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ISSN: 0898-6827 A A C A R B U L L E T I N of the Association for the Advancement of Central Asian Research Editor: H. B. PAKSOY Vol. IV, No. 2, Fall 1991 EDITORIAL ADDRESS: BOX 2321 AMHERST, MA 01004 BOOKS FOR REVIEW, NEWS ITEMS AND COMMUNICATIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO THE EDITOR. IN THIS ISSUE -- Sultan H seyin Baykara (r. 1469-1506), RISALE-I HUSEYIN BAYKARA. In commemoration of the 550th anniversary of Ali Shir Navai (1441-1501). -- Alfred Rehder, SAKSAUL -- SURVEY OF CENTRAL ASIA RELATED ACADEMIC PROGRAMS AND COURSEWORK IN NORTH AMERICA -- News of the Profession -- Bibliography -- Book Reviews INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIP IN AACAR is available to qualified individuals through the payment of tax- deductible, annual dues covering January 1 - December 31, includes subscription to AACAR BULLETIN (issued twice annually: Spring and Fall). 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Please see above for details. 4 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) RISALE-I H SEYIN BAYKARA Central Asians are currently celebrating the 550th birth anniversary of the acclaimed Central Asian poet and statesman Ali Shir Navai (1441-1501). AACAR BULLETIN joins the celebration by reproducing in transliteration the contents of a pamphlet written in Navai's lifetime praising Navai's work. Due to technical difficulties (none of which would have constituted an obstacle, save for the limitations of our budget), the Chaghatay text below cannot contain all of the appropriate diacritics. For the same reasons, at times some superfluous diacritics have also crept in. For those with facility in the original Chaghatay, we trust this would but be a minor irritant. To our knowledge there is no translation of this work. Reportedly of Uyghur descent, Navai was one of the premier literati and statesman of his time, wrote voluminously and with apparent ease in Chaghatay, a Turkish dialect, and Persian, and concomitantly was the long serving 'prime minister' (perhaps better described as the boon companion) of the Timurid H seyin Baykara (r. 1469-1506) of Herat and Khorasan. Much of his writings remain untranslated.[1] In 1500, zbeks --a newly constituted confederation on the historical pattern of previous Turkish confederations[2]-- of Shibani (a.k.a. Shaybani) Khan entered Transoxiana. Shibani Khan declared the end of the Timurids. Shibani himself fell in battle in 1510, fighting against the Safavids (dynasty r. 1501-1736)[3] of Shah Ismail (r. 1501-1524). Shah Ismail was in return defeated by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I (r. 1512-1520) at Chaldiran, in 1514.[4] Shibani and zbeks also fought Bab r, founder of the "Moghul" empire in India,[5] portions of which events are covered in Baburnama.[6] Bab r sought and received the aid of Shah Ismail and his kizilbash Safavids. 5 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) A direct descendant of Timur (d. 1405), Sultan H seyin Baykara (r. 1469-1506), ruled Herat and Khorasan.[7] The politics of the place and period was apparently such that Baykara saw it fit to praise Navai in writing. The occasion must have been after Navai completed his MUHAKEMAT AL-LUGHATEYN, in which the relative merits of Turkish (in its T rki, otherwise known as Chaghatay, dialect spoken in Central Asia) and Persian are discussed.[8] The method of arguments adumbrated in that work can not necessarily hold in today's environment. However, the implications are clear. Navai, as well as Baykara, are making their positions clear: they are on the side of T rki. Earlier, under the patronage of Sultan Mahmud of the Turkish Ghaznavid dynasty,[9] the Persian poet Firdawsi collected the fragments of the old Persian epics and reworked them into his SHAHNAMA.[10] This pamphlet by Baykara was first discovered in a regional library of the Turkish Republic, bound with the works of another medieval author. It appears to be the only known copy. The facsimile of the Baykara pamphlet and its Latin alphabet transliteration were published in the Turkish Republic by I. Ertaylan, immediately after the Second World War. Compliments of the AACAR BULLETIN, facsimiles of the original of this pamphlet and its Latin alphabet transliteration, have been sent separately to various educational and research institutions in Central Asia. We trust that they will be made available to the rest of Central Asians, as a part of this year long Navai celebration. NOTES: 1. For the collected works of Navai, see A. S. Levend, ALI SIR NEVAI (Ankara, 1965-68) 4 Vols. T rk Dil Kurumu Yayini. See also ENCYCLOPEDIA ISLAM. 6 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) 2. See H. B. Paksoy, "Z. V. Togan: The Origins of the Kazaks and the zbeks" presented to the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies. (Chicago. April 6, 1990). 3. Roger M. Savory, IRAN UNDER THE SAFAVIDS (Cambridge University Press, 1980). 4. S. J. Shaw & E. K. Shaw, HISTORY OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND MODERN TURKEY (Cambridge University Press, 1976-1978) Two Vols. Second Printing 1978. 5. For the period, see Lt. Col. Sir Wolseley Haig & Sir Richard Burn (Eds.) THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA (Cambridge, 1922-1953), Vol III, TURKS AND AFGHANS (Cambridge, 1928). M. G. S. Hodgson, in his THE VENTURE OF ISLAM: CONSCIENCE AND HISTORY IN A WORLD CIVILIZATION (Chicago, 1974), 3 Vols., suggests that the above cited 1928 volume should now be corrected with other readings. See also V. Smith, OXFORD HISTORY OF INDIA (Oxford, 1958). 6. THE BABUR-NAMA IN ENGLISH, (Memoirs of Babur) Anette S. Beveridge, Tr. (London, 1922). It has been reprinted in 1969. 7. W. Barthold, FOUR STUDIES ON THE HISTORY OF CENTRAL ASIA Vol. II, ULUG BEG. (Leiden, 1963). 8. Ali Shir Navai, MUHAKEMAT AL-LUGHATEYN, Robert Devereux (Tr.) (Leiden, 1966). 