On October 7, 2003, the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University honored one of the largest Russian Arabists, an authoritative translator of Arabic classics, author of fundamental works in the field of Arabic philology and history, Isaac Moiseyevich Filshtinsky, on the occasion of his 85th birthday. A man of unique culture and erudition, I. M. Filshtinsky is a researcher whose field of interest is not limited to literary monuments, covering both religious issues - Islam, especially Sufism, and the history of Arab - Muslim civilization in general. Today, I. M. Filshtinsky is a Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of History of the Near and Middle East Countries of the ISAA at Moscow State University.

The work of the scientist is inextricably linked with his fate. It is the result of selfless search and tireless work, internal discipline and loyalty to the chosen path. I. M. Filshtinsky created the best scientific works in the most dramatic periods of his life.

The formation of I. M. Filshtinsky's multi-faceted research interests took place against the background of his passion for the history of culture. In 1936, he entered the Moscow State Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature (IFLI), applying for the Department of Theory and Art History. Ironically, that year was the only one when there was no admission to the above-mentioned department. Then the choice of I. M. Filshtinsky fell on the Faculty of History, where he received a brilliant education and specialized in archeology. His teachers were the luminaries of historical science-A. I. Neusykhin ¹, E. A. Kosminsky ², A.D. Udaltsov ³, B. N. Grakov ⁴ . I. M. Filshtinsky passed the last state examination on June 22, 1941.

After graduating from the Arabic department of the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in 1946 and being engaged in teaching activities, I. M. Filshtinsky began working on his PhD thesis. It was based on a comparison of the chronicle of al-Jabarti with the testimonies of the French-participants of the Egyptian campaign of 1889-1891, with the correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte and other documents. Speaking about his work, I. M. Filshtinsky always warmly recalls the help and support of his favorite teacher of the Arabic language Kh. K. Baranov5 and his research supervisor V. B. Lutsky6 . A multi-faceted study of the al-Jabarti chronicle marked the beginning of the study of this most valuable source in Russia.

I. M. Filshtinsky defended his PhD thesis on January 2, 1949.-

¹ Neusykhin A. I. (1898-1969) - Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor. Author of works on the history of the Western European Middle Ages.

² Kosminsky E. A. (1883-1959) - historian, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Author of works on the agrarian history of England in the Middle Ages, the English bourgeois Revolution of the XVII century, the history of diplomacy, and the historiography of the Middle Ages.

³ Udaltsov A.D. (1883 - 1958) - historian, corresponding member. ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE USSR. Author of works on the history of feudal Europe.

⁴ Grakov B. N. (1899 - 1970) - archaeologist, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, specialist in Scythian-Sarmatian and ancient archeology, epigraphy.

⁵ Baranov Kh. K. (1883 - 1958) - an outstanding Arabist, professor, head of the Department of Arabic Philology at MGIMO, author of the Arabic-Russian dictionary of modern Arabic literary language with the inclusion of classical vocabulary, which has no analogues in Russian and world Arabic studies.

⁶ V. B. Lutsky (1906-1962) - historian, founder of his own historical school of modern and contemporary Arab history. Among his students: F. M. Atsamba, I. M. Smilyanskaya, L. N. Kotlov, N. A. Ivanov and others.

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the period of serious scientific success was a time of severe trials for the scientist. On April 7, 1949, Filshtinsky was arrested. The dissertation was sent for review to" establish its ideological relevance and scientific level " to F. M. Atsamba, now a respected professor of the Department of History of the Near and Middle East at the ISAA at Moscow State University, and at that time a post-graduate student at the Institute of Oriental Languages. Appreciating the indisputable quality of the work, as well as being aware of the responsibility for someone else's personal and professional fate, she gave a positive review.

After spending several months in Lubyanka, "without coming into contact" with the investigator, I. M. Filshtinsky was transferred to Lefortovo. Convicted "by the decision of a special conference for anti-Soviet agitation under Article 58/10 for a term of 10 years", he was sent to Kargopollag in the Arkhangelsk region until the case was reviewed in 1955.

In 1952, I. M. Filshtinsky, among thirty-six scientists serving a prison sentence, was "list" deprived of his academic degree.

