April 22-24, 2015 at the Eastern Faculty of St. Petersburg.The XXVIII International Conference on Source Studies and Historiography of Asian and African Countries, organized every two years, was held at the State University. This year's meeting of Orientalists and Africanists was held under the slogan: "Asia and Africa in a changing world".

First held back in 1961 as an interuniversity scientific conference of Orientalists in our country, this event has now become perhaps the most representative forum of Russian Orientalists in the entire post-Soviet space.

A total of more than 700 applications were submitted for participation in the 2015 conference. Up to 500 scientific reports were read in 18 working sections. Abstracts of scientific reports were included in the collection (35 p. l.) presented to the conference participants at its opening*.

The geography of scientific contacts that took place was broad. Russian centers of Oriental and African studies were represented by researchers from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Barnaul, Blagoveshchensk, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Kazan, Makhachkala, Novosibirsk, Petrozavodsk, Rostov-on-Don, Simferopol, Tomsk, Ulan-Ude, Ufa, Yaroslavl, etc., Kiev, Donetsk, Minsk, and Tashkent. European science was represented by the universities of Amsterdam and Dublin, Cambridge and Paris, Heidelberg, Munich, Freiburg, Stockholm, Helsinki, etc. Asian and African universities were represented by scientists from China, Korea, Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

At the opening of the conference, the Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Director of the State Hermitage Museum, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the conference, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, made a welcoming speech. RAS M. B. Piotrovsky, Co-chairman of the organizing committee N. N. Dyakov, acad. RAS V. S. Myasnikov (INION), Director of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts I. F. Popov, A. D. Savateev (IAfr. RAS).

Several reports were delivered at the plenary session. Myasnikov ("Problems of East Asia at the Yalta Conference of 1945") suggested that the year 1937, the year of Japan's attack on the Republic of China, should be considered the beginning of World War II, which will help overcome the long-standing Eurocentrism regarding the history of World War II, the beginning of which is still associated with the German attack on Poland on September 1, 1939.

Analyzing new concepts of intercivilizational interaction between the West and the East, N. A. Samoilov (St. Petersburg State University) compared the well-known concept of orientalism by E. Said with the theory of "sinologism" put forward in recent years by Professor Gu Mindong of the University of Texas, which, according to the speaker, can become an alternative to postcolonialism in modern cross-cultural studies [Samoilov, 2015, p. 177].

A. S. Matveev (St. Petersburg)GU) in his report "International Transit Trade and the Mission of Muhammad: the Origins of Islam and the State in Arabia" drew attention to the peculiarities of the political culture of pre-Islamic Arabia. Tribal leaders, as well as Bedouins, did not recognize any political authority over themselves, considering submission to another humiliating

* XXVIII International Scientific Conference on Source Studies and Historiography of Asian and African Countries "Asia and Africa in a Changing World". April 22-24, 2015 / Ed. by N. N. Dyakov, A. S. Matveev. SPb.: VF SPb.GU, 2015. 556 p. The publication was carried out with the financial support of the Confucius Institute in St. Petersburg.State University, Academy of Korean Studies (Republic of Korea), project AK. S-2010-CAA-2101, as well as RGNF, project N 15-01-14056. http://ivran.ru/novosti?artid=1610.

for men. Only a cleric, the Messenger of Allah Muhammad, managed to unite Arabia. Such submission to the Prophet was not considered shameful, for it was seen as submission not to man, but to God.

A.D. Savateev spoke about the Russian strategic initiative: the creation of the Afro-Asian International Energy Institute on the basis of the Institute of Africa.

A unique musical greeting to the conference participants was a speech by Ilhan Ozkecesi, Professor of Istanbul Technical University, who performed ancient folk melodies of Asia Minor on the unique stringed instrument tarab, which he personally restored.

The range of works presented at the conference was more impressive than ever and covered the problems of historiography and source studies, literary studies, linguistics in all epochs of the history of the East and Africa: from ancient times to modern times.