9. C. E. Bosworth, THE GAZNAVIDS: THEIR EMPIRE IN AFGHANISTAN AND EASTERN IRAN, 994-1040 (Beirut, 1973) (2nd Ed.) 7 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) 10. Theodor N ldeke, (Tr.) (Bombay, 1930). RISALE-I H SEYIN BAYKARA Subhanahu ve ta'ala. Hamd sena ol padisahlar padisahiga, kim her padisah, kim andin azimrak m mkin bolmagay, anin seraperde-i azamet u celali tigresinde kemine geda durur. Huday ki her sah-i enc m-sipah Aning dergehide ir r kah-i rah Callat azamatuhu ve celaluhu ve ammat makramatuhu ve navaluhu ve d r d-i bi intiha ol risalat tahtgahinin mesned-nisinige kim her taht-giri, ki meh e-i livasi koyasdin tkey, anin saye-i alemide sefaathah-i binevadurur. Resuli kim r s ld r bar a hayli Ir r kevn u mekan aning tufeyli Sallallahu alayhi ve ala alihi ve hulafa'ihi ve ashabihi. Bu rakamning rakimi ve bu tahrirning muharriri S rgen bu varak y zige hame Bir gam-zede-i siyahname Al muhta ila rahmatillahi'l-Malik al-gafur, fakir-i hakir Sultan Huseyn bin Mansur mundak beyan kilur kim, n Tengri tabaraka ve ta'ala kainatni ademdin v cudga likturdu ve mahlukatning yokin bar kildu, bari aferinisdin maksud insan irdi, kim andin haber bir r. Ba v cud ol, kim beni Ademni cemi'i mahlukatga m kerrem 8 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) kildi, kim mundin artuk mertebe bola almas. Ve mundin biyik r tbeni akil baver likmas; velikin bu nimet s krin eda kilganda vade kildi, kim inayetni taze ve nimet bi-endaze kilgay, kim bu maniga muhbir durur. Eger i aning nimetlerining s kri edasida kisining her ser-i muy bir til ve alardin her til hejd m ming senaga kayil bolsa, andak kim sezavar durur. S kr-i nimet becay kilt rmek m mkin irmes velikin her kisi z hod haliga s kr-i nimet eda kilmay hem bolmas. Nazim: Aning s krin ayturda bolma mel l zi bils n er kilsa red ya kabul Nikim Tengri emr etti me'mursin Veli evvelce m mkin turur sa'y kil Ki huy eylegey Tengri S krige til Emma ger i halayikga s kr vacib turur velikin n ayet- i kerime sabit turur. Mundin malum bolur, kim hedaya ve ni'am tagi m tefavit bolgay. Si'ir: Hak nuri bile eger i r sen-d r cem Hursid bile velik teng bolmadi sem Bes ka an, kim insanning hilkati meratibide tafav t zahir ve Hak ta'alaning ni'met ve ihsanida dagi her kisige z makduriga g re in'am kilgan cihetdin tefav d araga kirdi. Elbette kirek, kim s kr edasida tagi tefav t bolgay. Siir: Gedaga s kr isi bolgay gedaca Velikin padisaha padisaca 9 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Pers yakin, boldi kim padisahlar, kim alarni Hak Ta'ala alem m lkide tac-bahs u taht-nisin kildi, belki zillullah-i fil'l-arzayn itti, h k mleri alem ilige revan ve dehr ili kulluklarida natuvan. Beyt: Kaslarida halk isi efkendelik Emirleriga il itib bendelik Mukarrer turur, kim bu cemaatga s kr-i nimet edasi efzunrak ve s kr-g zarlik tili uzunrak kirek bolgay ve bu salatin arasida tagi ba'zidan ba'ziga tevaf t bar. Nidin, kim Hayy-i Kadir ve padisah-i bi vezirning inayeti bar aga yeksan bolmadi. Ve ting-dest birmedi. Ol cema'atdin kim alarga s kr-i ni'met baridin k prek vacib-turur. Hayalga andak kil r, kim biri bu fakir-i natuvan ve bu sikeste-i bisaman turur, kim eger y z ming yil mr tapib y z ming til bile s kr-g zarlik kilsam, aning in'amining y z mingidin birige eda-yi s kr kila almagaymin. Ni e tagi bu nev bolsa, hatir tiler, kim ol kerem u inayet ve ol eltaf-i binihayetning k ridin azi beyanga kilgey; belki mingdin biri kalem tili bile varak y zige bitilgeni ol c mledin biri bu, kim eger i ba'zi selatinga bu sikeste bendesidin k prek memleket ve cah ve hezayin ve sipah birdi; velikin alarning k nglige bu cihetdin gurur yol tapdi ve s kr g zarlik iside f tur y zlendi. Bu fakirge himmeti nasib kildi, kim y z alarga birgence sevket ve milk k ngl mni magrur kila almas ve ubudiyyetim esbabiga kkusur salmas. Eger alarding ba'zinin itimadi aning lutf u keremiga boldi ve eger alardin ba'zini dena'et-i neseb cihetidin mat'un kildi. Emma bu za'ifning yitti ve belki yitmis ataga a aba u ecdadimin saltanat ve belki vilayetga m serref ve makrun itti. Eger basidin saltanat bheti ve gururidin fakrul fena ehliga istigna ve ser b lendlig yitk rdi. Bu natuvandin ol rafi'ussan g ruhga hakisarlik bile niyazmendlik yitk rdi. Beyt: 10 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Ger alem ilige sah kildi Fakr ehliga haki rah kildi. Ve bazi hem bolgay kim, alarni hilye-i z hd u ta'at araste ve ziver-i ilm u belagat bile piraste kilib turur. Ve likin bi sikestening hatiriga bu tarikni m stahsen ve dilpezir ve ol azizlerni makbul u binazir k rk zdi ve alar ruhiga mindin fatiha bile istimdad ve ol ruhaniyyetlerdin mining isimge k p f tuh k sad tig rdi ve ba'zining zamanida ihtiyarlik evlad-i barif'at ve itibarlik erkan-i devletdin fukara ve mesakinge ve ri'aya-yi mesakkat ayinga zulm-i bihad ve te'addi-i bi'aded boldi. Bu ftadening asrida fukara u mesakin bu gamlardin sad ve ri'aya-yi namurad bu kayidlardin azad boldi. Ve ba'zinin zamanida sud r-i zulm-pise ve nuvvab-i haric-endise evkafni bozdilar ve aning hasili bile meclis-i ays u tarab yasab neva-yi fisk u f cur t zdiler. Bu miskin evkafga muta'ayyin kilgalar bari harablarni ma'mur ve istihkak ehlin saduman u mesrur kildilar. Ve alar zamanida evkaf bozulgan cihedtin talebe mgm m ve m derris mahrum bolsa hala s k r, kim darussaltana'da tahmina y z havza-i ders bolgay, kim faza'yil-i diniyye ve ulum-i yakiniyye ukar ve Rum aksasidin in serhaddiga digince demi Islam biladidin kabil talibler bu avaze ve m zakere-i biendazeni isidib, gurbet masakkatin ihtiyar kilib bu tahtgaha y zlen rler. Tagi Tengri inayetidin evkaf hasili bar aning harc mukabelesiga yiter ve r zgarlari feragat bile ter ve bu mezk r bolgan m derrisliga yakin hanikah bolgay, kim her kaysida ihtiyac ehli bigayet ve istihkak hayli binihayet horsend u behrmend bolurlar. Ve eger ol zamanlar vakrak i havfidin tacir-i mahacir ve kutta ul-tahrik bimidin sayir guraba ve m safir meskendin bir maksadga ve vatandin bir mabedga yitmekde k p su det ve bihad uk bet k rerler irdi. Bu zamanda siyaset sarsari ol 11 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) mahz l kavning v cudi has u hasakin memalik destidin it r b turur; belki duzeh atesgedesiga tig r b turur. Ve m safirga her