Six dramatic years spent in the camp did not break the will of the scientist, did not dull the need to think, analyze, and create. I. M. Filshtinsky proved himself as a prose writer, writing a book of camp stories "We walk under escort" ⁷, in which the camp reality is seen by an intellectual, sociologist-historian, and psychologist, but above all by a person who is not committed to moral values. His fine understanding of human nature and deep compassion for his fellow campers are combined in his stories with analytical thinking and gentle humor. The courage of a humanist and the optimism of a philosopher clearly distinguish the book of I. M. Filshtinsky from many works of camp prose.

After his release, I. M. Filshtinsky wanted to return to scientific work. At that time, VAK conducted a " check of the political compliance of his dissertation with the current moment." The young Arabist was told that in the past six years his work ("Egypt in the Bonaparte period") was outdated, and was asked to write a new one. It took a lot of perseverance for the scientist to defend the "relevance" of his dissertation.

He was released from the camp on February 20, 1955, but only a year later managed to get his academic degree back and complete rehabilitation.

During that difficult period, M. I. Rudomino came to the aid of I. M. Filshtinsky, hiring him to work in the Library of Foreign Literature, which she headed. Fluent in the main European languages, I. M. Filshtinsky compiled annotations for books on psychology and philosophy. In January 1958, Filshtinsky moved to the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he worked first as a technical and then as a junior researcher.

In 1962, the founder and first director of the Institute of Oriental Languages (then ISAA at Moscow State University) A. A. Kovalev invited him to give lectures on the history of Arabic literature. Developed in the 1960s by I. M. Filshtinsky, the special course "Introduction to Islamic Studies" became a revelation for students and was a significant cultural event in the life of university Moscow.

I. M. Filshtinsky never imagined his life outside of the civil duty of an intellectual to his country. I. M. Filshtinsky was subjected to new persecutions for his help in organizing a speech at the Institute of Internal Affairs of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR by A. I. Solzhenitsyn, and for his participation in the human rights campaign of 1968. Five years later, despite the selfless defense of his candidacy by A. A. Kovalev, he was suspended from his favorite business - teaching and directing the scientific work of undergraduates and postgraduates.

For twenty-one years, I. M. Filshtinsky worked at the Institute of Internal Affairs of the USSR Academy of Sciences as a junior researcher. During attestations, they regularly wrote to him in the characteristic: "he is a leading specialist in his field and deserves re-election to the position of a junior researcher." Of course, everyone understood the incompatibility between the level and official status of a scientist. However, I. M. Filshtinsky became a senior researcher only in 1978. Ten months after receiving the position, I. M. Filshtinsky was dismissed because of a search conducted in his apartment with the seizure of samizdat literature. He was then 60 years old. He continued to work and publish his works on Arabic studies, began to create a book about the "Thousand and One Nights", and was engaged in translations.

The nature of I. M. Filshtinsky's research interests can be judged from the following

⁷ Filshtinsky I. M. We are walking under the escort. Stories from camp life. 2-E. M.: Christian Publishing House, 1997. The book was first published in 1994.

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below is a list of his main works. It should be noted, however, that his main work, which took more than 20 years of his life, is the monumental two - volume (in the American edition, three-volume) "History of Arabic Literature from the fifth to the Khush centuries". A significant part of the selfless work on this work fell on the years when the scientist was deprived of the opportunity to work and teach anywhere.

This unique academic work, both in terms of the scope of the material and the method of its analysis, has no analogues in either Domestic or Western European orientalism.

I. M. Filshtinsky's teaching activity resumed relatively recently. In 1992, the current director of the Institute of Asian and African Countries, M. S. Meyer, invited the scientist to teach a course in medieval history. At the same time, I. M. Filshtinsky again started reading a special course on Islamic studies that he had developed in the 1960s. The special course enriched and expanded by the author was called "Religious and philosophical teachings in medieval Islam".

Only in 1994, at the age of 75, I. M. Filshtinsky was able to defend his doctoral dissertation on the topic: "The socio-cultural function of verbal art in medieval Arab-Muslim society".

In his scientific works and teaching activities, I. M. Filshtinsky always considers the studied material-whether it is literary texts or historical facts-on a broad socio-cultural background, in the context of literary and general cultural processes and in connection with universal worldview problems. This peculiarity of his scientific thinking is to some extent due to the fundamental humanitarian education received at IFLI, but probably even more due to the personality of the scientist.