For obvious reasons that are not only academic in nature, the participants were particularly interested in research on the historiography of the Middle East. This time, due to the large number of applications, it was decided to divide the Middle East section into two subgroups: 1) materials on sources and historiography of the Middle East from ancient to modern times and 2) historiography of the modern history of the Middle East. These sections were headed by N. N. Dyakov and K. A. Zhukov (St. Petersburg State University). Middle Eastern researchers included scientists from Russia, Azerbaijan, Germany, Israel, Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

As expected, a large group of presentations was devoted to the problems of the historiography of modern Yemen (V. N. Blondin, L. M. Isaev, M. A. Rodionov, A.V. Moiseeva, T. A. Bokov), materials of field research on the Sudan (Yu. Y. Vidakas, I. V. Gerasimov, V. G. Popov, A. A. Satarov), sources on the history of Egypt, Lebanon, the Maghreb countries, Turkey, etc. (V. R. Atnashev, N. N. Dyakov, N. A. Zherlitsyna, A. Yu. Korovkina, G. V. Lukyanov, N. V. Sukhov, A. A. Sotnichenko, etc.).

The active participation of scientists from Turkey in the conference has become traditional in recent years. Considerable interest and lively discussion was aroused, in particular, by the speech of a graduate of the Graduate School of St. Petersburg.Mustafa Ozturk, currently a lecturer at the Akdeniz Mediterranean University (Antalya), is dedicated to the impact of the Syrian civil war on the current socio-economic situation in Turkey. "It is likely that the civil war in the neighboring country will have a negative impact on the economic and social processes in Turkey for a long time to come... M. Ozturk emphasized. "In this regard, diplomatic contacts on the Syrian crisis are of particular importance for Turkey, not only with Western partners, but also with Iran and Russia."

The section on Source Studies of Afghanistan and Iran was dedicated to the memory of the outstanding Russian orientalist-Afghanist A. L. Grunberg-Tsvetinovich (1930-1995). The section was headed by M. S. Pelevin and included presentations on various aspects and stages of the historiography of the history of Afghanistan and Iran (I. V. Bazilenko, V. S. Boyko, O. V. Vasilyeva, O. A. Vodneva, S. E. Grigoriev, G. D. Daushvili, G. S. Kharatishvili, etc.).

An active discussion accompanied the work of the sections of source studies and historiography of the Caucasus (head-A.M. Farzaliyev) and Central Asia (T. I. Sultanov).

One of the most representative was the section of Chinese source studies and historiography (more than 60 participants; head-B. G. Doronin), dedicated to the memory of one of the founders of this forum, the famous Russian Sinologist historian L. A. Berezny (1915-2005).

Problems of historiography at all stages of the history of India and Indochina were discussed under the guidance of V. N. Kolotov and I. Y. Kotin. The South-East Asia section presents reports: D. V. Vozchikov (Ur.FU) "Ten thousand elephants": an elephant in the states of South-East Asia according to the descriptions of two Venetian travelers of the XV-XVI centuries"; E. Yu. Knorozova (St. Petersburg.GU) "On the issue of Vietnamese traditional anthologies"; O. V. Novakova (ISAA) "Alexander de Rod: at the Origins of the Vietnamese Catholic Church"; A. A. Sokolova (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) "Phan Boi Chau's book" Chronicle of My Life "as a historical source and literary work"; V. N. Kolotov (St. Petersburg.A. A. Sokolov described Phan Boy Chau's book "Chronicle of My Life" as a memoir that contains valuable information about the history of the Vietnamese national liberation movement, including the links between the Vietnamese revolutionary Democrats and representatives of Soviet Russia/ USSR. In the report of A. O. Zakharov (IB RAS), the following topics were discussed in detail:

The article analyzes the political organization and social institutions of the ancient Khmer people, in particular, the lists of Knims of representatives of the lower social classes (VII-VIII centuries).

V. V. Rybin (1948-2014), led by L. V. Filippov, the section of Source studies and Historiography of Korea (headed by S. O. Kurbanov), Mongol Studies, Tibetology and Buddhology (headed by V. L. Uspensky), and source studies of the Ancient East (headed by N. V. Kozyreva).