menzilde bir ribat-i rh nihad belki emniyyet i n bir kal'a-i sipihr-b nyad savuklarda reh neverdlerga andin vaye ve isigda cihan-gerdlerga andin saya saya ve pehahdin baska tagi her dilhan anda hasil ve tilegen nime asanlik bile vasil ve her kaysida ehl-i tesad def'i ve kutta ul-tarik men'i n sipahidin fevci ve m te'ayyen yasaglikdin g ruhi m temekkin ve eger ba'zinin vaktida mesacidisikleri medaris ve cemaat ehli cemaat ilkide mahbus irdi. Bu fakir zamanida muhasibler fikri mesacid hisabiga yetismes ve bav cud bu cemaat ehli anda sigismas; her kaysiga anca revnak ve ihtiram ki ka'be-i mu'azzamada Mescid-i Haram ve eger ba'zi eyyamda ser ahkamiga ve Islam ehl-i bid'at hayliga zir-dest irken bolsa, bu eyyamda seri'at-i i Nebevi ve ahkam i Mustafavi bazusi andak kavi turur kim yakind r, kim ihtisab ehli nci felekde Z hre m gannie ni ura urgaylar ve berbat u engini yirge urub sindurgaylar. Yine isler hem k pd r, kim fasili s zge mucib-i tatvil ve tahriri ba'is-i kal-u kil bolur. Bu nev umurdin baska ve bu tavr halatdin ayru tagi Hak subhanahu ve tea'la bu nahif bendesining saltanati zamanida bir ni e kisige cilye-i z hur birib-turur ve bu fakir mecliside alardin tesrif-i h zur erzani tutubdur kim, alarning v cudidin bu zaman cemi ezminega racih turur. Ve bu devran bar a devirlerdin m mtaz, ki bular tagi mucib i k p eday-i s kr turur, ki andin natika tili lal ve kalem tili sikeste-mekal durur. Ve ol c mlening alem ve elzafi, fezatil deryasining d rr-i paki ve velayet eflakining hursid-i tabnaki nazm cevahirining sahib-i intizami, hazret-i sayh al-Islam Mevlana Abdurrahman Cami sallahu'llahu ve ibka turur, kim ta felek-i kadimi nihad savabit ve seyyardin y z ming k z bile alem ehlige nazir turur. K zige andak nadir hayal kilmemis ve ta mihr-i cihan-numa belki hursid-i sipihr peyma cihan devriga sayir durur; 12 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) pertevi hergiz anirg tig adim al-misal stige t smemis; cevahir-i bazmidin cihan sadeli tola d rr-i semin ve leali nesridin eflak atlasiga zib u tezyin, tesanifi cemi-i ulumda bihad ve her tasnifde bezayin-i ma'ani bi'aded. Siir: u mizan-i tab'i bolub genc-senc Anga bir terazu kilib Penc-Gen Ki hayran kalib nazm kilgan agi Anga yok ki Husrev Nizami tagi Lutf-amiz gazelleri sur-engiz ve sur-engiz beytleri lutf-amiz, kim k p yillar Hak subhanahu ve ta'ala alarning saye-i irsadin berdevam ve bu devlet eyyamiga anin tik sahib-i devletni m stedam tutsun. Ve yine hem nazm ehlidin hos-guyluk evcining s heyli bolur dik kisiler bar. Ve letafet-i nazm-i dastan ve metanet-i terkib i beyanida alem ili alarning tufeyli bolur dik felek mevcud turur, kim burun alar dik felek cilve birgen irmes. Ve hala tagi hi yirde kimse alarning nisan birmes. Ve Herat sanaha 'ilahu ani 'lafat ve nevahi side evvelce hatirga kil r ve evvelce sadik al- kavi ve sahib-vuk f il arzga tig r rlerse bir migge yakin kisi, kim alarning isi ma'ani d rrlerin nazm silkige tartmak bolgay ve dikkat g herlerige vezn libasi zib u zinetin birmek bolgay, kim hic devirde bular dik ilning melikdin edna ve hic de nuridin yiri yok irken durur. Ve bu ismi mezkur bolganlar ve evsali mest r bolganlar farisi nazm enc mni bezm t zgen ve farisi-g yluk bahriga asinalik k rk zkenler durur. Ve likin ma'ani ebkariga bu k nge digince hi kisi t rkane libas kiyd rmegen ve ol nazeninlernibu ziba hil'at bile cilve-i Z hurge kit rmegen turur ve bu m sk-bu ra'nalar tab nihan-haneside uryanlikdin mahcub kalgan durur. Ta bu ferhunde-zaman ve bu huceste-devran, kim bu natuvanning bari il k n mdin ve 'cavari kisi karamdin kulluk silkidin k k ltaslik payesiga yitgen ve 13 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) m lazemet tarikidin musahabet sermayesin eyitgen harem keb teri dik perde-saray halvetide mahrem ve surahi bati dik sebistan suhbetide hemdem hak s z edasida delir ya'ni Mir Ali Sir aslaha 'lahu sanahu, kim tehallusi Nevay 'ga meshur durur ve es'arida bu tehallus mestur T rk tilining lgen cesediga Mesih enfasi bile ruh ki rdi. Ve ol ruh tapkanlarga t rki ayin elfaz tar u pudidin tokulgan h lle ve harir kiyd rdi ve s z g listanida nev-bahar tab'idin revanasa yaginlar bile rengarenk g ller a ti ve nazm deryasiga sehab-i fikretidin ruh-perver katreler bile g nag n d rrler sa ti. Her sinif si'r meydaniga, kim tekav r s rdi, ol kisverni tig i zeban bile z hayta-i tasarrufiga kiy -virdi. Aning nazmi vasfida til kasir ve beyan aciz turur. Hatirga zining mesnevileridin nice beyt kil r, kim bu aytila-durgan ma'nide nazmi kilib turur ve ol budur. Mesnevi: Min ol min, ki ta T rk-i bi-dadidur bu til birle ta nazm b nyadidur felek k rmedi min kimi nadiri Nizami kimi nazm ara kadiri ni nazmi dir irsem mini derd-nak ki her lafzi bolgay anin d rr-i pak Huda yitk r r anca s r'at manga ki bolmas birige firsat manga bu meydanda Firdevsi ol g rd ir r ki ger kilse R stem cevabin bir r rakam kildi ferhunde Sehname-i ki sindi cevabida her hame-i m sellem turur g yya bu isi ki ma'razga kilmey turur her kisi didi z tili birle ol kan-i gen ki si sal burdam be-Sehname renc ani dirge bolsa ka an ragbetim ir r an a Hak lutfidin kuvvetim ki ger ni e tab bolsa kamil-suray 14 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) bitilgeymin otuz yilin otuz ay eger has-i ma'ni ger iham ir r anin k nde y z beyti helvam ir r ni Sehname kim hamsega ursam il anin ni esi sari yitk rsem il midim bu kim eyleben feth-i bab kolum birgey ol ni ege tagi tab otuz yil, ki ani Nizami dimis, kasda ir r iki yillik is ka an ani dir bezmini t zgemin dimekni halayikga k rk zgemin Ol vakt ki bu ebyat aning tab'idin bas urub irdi, il kasida sa'irane laf ve madihane g zal k r n r irdi. Ve al-hak n bu humayun firsatda ve bu ruz-efzun devletde hamse-i pen esiga ilig urdu ve aning itmamiga cidd kilt rdi. Eger i Seyh Nizami nazm ehlinin ustadi-dur, Azer hamsesin meshur budur, kim otuz yilda tekmil birib turur. Ve Mir Hosrev kim hamse ebyati 'adeddin otuz mingdin on sekiz mingge ihtisar kilib turur ve s hreti mundak durur kim, alti yitti yilda t ketib turur. Bu fesahat meydanining safderi ve belagat pisesining gazanferi ba-v cud ol, kim k p efsanelerde dil-pezir tefsirler buyurdi ve tab-pesend islahlar kildi. B nyadining ibtidasindin sivadining intihasiga a hemana iki yildin tmedi. Ve aytilgan evkat bisabga kirse, dise bolgay, kim alti ayga yitmedi, kim aning efsaneleri renginligin ve ebyati sihr-ayinligin ve terakibi metanenin ve ma'anisi letafetin mutala'a kilgan kisi bilgey ve m lahaza kilgan kisi fehm kilgay yok, kim mesnevi slubida bil, kim her sinif nazm, kim Arab f sahasi ve Acem b lagasi tezyin birib dururlar ve tedyin kilib tururlar. Bu hem bercaga hame s r b durur ve ta'arruz yitk r b turur, kim serhi divanining fihristide mezk r ve mestur turur. Ni divan Allah Allah cengi, kim safi elfazdin tola g her bolgay ve sipihr evraki, kim pak ma'anidin memlu hasr bolgay. 