The life of one of the greatest Russian Arabists, Isaac Moiseevich Filshtinsky, proves to us, refuting the well - known postulate that sometimes consciousness - the strength of the spirit, talent and courage-not only determines existence, but also overcomes it by serving the ideals of science, creativity and humanism.

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MAIN SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF DOCTOR OF HISTORICAL SCIENCES I. M. FILSHTINSKY*

The Cairo uprisings of 1798-1801 and their description in the chronicle of Abd ar-Rahman al-Jabarti. 1958. N 3. pp. 46-56.

The oldest monument of descriptive and geographical literature. Istorii mirovoi kul'tury [History of World Culture], Moscow, 1958, No. 5, pp. 108-115.

Preface and notes: Buzurg ibn Shahriyar. Wonders of India. Moscow: IVL Publ., 1959, pp. 5-20, 123-131.

Egypt during the reign of Muhammad Ali // World History, vol. 3, Moscow, 1959.

The Egyptian historian Al-Jabarti and his chronicle // Vestn. Istorii mirovoi kul'tury [History of World Culture], Moscow, 1960, No. 4, pp. 63-73.

The Chronicle of al-Jabarti as a historical source. Institute of Peoples of Asia, 1961, No. 47, pp. 94-100.

Issues of periodization of medieval Arabic literature / / Peoples of Asia and Africa. 1962. N 4. pp. 144-156.

Translated by Abd ar-Rahman al-Jabarti. Egypt during the Bonaparte expedition. (Amazing history of the past in biographies and chronicles of events). Moscow: IVL, 1962. 540 p.

Arab classical literature, Moscow: GRVL, 1965.310 p.

Nekotorye voprosy postroeniya ocherka istorii arabyskoi klassicheskoi literatury [Some issues of constructing an essay on the history of Arabic classical literature]. Semitiskie yazyki, Moscow: GRVL, 1965, issue 2, part 2, pp. 626-634.

Arabic literature / / Moscow: GRVL, 1966. 234 p. (in English).

Trans. and introductory articles: The life and exploits of Antara (Sirat Antara). Moscow: GRVL, 1968. 455 p.

Problemy periodizatsii literatur narodov Vostoka [Problems of periodization of Medieval Arabic literature], Moscow: GRVL, 1968, pp. 271-289.

Two early elegies of Abu'l-Ala al-Ma'arri from the collection "Saqt al-zand" / / Teoreticheskie problemy vostochnykh literatur [Theoretical problems of Oriental Literature], Moscow: GRVL, 1969, pp. 118-126.

Arab literature / / Literature of the East in the Middle Ages. Textbook for University students, vol. 2. Moscow: MSU, 1970, pp. 213-310.

Essay on Arab-Muslim culture (VII-XII centuries), Moscow: GRVL, 1971, 254 p. (co-authored with B. Ya. Shidfar).

Typological features of Arabic literature of the VII-XII centuries / / Peoples of Asia and Africa. 1971. N 2. pp. 78-88.

Trans. and introductory articles: The life of Sayf the son of King Zu Yazan (Sirat faris al-malik Sayf). Moscow: GRVL, 1975. 605 p.

Arab poetry of the Middle Ages // Arab poetry of the Middle Ages, Moscow, 1975, pp. 697-744.

Preface and a comment. // Folk novel about Sultan al-Zahir Baybars. The life of Sultan al-Zahir Baybars, Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura. 1975. pp. 5-20, 311-316.

Arabic literature in the Middle Ages. Verbal art of the Arabs in the Ancient and Early Middle Ages, Moscow: GRVL, 1977, 290 p.

Arabic literature in the Middle Ages. VIII-IX centuries. Moscow: GRVL, 1978. 255 p.

Foreword, translated from Italian: Arab Medieval Culture and Literature, Moscow: GRVL, 1978, pp. 313, 203-209.

A remarkable poet and thinker of the Medieval East / / Abu'l-Ala al-Ma'arri. Pokhotvoreniya [Poems], Moscow, 1978, pp. 5-13.

Preface and notes: The Parable of the Living, the Son of the Waking One / / Ibn Tufail. The Tale of Hayy ibn Yakzan, Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura, 1978, pp. 5-27, 137-149.

Andalusia in the image of Washington Irving / / Washington Irving. Alhambra, Moscow: GRVL, 1979, pp. 5-22.

Abu Nuwas and Omar ibn Abi Rabia -two genres of Arabic classical poetry / / From classical Arabic poetry, Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura, 1979, pp. 3-15.

