries to the Qur’ān, composed first by Jalāl al-Dīn al- Mah.allī (d. 1459) and then after his death fin- ished by his student Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyū.tī (d. 1505). Therefore, the work is known as Tafsīr al-Jalālayn (Commentary of Two Jalāls).
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Ghiyās al-Dīn Rāmpūrī, Muh.ammd b. Jalāl al-Dīn. Ghiyās al-Lughāt. Bukhārā: Dār al-amīra-yi Kāgān, 1337 [1889].
Popular Persian dictionary compiled in 1827 by Indian lexicogra- pher and poet Ghiyās al-Dīn Rāmpūrī (d. 1852).
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ʻAbd al-Rashīd b. ʻAbd al-Ghafūr Tattavī. Muntakhab al-Lughāt. Bukhārā: Dār al-amīra-yi Kāgān, 1337 [1889].
The most popular Arabic-Persian dictionary composed by well- known lexicographer, shaykh Tattavī (17th century). The diction- ary was completed in 1636 and dedicated to Shāh Jahān, Emperor of India (1628–58).
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Taftazānī, Masʻūd b. ʻUmar. Mukhta.sar Talkhī.s al-Miftāh.. Mis. r: al- Mat. baʻah al-Kubrā al-Amīrīyah, 1317-18 [1899–90].
An abridged commentary on Talkhīs. al-Miftāh. of Jalāl al-Dīn
Muh.ammad b. ʻAbd al-Rah.mān al-Qazwīnī (d. 1338), written by renowned scholar al-Taftazānī (d. 1390). The work Talkhīs. al- Miftāh. is a revised version of Sirāj-al-Dīn al-Sakkākī’s (d. 1229) Miftāh. al-ʻUlūm.
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Ibn Yaʻqūb al-Maghribī. Mawāhib al-Fattāh. fī Sharh. Talkhīs. al- Miftāh.. Mis. r: al-Mat. baʻah al-Kubrā al-Amīrīyah, 1317–18 [1899– 90].
Commentary on al-Qazwīnī’s (d. 1338) Talkhī.s al-Miftāh. by Moroccan scholar al-Maghribī (d. 1716).
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Bahā’ al-Dīn al-Subkī. ʻArūs al-Afrāh. fī Sharh. Talkhīs. al-Miftāh.. Mis. r: al-Mat. baʻah al-Kubrā al-Amīrīyah, 1317–18 [1899–90].
Commentary on al-Qazwīnī’s (d. 1338) Talkhī.s al-Miftāh. by al-Subkī
(d. 1372), a well-known scholar who was born in Cairo and died in Mecca during pilgrimage.
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Qazwīnī, Jalāl al-Dīn Muh.ammad b. ʻAbd al-Rah.mān. Kitāb al-Īḍāh. fī ʻUlūm al-Balāghah. Mis. r: al-Mat. baʻah al-Kubrā al-Amīrīyah, 1317– 18 [1899–90].
The expanded version of Talkhī.s al-Miftāh. by the author himself.
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Dasūqī, Muh.ammad b. Ah.mad b. ʻArafah. Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī ʻalā Mukhtas. ar Talkhīs. al-Miftāh.. Mis. r: al-Mat. baʻah al-Kubrā al- Amīrīyah, 1317–18 [1899–90].
Supercommentary on al-Taftazānī’s abridged commentary on Talkhī.s al-Miftāh. written by the Egyptian jurist al- Dasūqī (d. 1815). He authored several works on grammar and rhetoric as well.
Qurashī, ʻAbd al-Qādir b. Muh.ammad. Al-Jawāhir al-Muḍī’ah fī T.abaqāt al-Ḥanafīyah. Al-Riyāḍ: Dār al-ʻulūm, n.d.
Biographies of h.anafī faqīhs, published in four volumes, compiled
by al-Qurashī (d. 1373), Egyptian author of works on the Prophetic traditions. The work is edited by ʻAbd al-Fattāh. Muh.ammad al-Ḥulw.
Risālah’i Fāfiyah fī Iʻlāl al-Abniyah. Kazan: Tipografiia
B. L. Dombrovskogo, 1902.
A work on Arabic grammar (morphology) in Tatar. The author’s name is not given on title page. According to the introduction, the author is Muh.ibb al-Dīn wa-l-Shariʻah . . .… al-Tawakkuldī al- Bulghārī.
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Ibn Hishām, ʻAbd Allāh b. Yūsuf. Qawāʻid al-Iʻrāb. Kazan: Tipo- litografiia nasld. M. Chirkovoi, 1902.
A work on grammar written by fourteenth century Egyptian scholar Ibn Hishām al-Ansārī (d. 1360), who is regarded as imām of Arabic grammar.
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Jurjānī, ʻAbd al-Qāhir b. ʻAbd al-Rah.man. ʻAwāmil. Kazan: Tipo- litografiia nasld. M. Chirkovoi, 1902.
A work on Arabic grammar (syntax) written by al-Jurjānī (d. 1078?), a famous grammarian and literary theorist. Another title of the work is al-ʻAwāmil al-Mi’ah.
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Ḥall al-Tarākib. Kazan: Tipo-litografiia nasld. M. Chirkovoi, 1902.
Arabic grammar (construction) in Persian by unknown author.
Shaykh Jiwān al-Laknawi, Ah.mad. Al-Tafsīrāt al-Ah.madiyah. Kazan: Lito-tipografiia I. N. Kharitonova, 1904.