15 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Dime divan, gam u derd ehliga afet di ani K ymek u su'le-i gam birle kiyamet di ani Kaysi beyti, kim isk ehli camga ot urmas ve kaysi mazmuni, kim hicran hayli cismin k nd rmes, belki k lin k kge savirmas. Kaysi misra'i, kim firak ciger hunining bagri kanin tamizmas. Ve kaysi lafzi, kim hicran dermandesi eski seli bile sabr u sekib hamsin akimas. Nazm iklimide kaysi birk kurganga k kilt rdi, kim isigi aning y zige a ilmadi ve kaysi azim kisverga tab erigi bileterk-taz saldi, kim feth kilmadi. Bu k n nazm erkanining rub-i meskunida kahramanol turur ve bu memalik fethiga sahib kiran ani diseler bolur. Si'ir: r r s z milkining kisversitani kayu kisversitan hosrev nisani dime hosrev nisan kim kahramani ir r ger in diseng sahib-kirani Bu yanglig garayib asar ve bedayi si'arning huruci bu evletde Zuhuri bu saltanatda bolgan, kim Hak subhanahu ve ta'ala ani bu dergah-i felak-misal kullugining arifi ve bu zat i melek-hisal medahlarining nazimi kaldi. Hem mucib k p s kr turur. Ruba'iyye: ya Rab, koyu s kringi eda kilgaymin! ni til bile ani ibtida kilgaymin! y z canim eger bolsa fida kilgaymin disem ki eda boldi hata kilgaymin Ya Rab, mini kullugungga kadir eyle! ger yitse bela derd sabir eyle; yadingga tagi i imni zakir eyle In'amingga hem tilimni zakir eyle. Tamma bi'l-hayr tam sud Risale-i Sultan H seyn Mirzay Baykara. Al-hakir fakir Alivirdi ibn (___?) Kuli. 16 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) * * * SAKSAUL SAKSAUL (Saxoul/ Holoxylon/ Ammodendron) is a plant often mentioned in literature connected with Central Asia. It is primarily used as fuel in Central Asia. However, SAKSAUL often occupies a prominent place in Central Asian literature. With that in mind, what follows is the botanical description of this Central Asian native, as described in Alfred Rehder, MANUAL OF CULTIVATED TREES AND SHRUBS (NY: Macmillan, 1940). For locating and making available this entry, AACAR BULLETIN would like to thank Dr. Oswald Tippo, Botany Department of the UMASS-Amherst, and William C. Burger, Curator, Department of Botany, FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, Chicago. Holoxylon -- Shrubs or small trees with articulate branches, leaves reduced to small scales; flowers perfect, axillary, with 2 broad bracts; sepals 5, free; stamens 2-5, inserted on a lobed disk; stigmas 2-5: flower globose or cylindrical, surrounded by the accrescent sepals, all or some with a horizontal wing or back; seed horizontal; embryo spirally coiled. (Hal- salt; xylon- wood; referring to the saline habitat. About 10 species from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. Haloxylon Ammodendron - Saxoul. Shrub or tree to 6 meters, with thick gnarled trunk; light green, slender: scales short-triangular, obtusish, connate, puberulous inside: fruiting calyx with large suborbicular wings. Ural to Persia and Turkestan. Closely related genus: Anabasis L. Herbs or small shrubs: branches articulate, with opposite, terete, often scale-like leaves: flowers 17 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) with small, sometimes subulate, bracts; stamens 5; fruiting calyx with horizontal wings, rarely without; seed vertical. About 18 species from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. Anabasis Tatarica: Shrub to 0.5 m., with upright green branches, leaves scale-like, connate, pubescent inside: flowers axilliary, forming terminal spikes; fruiting calyx with three wings. To the Altai and Songaria. Genus Salicornia L. is found in New Hampshire to Mississippi, West Europe, Algeria; Louisiana, Bahamas. Perhaps introduced in the 1800s. * * * NEWS OF THE PROFESSION AACAR BULLETIN would like to thank those individuals and institutions who kindly furnished the information presented in this section. During its Spring meeting, the Middle Eastern Studies Association Board of Directors voted unanimously to elect AACAR an Affiliate of the MESA, and so informed AACAR. AACAR would like to thank the MESA Board of Directors, and the AACAR member Dr. Jefferey Roberts who saw the process through. AACAR Members are cordially invited to contact Dr. Roberts at the Department of History, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN 38501 to participate in the AACAR panels at the 1992 MESA Convention. In early 1991, AACAR was extended Affiliate Privileges by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, courtesy of Dr. Dorothy Atkinson, AAASS Executive Director. AACAR has organized a panel for the AAASS '91 Miami Convention. Details may be found in the May 1991 issue of the AAASS NEWSLETTER, and the AAASS 1991 Convention Program. 