Research, transl., publ.: Travel notes of Italian travelers of the XIV century / / Vostok-Zapad, Moscow: GRVL, 1982, pp. 9-17.

Preface and notes: The Treasury of Folk Fantasy. "One thousand and one Nights" / / Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura, 1983. pp. 3-17, 528-540.

Historical soil of the "Thousand and One Nights" / / M. Gerhart. The Art of Narration, Moscow: GRVL, 1984, p. 425 ^ 44.

Uzrit love lyrics and Majnun / / Majnun. Poems about Leila, Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura, 1984, pp. 5-18.

Translated from Arabic, preface, and notes by Abu Ali al-Muhassin al-Tanuhi. Entertaining stories and notable events from the stories of interlocutors, Moscow: GRVL, 1985, 303 p.

* Comp. by E. V. Gushchina.

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Istoriya arabyskoi literatury V - nachalo X veka [History of Arabic literature of the V-early X century]. Moscow: GRVL, 1985, p. 524.

[Sections on the history of Arabic literature] / / History of World Literature, vol. 2-5. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1985-1988, p. 150.

Social function of Arab classicism / / Problems of Arab culture, Moscow: GRVL, 1987, pp. 97-109.

Remarkable Arabist Kharlampiy Karpovich Baranov (1892 - 1980) in science and life // Word about Teachers, Moscow: GRVL, 1988. pp. 298-311.

The concept of unity of religious experience among Arab Sufis / / Sufism in the context of Muslim culture, Moscow, 1989, pp. 28-34.

Poeziya kak forma vyrazheniya arabo-muslimskikh mystikov [Poetry as a form of expression of Arab-Muslim mystics]. Sufizm v kontekste moslemskoi kul'tury [Sufism in the context of Muslim Culture], Moscow, 1989, pp. 222-238.

Issledovanie, per., publ.: Predstavlenie o "otherworldly world" v arabyskoi mifologii i literaturei [The idea of the "other world" in Arabic mythology and literature]. Issue 4. Moscow: GRVL, 1989, pp. 56-64.

Istoriya arabyskoi literatury X-XVIII veka [History of Arabic literature of the X-XVIII century]. Moscow: GRVL, 1991, 726 p.

A fabulous utopia. Skazka ob Abdallakh zemnom i Abdallakh morskom iz "Tysda i odnoi nochi" [The tale of Abdallah the Earth and Abdallah the Sea from the "Thousand and One Nights"]. Sad odnogo tsvetka, Moscow: GRVL, 1991, pp. 120-130.

Problems of confessional unity in the interpretation of Arab-Muslim mystics-Sufis / / Islam and problems of intercivilizational interactions, Moscow, 1994, pp. 286-297.

The rise of Islam and the fate of the Jews in Arabia. Moscow: Noi Publ., 1995, No. 12, pp. 120-126.

Preface: The Verbal art of medieval Arabs / / Zhemchuzhnoye kollezhye, Moscow: Vostochnaya literatura, 1996, pp. 5-17.

Conventionality and reality in the landscape lyrics of as-Sanaubari / / Vestnik MSU. Ser. 13. Vostokovedenie. 1996. N 1. pp. 25-34.

The riddle of al-Hallaj. Experience in psychological analysis // East (Oriens). 1997. N 3. pp. 114-126.

History of the Arabs and the Caliphate (750-1517). Moscow: Muravey-hayd, 1999. 384 p.

Harun ar-Rashid in Life and Folk Fantasy, Moscow: Chelovek, 2000, no 2, pp. 156-168.

History of the Arabs and the Caliphate (750-1517). 2nd ed. Moscow: Muravey-gajd, 2001. 353 p.

History of Arabic Literature, vol. 1-3. Lewiston-N.Y. (USA): Edwin Mellen press, 2001, 1457 p. (in Russian)

The nature and consequences of the "Abbasid Revolution" of 749-1750. Vestn. MSU. Ser. 13. Vostokovedenie. 2002. N 4. P. 3-18.

Preface: The fairytale world of Scheherazade // One Thousand and One Nights, Moscow: ACT Publ., 2003, pp. 5-28.

Esoteric mysticism in the story-parable of Ibn Tufayl "Hai ibn Yakzan" / / Vestn. MSU. Ser. 13. Vostokovedenie. 2004. N 6. 16 p.

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