An important section of the conference is traditional readings on African studies in memory of an outstanding scientist, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Academy of Sciences of the USSR D. A. Olderogge (1903-1987); head - A. Y. Zheltov. The problems of modern Ethiopian studies were discussed at a separate meeting of African studies dedicated to the memory of S. B. Chernetsov (1943-2005).

Another memorial section, "Nomads of Eurasia", was dedicated to the legacy of the largest Russian Turkologist S. G. Klyashtorny (1928-2014). The relevance of nomadism issues was also developed in the framework of the" round table "" Nomads: habitat, lifestyle, historical patterns, the nomad-settled dichotomy", held on the initiative of A. S. Matveev (St. Petersburg State University) and K. V. Chugunov (State Hermitage Museum).

Along with orientalists and historians, the St. Petersburg Conference on Source Studies and Historiography has been attracting more and more orientalists and philologists in recent years. The sections "Languages of Asian and African countries" (headed by R. A. Yanson) and " Literature of Asian and African countries "(coordinated by M. N. Suvorov and D. I. Mayatsky) presented reports on topical issues of linguistics and literary studies in Afghanistan and Iran, the Caucasus, Turkey, the Arab East, India, and Indonesia, China, Mongolia, Thailand, etc.

The problems of historiography of intercivilizational contacts between the peoples of Russia and the East were discussed at a meeting of the corresponding section, which was headed by N. A. Samoilov. The report of a young researcher from Assiut University, D. Salah Riad Osman, on the development of Soviet-Egyptian relations under President H. A. Nasser (1956-1970), aroused considerable response. Relying on little-studied documents, the author has largely re-examined the visits of the Egyptian president to Moscow in 1968 and 1970, and their impact on relations between the two countries during a fateful period in the modern history of Egypt and the entire Arab world.

New approaches and methods of Islamic studies were discussed at the section " Historiography of Islam in Russia "(head-A. K. Bustanov, St. Petersburg State University). Some innovative presentations were made at the meeting of the section "Arabic language and Digital technologies in Islamic Studies "(head O. I. Redkin). In studies of Arabic handwritten monuments, as a rule, their traditional characteristics are given (authorship, localization, subject matter, library code, and other familiar parameters). Meanwhile, O. I. Redkin emphasized that there are a number of indicators available for instrumental analysis that could improve the objectivity and accuracy of codicological analysis. These indicators include " the density of handwritten text, the representation features of individual graphemes, the color palette of the text, the proportional arrangement of graphic elements relative to each other, the ratio of text and margins, the layout of the sheet, etc."

One of the" round tables " at the conference was devoted to the anthropology of traditionalism. The audience was very interested in the report of the head of the "round table" V. V. Bocharov "East and traditionalism", in which he analyzed the evolution of views on traditionalism in Eastern society on the example of scientific schools in Russia, the West and the East. "The current division of the world into West and East reflects not geographical location, but cardinal differences in the models of historical development of mankind, manifested in economics, politics, and law... A sociocultural feature of the East is traditionalism...".

As at previous meetings of this kind, there was a "School of Young Orientalists" (headed by M. A. Azarkina), where students, undergraduates, and postgraduates from universities presented reports on a wide range of topics related to documents on the history and culture of the peoples of Asia and Africa (more than 50 reports), and some of the student messages were delivered by the following specialists: to the main working sessions. So, the report of a student of the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg looked quite mature.M. A. Kolesnikova State University, dedicated to the policy of Turkey on the African continent. It was noted, in particular, that as a result, the "Plan of Action for Africa" put forward in 1998 at the initiative of the Turkish Foreign Ministry brings considerable dividends to Ankara today in the political, economic and humanitarian spheres.

The traditional meeting of Orientalists was held on the days of the 100th anniversary of the tragic events in the history of the Armenian people, Christians of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. In his speech at the closing ceremony of the conference, Mikhail Piotrovsky recalled this sad page in the history of the peoples of Near Asia and Russia, emphasizing the inadmissibility of repeating such acts of mass violence in the XXI century.

The Organizing Committee of the XXVIII International Conference on Source Studies and Historiography of Asian and African Countries expressed its deep gratitude to the Confucius Institute in St. Petersburg for its support in organizing the event.State University, Academy of Korean Studies (Republic of Korea), Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation (RGNF).

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