18 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) At its January 1991 teleconference, AACAR Executive Council voted to hold the AACAR Membership Meeting in conjunction with the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies annual convention, 22-25 November 1991 in Miami. (AACAR BULLETIN, Vol. IV, No. 1. Spring 1991) The AACAR Meeting will be restricted to members in good standing. AACAR Members are requested to make reservations directly with the providers of convention facilities: Intercontinental & Hyatt Hotels, Miami, Florida; and register for the AAASS Convention. For AAASS advance registration information, please contact AAASS: 128 Encina Commons, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6029. Tel. 415/723-9668; or kindly consult the AAASS NEWSLETTER. AACAR BULLETIN is now being indexed by PERIODICA ISLAMICA, Edited by Dr. Munawar A. Anees, issued by Berita Publishing, 22 Jalan Liku, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Dr. Stephen Blank is appointed Book Review Editor of the CENTRAL ASIAN SURVEY (London). Relevant books may be sent to Dr. Blank at: U. S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA 17013-5050. * Edited by Marie Bennigsen Broxup, CENTRAL ASIAN SURVEY general offices have been moved to: 6 Elmbank Gardens, London SW13 0NT * A circular was received containing the following: "According to the decision of the 5th All- Union Turcology Conference, and the Soviet Committee of Turcologs, the First International Turcological Conference will be held in Kazan, in early June, 1992. The theme is THE LANGUAGES SPIRITUAL CULTURE AND THE HISTORY OF THE TURKS: TRADITIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY. The Conference will discuss linguistics, literature, folklore, history, archeology, ethnology, culture, religious faith, and the study of sources and texts. At 19 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) the conference, an international symposium on the Tatar Encyclopedia will also be held. In connection with the conference, exhibits, concerts and excursions will take place. An honorarium of US$ 80 will be paid to the foreign participants." In the circular there is no indication as to how travel costs will be met. Contact: 420111 Kazan, Lobachevski Street 2/31, IIALI. * UYGUR HALK MUSIKISI "Turkestan Chinois/Xinjiang: Musiques Oigoures" is a two compact-disc set (stereo, Digital Mastering) issued by the OCORA RADIO FRANCE. The collection is accompanied by a booklet in French, English, German and Spanish; providing details of its contents and brief information on the genre. Contact: Pierre Toureille, Director de la Collection, Maison de Radio-France, 116 ave. du Pr sident Kennedy, Pi ce 6345 - 75016 Paris. Tel: 16/1 42 30 26 16. Fax: 16/1 42 30 14 37. * East Asian Studies program of the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO has established the Central and Inner Asian Seminar. A program of speakers include: Paul Forage; Michael Gervers; Oscar Jacobs; Omeljan Pritsak; Morris Rossabi. For further information, contact: Prof. Wayne Schlepp, East Asian Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto M5S 1A5, Canada. * Professor Warren Walker, Director of the Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative, TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY, announces the availability of texts and tape recordings of several thousand samples of the genre. Contact: Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative, Library, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409. Phone: 806/742-1922. * A new Institute of Oriental Studies has been established in Tashkent. The first number of its journal, SARK SINAS has been issued. The editors of SARK SINAS are desirous of publishing papers relevant to the study of Central Asia in English, zbek and Russian. For submissions, contact: Prof. Orunbaev, Institute of Oriental Studies, Academy of Sciences, 700170 Tashkent, 170 Akademgorodok, Prospect M. Gorkovo 20 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) 81. * According to a letter received from M. S. Osimi, Chairman of the Presidium of PAIVAND, the Tajik Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Compatriots, PAIVAND has been established as an initiative of the public of Tajikistan in 1989. Mr. Osimi writes: "The main aim of the Society is to help our compatriots living abroad and the representatives of other nationalities who have a common language, culture and history with us, realize their aspirations to establish relations with Tajikistan. Through us you will be able to satisfy your interest in the culture and history of Tajikistan. We will also render assistance in studying the Tajik language and in obtaining higher education in Tajikistan. Furthermore, we wish to promote trade and economic co-operation on a mutually profitable basis." Contact: 7 Dzerjinsky Street, Dushanbe 734025. * An Institute of Turcology has been established in Chimkent-Kazakh SSR. Contact, Prof. Erden Zada-Uli Hajibekov, Kazakh SSR Academy of Sciences, Qurmangazi 29, 480021 Alma-Ata 21. * The Directorate of the Encyclopedia of Islam is currently publishing a new Encyclopedia of Islam. Mehmet Ali Sari, Secretary General, writes: "The venture is supported by the Turkish Religious Foundation (T rkiye Diyanet Isleri Vakfi), and is intended to update the studies in the fields of Islamic sciences, culture and civilization. In its final form, the Encyclopedia is expected to be thirty volumes and will contain at least twenty-five thousand articles. The first three volumes are already available. The editors are interested in contacting scholars from around the world, and they welcome any contributions in Turkish and all major languages. All entries will be translated into Turkish at the editorial offices, and a modest honorarium will be paid. The editors are also prepared to enter into exchange agreements with scholarly journals." For further information, contact: 21 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Encyclopedia of Islam, Baglarbasi, Kisikli Cad. No. 7 sk dar 81180 Istanbul. Tel 1 341 0792-95. Fax: 1 334 9588. * Call for Proposals: The 24th National Convention of the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SLAVIC STUDIES, hosted by the Western Slavic Association, will be held November 19-22, 1992 at the Sheraton and Hyatt Regency hotels in Phoenix, Arizona. Proposals must be for complete panels; individual papers cannot be considered. A copy of the program guidelines and a panel proposal form may be obtained from: AAASS, 128 Encina Commons, Stanford U., Stanford, CA 94305-6029.; 415/723-9668. Deadline for all proposals: January 1, 1992. * Second Annual NAVA'I LECTURE in Central Asian Studies will be held