Suchergebnisse

The article examines the provenance of two Judeo-Persian manuscripts from the collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS (C40 Hebrew) and the National Library of Russia (Evr. IV 150). Both manuscripts were restored in the 19th century, apparently by one master. However, in the 20th century these manuscripts ended up in St. Petersburg in completely different ways: one was bought in Europe in 1904, while the other was brought to Leningrad from Uzbekistan only in 1975. The provenance of both manuscripts can allow us to trace their history in the 20th century, and can help us to answer another question – if we can confirm that these two codexes of Shahin's poems were restored by the same person. The first manuscript was sold to the Asian Museum by Dr. Yahuda from Germany, a Jerusalemite Jew who became one of the leading figures for Jewish education in Europe, a bookseller and collector of oriental manuscripts. Apparently, he purchased the manuscript in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 20th century, while a large number of Bukharian Jews emigrated to Palestine and Shimon Hakham published a distinguished number of Judeo-Persian literature that made it rather popular that time. The second manuscript was sold by its owners in 1975. The manuscript most likely did not leave the territory of presentday Uzbekistan before that. I failed to find any documents describing the reasons that prompted the owners to part with this codex. Unfortunately, given the number of gaps in the provenance, the question of whether the same master restored both manuscripts remains open.

The urbanization of Ancient India dates back to the middle of the first millennium BCE. In the early days, urban culture was influenced by unorthodox religious movements from the East of India, and by social practices adopted from western Hellenistic states. Urban culture contributed to the genesis and spread of scripts and literacy in India. It was in urban spaces and at royal courts that Sanskrit evolved from the oral language of Brahmanic ritualism to the written language of the cosmopolis, the language of literature and philosophy. By the beginning of CE, urban spaces in India became the place of modernization of Brahmanism. Arts and theoretical disciplines blossomed in towns and at royal courts. Urban educational practices were focused on practical disciplines and on skills connected with aesthetic pleasure. The basis of education was reading and writing. Urban culture in the 1st millennium CE was multireligious. Buddhist universities at the monasteries were leading educational centers supported by kings, including the non-Buddhist ones. Buddhist philosophy was taught there along with traditional Brahmanic and lay disciplines (grammar, normative poetics, etc.). Therefore, the urban space in ancient India was the place of mutual interaction between Brahmanical, Buddhist, and secular scholarship as well as educational traditions. It was in towns, at Buddhist monasteries and royal courts that written culture and the corresponding educational practices were established.

The concept of class (saṃgraha) was introduced in the philosophy of Yogācāra as an element of logical structure of Buddhist discourse for the classification of sets of dharmas (skandha, dhātu, āyatana) rather dharmas themselves. This classification, added to the traditional classification of dharmas by groups (skandha), elements (dhātu) and bases of consciousness (āyatana), provided more detailed classification of states of consciousness according to Buddhist dogmatic principles aimed at the attainment of nirvāṇa. Asanga in the «Compendium of Abhidharma» (Abhidharma-samuccaya) formulates eleven classes defining them by their mutual relations, their relations to time and space and by their emotional aspect relevant to the final enlightenment. Nevertheless they are nothing more than mental constructions formed for more exact description of mind in the perspective of enlightenment. Dharmas are the only reality in Buddhist philosophy, and enlightenment comes when appearance and disappearance of the conditioned dharmas stops and only the unconditional dharma remains. It is the treasure trove, and it is free from affects and determined dispositions. So, classes do not describe the true reality (tathatā) as it is understood in Mahāyāna Buddhism and are but instruments for the transformation of adept's mind.