Commentary on the al-Qur’ān compiled by Ḥanafī faqīh known as Mullā Jiwān (d. 1717). The full title of the work is al-Tafsīrāt al- Ah.madiyah fī Bayān l-Ayāt al-Sharʻiyah.
Fūmānī, ʻAbd al-Fattāh.. Tārikh-i Gīlān. Pitirburgh: Akādīmīyah Imbrāt. ūriyh, 1858.
A history of the Gilan province of Iran covering the years 1517-
, written by Iranian historian of 17th century. The Persian original text is edited by Bernhard Dorn (1805–1881), a German orientalist, academician of St. Petersburg Academy.
Rashīd al-Dīn T.abīb. Tārīkh-i Chingīz’khān. [Title page including publication information are missing].
The history of Gengis Khan (1162–1227), the founder of the Mongol Empire. The excerpts from famous history Jāmiʻ al-Tavārīkh by Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍl Allāh (d. 1318).
Title unknown
A work on geography in Arabic. Author and title are unidentified because the beginning and ending pages are missing.
Bidlīsī, Sharaf Khān. Kitāb-I Sharaf’nāmah. Pitirbūrgh: Akādīmiyah Imbrāt. ūriyah, 1276 [1860].
A valuable source on the history of the sixteenth century of Iran,
Azerbaijan, and the Kurds. The work is written in Persian and edi- ted by Russian historian and orientalist Vladimir Veliaminov- Zernov (1830–1904). The author Sharaf al-Dīn al-Bidlīsī (d. 1603) is an eyewitness to the historical accounts he describes.
Aĭnī, Sadriddin. Tahzīb al-.Sibyān. Samarqand: Mat. baʻah-i Gazarov, 1336 [1917].
The Tajik (Arabic script) reading book compiled by Tajik-Uzbek scholar and writer Sadriddin Aĭnī (1878–1954).
Moldo Kylych. Qis. s. ah-i Zalzalah. Kazan: Tipo-lit. T-ga. D-ma. “V. Eremeev i A. Shashabrin”, 1911.
Poetic description of the Keminsk (Kyrgyzsatn and Kazakhstan) earthquake of the January 4th, 1911. Written in Kyrgyz (Arabic script) by Moldo Kylych Samyrkan uulu (1866–1917). The publica- tion is sponsored by Kyrgyz students of a Madrasah-i ʻāliyah in Kazan, Tatarstan.
[Writing and reading]. Tashkent: Lit. G. Kh. Arifzhanova, [n.d]. Manual for learners of writing and reading in Arabic script. The beginning and ending pages are missing.
Reĭsner, M. A. Ḥukūmat-I Shūraviyah Chīst? Moskva: Izdanie Tsentral’nogo Biuro Kommunisticheskikh organizatsiĭ narodov Vostoka, 1919.
The Persian translation of the article Chto takaia Sovetskaia
vlast’? [What is Soviet power?] by Reĭsner Mikhail Andreevich (1868–1928), a Russian-Soviet historian. Translator is unknown.
Urtā Āziyā Tūrkistān, Būkhārā vah Khārahzim Jumhūriyahlarīning Birīnchī Iiqtisādī Kahnfīrīnsiyahsīning Byūllītīnī. Tashkent: Turkestanskoe gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo, 1923.
Proceedings of the first economic conference of the Central Asian countries held in Tashkent in March 1923. At the conference, three Central Asian countries (Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic, and Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic) were present and decided to unite and coordinate their economic activities.
Jāngā Măktăb. Kyzyl Orda: K. Dj. Sh. K. B., 1928.
The first issue (January 1928) of the monthly Kazakh journal Jāngā Măktăb (New School), which was founded in 1925. Currently the jour- nal is published under the title Қазақстан Mектебі.
Muhammadjon ughli, Muminjon. Nas. āih. al-At. fal. Tashkent: Tipo- litografiia, 1332 [1913].
Morals for children, specifically, those in the third grade The book is written by Muhammadjon ughli Toshqin (1883–1964), an Uzbek educator and jadid movement activist.
Rozen, V. R. Les Manuscrits Persans de l’Institut des Langues Orientales (du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères). St. Petersburg: Se vend chez Eggers & Comp,1886.
Catalogue of Persian manuscripts of the Institute for Oriental languages compiled by Russian orientalist Viktor Romanovich Rozen (1849–1908).
Ḥāfiz. . Dīvān-i Ḥāfiz. . [Lucknow]: Munshī Nawal Kushūr, [n.d.] Collection of poems by the famous Persian poet Shams al-Dīn Muh.ammad Ḥāfiẓ al-Shirāzī (1325/26–1389/90).
Reading book, collection of stories in Uzbek. The beginning and ending pages are missing.
Tūrk Tātār Tārīkhī.
A Tatar history. The beginning and ending pages are missing.
Ḥannā, Jūrj. Maʻnā al-Qawmiyah al-ʻArabiyah. Bayrūt: Dār al- thaqāfah, 1959.
The book is about Arab nationalism.
Note
For more information about the movement: Catriona Kelly, Children’s World: Growing Up in Russia, 1890–1991 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 545.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Jyldyz Bekbalaeva (Director of the Library at the AUCA) and Gulim Absamatova (Head of the Rare Books Department at the Library of the Academy) for their help during his stay in Bishkek and for providing access to the collection.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