at the International Cultural Center Auditorium, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, Tuesday, November 26, 5:30 PM, in conjunction with the 25th Annual Meeting of the MIDDLE EAST STUDIES ASSOCIATION. This year's meeting will be a dialogue. The participants are Yuri Bregel, Maria Subtelny, Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh. * * * BIBLIOGRAPHY A work's being listed in this section does not preclude subsequent review in the AACAR BULLETIN. BULLETIN OF THE ASIA INSTITUTE, formerly published in Shiraz-Iran, resumed publication in the US in 1987 with the New Series of annual volumes by the Iowa State University Press. Volumes are clothbound, fully illustrated. USA $50 + postage per volume. Contact: Julie Harris Levine, Editor, 3287 Bradway Blvd., Birmingham, MI 48010-1790. Volume 4 [(1990) 400 pp. 130 ills.] is a Festschrift for Professor Richard 22 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Nelson Frye. Contents: R. N. Frye (Shahbazi). Mithra & Ahura (Boyce). Coinage from Merv (Carter). Dragon & lunar nodes (Duchesne-Guillemin). Excavations at Chilburj (Gaibov/ Koshelenko/ Novikov). A Manichean kephalaion (Gnoli). Assyrian hand gestures (Goldman). Sasanian art & the tomb of Feng Hetu (Harper). Excavations at Kafyr Kala (Litvinsky/Solov'ev). A Penjikent mural (Marshak/Raspopova). From the chahar- taq to the mihrab (Melikian-Chirvani). Coinage of a Central Asian rebel (Mochiri). Unpublished Muslim miniatures (Pugachenkova). Gandharan inscribed vessel (Salomon/Goldman). Togolok 21 in the Karakum (Sarianidi). Central Asian Buddhist monuments (Stavitsky). Gardens in Persia & Assyria (Stronach). Judeo-Persian Pirqe Abhoth (Asmussen). Caucaso-Iranica (Bailey). Glyptica Iranica (Bivar). Iranian gestures (Choksy). Haft Khwan & Ferdowsy (Davidson). Kuhpaye, the old Vir (Eilers). Khotanese aksaras (Emmerick). Miscellaena Sasanidica (Gignoux). Parsi and Dari (Lazard) . Middle & modern Persian 'be' (Nawabi). Hyspasines (Schmitt). Viiamburas & Kafirs (Schwartz). Early Persians' historiography (Shahbazi). Spurious epigraphy (Shaked). Fillet of nobility (Shaki). Mani in Sogdian fragments (Sims-Williams). A Haijiabad inscription (Skjaervo). Shapur's coronation (Sundermann). A Sasanian title (Tafazzoli). The Lantern of Spirit (Utas). Iranian Tati (Windfuhr). Volume 5 is under preparation. S. Salihov and H. Ismatullaev, RUSSIAN- ZBEK-TAJIK CONVERSATION BOOK (Tashkent: Fan, 1990) * Hayrulla Ismatullaev, "Gaspirali Ismailbey ve Turkistan" ZBEK TILI VE EDEBIYATI (Tashkent) July- August 1990. * The second printing of THE BOOK OF DEDE KORKUT, Warren S. Walker, Ahmet Edip Uysal and Faruk S mer (Translators) will be released by the University of Texas Press during 1991. The First 23 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) edition was made by the University of Texas Press in 1972. * TALES ALIVE IN TURKEY, Warren S. Walker and Ahmet Edip Uysal (Translators), originally published by Harvard University Press in 1966, has been reprinted by the Texas Tech University Press in 1990. * A companion volume, MORE TALES ALIVE IN TURKEY is scheduled for release during 1991 by the Texas Tech University Press. * Kaori Komatsu, "100c Yild n m M nasebeti ile 'Ertugrul Firkateyni' Faciasi" AJAMES (Tokyo) No. 5, 1990. * Tuncer Baykara, ANADOLUNUN SEL UKLULAR DEVRINDEKI SOSYAL VE IKTISADI TARIHI ZERINE ARASTIRMALAR (Bornova, Izmir: Ege niversitesi Edebiyat Fak ltesi, 1991) * R. Judson Mitchell, GETTING TO THE TOP IN THE USSR (Hoover Institution Press, 1990). * John S. Major, MONGOLIA (J. P. Lippincott/Harper & Row, 1990) The Land and The People Series * * Mary Louise Clifford, AFGHANISTAN (J. P. Lippincott/Harper & Row, 1990) The Land and The People Series * Michael Zand, "Notes on the Culture of the Non- Ashkenazi Jewish Communities Under Soviet Rule" JEWISH CULTURE AND IDENTITY IN THE SOVIET UNION (Yaakov Ro'i and Avi Beker, Eds.) (New York University Press, 1991). * idem, "Bukharan Jews" ENCYCLOPEDIA IRANICA (Ehsan Yarshater, Ed.) Vol IV, fasc. 5. (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1989). * R. D. McChesney, WAQF IN CENTRAL ASIA: Four Hundred Years in the History of a Muslim Shrine, 1480-1889. (Princeton University Press, 1991). Princeton Studies on the Near East. * Gerhard Simon (K. Forster and O. Forster, Translators), NATIONALISM AND POLICY TOWARD THE NATIONALITIES IN THE SOVIET UNION: From Totalitarian Dictatorship to Post- Stalinist Society. Westview, 1991). Westview Special Studies on the Soviet Union and the Eastern Europe. * THE RISE OF NATIONS IN THE SOVIET UNION: American Foreign Policy & the Disintegration of the USSR, Michael Mandelbaum, Ed. (NY: Council on Foreign 24 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Relations Press, 1991). * Beatrice S. Bartlett, MONARCHS AND MINISTERS: The Grand Council in Mid-Ch'ing China, 1723-1820. (University of California Press, 1991). * Hong Yung Lee, FROM REVOLUTIONARY CADRES TO PARTY TECHNOCRATS IN SOCIALIST CHINA. (University of California Press, 1991). * * * SURVEY OF CENTRAL ASIA RELATED ACADEMIC PROGRAMS AND COURSEWORK IN NORTH AMERICA Since the publication of the first issue of the AACAR BULLETIN, we have been receiving inquiries from a variety of sources. Quite a few of them pertain to the location and nature of academic degree programs and courses related to Central Asia. Until now, we have been responding with individual letters of suggestion. At the request of the Editor, Reuel Hanks (Kennesaw State) and Steven Sabol (Georgia) have kindly conducted and compiled the survey of the Central Asian related academic programs in North America. We are listing the first responses, in the alphabetical order of institutions. Those who have received the survey questionnaire over the summer, but not yet responded, may still do so by returning the completed forms to the address contained therein. Other updates may be sent directly to the Editor, in the format given below. The AACAR BULLETIN plans to issue regular supplements to this directory. 1. INSTITUTION: Ball State University DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Dept. of History SURVEY RESPONDENT: Daniel Goffman, Associate Professor of History 25 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) ADDRESS/PHONE: Dept. of History Ball State University Muncie, Indiana 47306 (317)-285-8712 2. INSTITUTION: Colorado State University DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Dept. of History SURVEY RESPONDENT: William J. Griswold, Professor of History ADDRESS/PHONE: Dept. of History Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80523 (303)-491-6334 FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: William Griswold--Ottoman Empire 3. INSTITUTION: Emory University DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Dept. of History SURVEY RESPONDENT: Kermit E. McKenzie, Professor of History ADDRESS/PHONE: Dept. of History Emory University Atlanta, Georgia 30322 (404)-373-8892 CONTACT FOR ADMISSIONS: Graduate School of Arts and Sciences FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Kermit E. McKenzie--Russian/Soviet History, History of Kazakhstan. (Professor McKenzie participated in Kazakh/American Research Project in Alma-Ata in June of 1991). FACULTY RESEARCH IN PROGRESS: Kermit E. McKenzie--Study of Life and Career of Chokan 26 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Valikhanov (1835-65), first Kazakh "Enlightener." DEGREES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: Graduate degrees may be earned in History and Political Science with thesis or dissertation focusing on a Central Asian topic. 4. INSTITUTION: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Dept. of History SURVEY RESPONDENT: Keith Hitchins, Professor of History ADDRESS/PHONE: Dept. of History University of Illinois 309 Gregory Hall 810 South Wright Street Urbana, Illinois 61801 (217)-333-9891 CONTACT FOR ADMISSIONS: Same as above FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Keith Hitchins--Tajikistan, 19th and 20th centuries, social and cultural history; Central Asia, nationalism, literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. FACULTY RESEARCH IN PROGRESS: Keith Hitchins--A History of the Tajiks (under contract with Hoover Press for Soviet Nationalities Series); A biography of Sadriddin Aini. COURSES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: History 497, Readings in the History of Central Asia. 27 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) 5. INSTITUTION: Indiana University DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Dept. of Uralic and Altaic Studies. SURVEY RESPONDENT: Gustav Bayerle, Associate Professor ADDRESS/PHONE: Goodbody Hall Bloomington, Indiana 47405 (812)-855-2233 CONTACT FOR ADMISSIONS: April Younger FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Ilhan Basg z--Turkistan, Turkic folklore, Turkish Gustav Bayerle--Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish Chris Beckwith--Tibetan Empire, Tibetan Yuri Bregel--Central Asia, History, Chagatai Larry Clark--Turkic Studies, Linguistics Devin DeWeese--Central Asia, Islam, Uzbek Gyorgy Kara--Mongol Studies, Philology, Mongolian Larry Moses--Mongol Studies, History, Mongolian Nazif Shahrani--Central Asia, Middle East, Islam, Anthropology TS. Ishdorj--Mongol Studies, Mongolian DEGREES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: M.A and Ph. D. degrees with major fields in Turkish Studies, Uzbek Studies and Tibetan Studies. OTHER INFORMATION: The department's educational offerings are supplemented with the research opportunities of the Research Institute for Inner Asia Studies. Grants and Scholarships are available for departmental majors from the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center and the Graduate Assistants in Areas of National Needs Program. 28 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) 6. INSTITUTION: Kenyon College DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Dept. of History SURVEY RESPONDENT: Ruth W. Dunnell, Storer Assistant Professor of Asian History ADDRESS/PHONE: Dept. of History Kenyon College Gambier, Ohio 43022 (614)-427-5316/5323 FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Ruth W. Dunnell--Asian History. Other positions exist in East, South Asian History and Islam (religious studies). FACULTY RESEARCH IN PROGRESS: Ruth W. Dunnell--Tangut/Xi Xia History and Buddhism DEGREES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: Concentration in Asian Studies (not a degree, per se). COURSES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: The Mongol Empire in World History Islam in China (History) Great Islamic Empires (History) Classical Islam (Religion) Asia in Comparative Perspective: Cross-cultural Interaction (senior seminar for the Asian Studies concentration) ESTABLISHED EXCHANGE PROGRAMS WITH CENTRAL ASIAN INSTITUTIONS: Students of Russian language have opportunities to study in USSR, including Alma Ata. 7. INSTITUTION: University of Massachusetts-Amherst DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Dept. of History SURVEY RESPONDENT: Audrey L. Altstadt, Assistant Professor of History ADDRESS/PHONE: 612 Herter Hall UMASS-Amherst Amherst MA 01003 29 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) (415)-545-1330 FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Audrey L. Altstadt--History and Culture of Azerbaijan Other positions exist in East Asian History and Middle East; and Political Science. COURSES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: Topics in Soviet History (graduate and undergraduate) Soviet Nationalities (planned) FACULTY RESEARCH IN PROGRESS: Audrey L. Altstadt--Stalin period purges. PUBLICATION PROGRAMS/BOOK SERIES OF INSTITUTION: AACAR BULLETIN of the Association for the Advancement of Central Asian Studies Headquarters of AACAR, the Association for the Advancement of Central Asian Research, Inc. 8. INSTITUTION: University of Minnesota DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Dept. of Russian and East European Studies SURVEY RESPONDENT: Iraj Bashiri, Associate Professor ADDRESS/PHONE: 245 Elliott Hall University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 (612)-624-3314 CONTACT FOR ADMISSIONS: U. of Minnesota Admissions 270 Williamson Hall FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Iraj Bashiri--Tajikistan: language, literature and culture. Kirghizia: literature. Uzbekistan: language, culture. FACULTY RESEARCH IN PROGRESS: Iraj Bashiri--Tajiki: Grammar and Texts. 30 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) "Muslims and Communists: Conflict of Religion and Ideology in the works of the Kirghiz Writer, Chingiz Aitmatov. DEGREES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: Ph. D., Iranian Linguistics COURSES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: Islam in the Soviet Union Soviet Central Asian Culture Sphere Fiction: Iran and Soviet Central Asia Medieval Sages Introduction to the Culture of Afghanistan Directed Research ESTABLISHED EXCHANGE PROGRAMS WITH CENTRAL ASIAN INSTITUTIONS: In progress: Exchange with the University of Tajikistan 9. INSTITUTION: University of New Mexico DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Dept. of Political Science SURVEY RESPONDENT: Gregory Gleason, Assistant Professor ADDRESS/PHONE: Dept. of Political Science University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 (505)-277-5104 FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Gregory Gleason--Contemporary Central Asian Politics FACULTY RESEARCH IN PROGRESS: Gregory Gleason--Agriculture and Water in Central Asia: Public Policy ESTABLISHED EXCHANGE PROGRAMS WITH CENTRAL ASIAN INSTITUTIONS: Informal arrangement for exchange with Turkmen State 31 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) University. 10. INSTITUTION: The City College of New York DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Dept. of History SURVEY RESPONDENT: Henry R. Huttenbach, Professor ADDRESS/PHONE: Convent Ave. at 138th Street New York, New York 10031 (212)-650-7384 FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Henry R. Huttenbach--Soviet Nationalities, Soviet Islam. Michael Rywkin--Soviet Nationalities, Central Asia. PUBLICATION PROGRAMS/BOOK SERIES OF INSTITUTION: Journal: Nationalities Papers Head Office of "Association for the Study of the Nationalities of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe." 11. INSTITUTION: University of Oregon DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Center for Asian and Pacific Studies SURVEY RESPONDENT: Ester Jacobson, Professor ADDRESS/PHONE: University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon 97403 (503)-346-1521/3677 FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Scott DeLancey--Tibetan Ester Jacobson--Early Nomads of South Siberia and Mongolia, Scytho-Siberian Art-Eurasia FACULTY RESEARCH IN PROGRESS: Ester Jacobson--Art and Archaeology, Bronze-Early Iron Age, South Siberia and Mongolia. COURSES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: Art 381-Nomadic Art of Eurasia 32 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Graduate Seminars in Scytho-Siberian Art and Tibeto-Burmese Linguistics 12. INSTITUTION: Institut quebecois de recherche sur la culture DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Research Institute SURVEY RESPONDENT: Denise Helly, Research Director ADDRESS/PHONE: 290, Place d'Youville Montreal (Quebec), Canada 873-7987 (514) FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Xinjiang--Kazakhs and Uygurs 13. INSTITUTION: Rutgers University--Newark DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Dept. of History SURVEY RESPONDENT: Peter B. Golden, Professor ADDRESS/PHONE: Dept. of History, Rutgers University Conklin Hall 175 University Avenue Newark, New Jersey 07102 (201)-648-5410 FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Peter B. Golden--History and Languages of Medieval Eurasia FACULTY RESEARCH IN PROGRESS: An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples COURSES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: Peoples and Cultures of Central Asia 14. INSTITUTION: Washington University, St. Louis DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Center for the Study of Islamic Societies and Civilizations SURVEY RESPONDENT: Cornell H. Fleischer, Professor of 33 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) History and Director of Center. ADDRESS/PHONE: Washington University St. Louis, Missouri 63130 CONTACT FOR ADMISSIONS: Dept. of History; Dept. of Anthropology. FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Cornell Fleischer--Ottoman, Safavid, Moghul History; Islamic History. Isenbike Togan--Inner Asia, Pre and Post-Mongol History. Robert Canfield--Anthropology, Greater Central Asia. Lois Beck--Anthropology, Tribalism, Iran Ahmet Karamustafa--Asian and Near Eastern Languages, Islamic Thought. FACULTY RESEARCH IN PROGRESS: Togan--Comparative State Formation in Turkestan and Anatolia, 13th-17th centuries. Karamustafa--Antinomian Dervish Groups in the Islamic World, 15th-16th centuries. Fleischer--Apocalypticism in the Islamic World and Europe, 15th -16th centuries. Caufield--Greater Central Asia in Crisis, Afghanistan. DEGREES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: AB, AM, and Ph. D. degrees may be earned in history and anthropology. COURSES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: Greater Central Asia Islamic History; 622-1200, 1200-1800 The Silk Route Tibet Between China and Russia The Mongol World Empire Women and the State in Asia 15. INSTITUTION: University of Washington-Seattle 34 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Jackson School of International Studies SURVEY RESPONDENT: Shannon O'Hara, Office of the Director ADDRESS/PHONE: Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Thomson Hall DR-05 University of Washington Seattle, Washington 98195 (206)-543-4373 CONTACT FOR ADMISSIONS: Same as Above FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: For a detailed listing of faculty and their research interests, contact the office listed above. DEGREES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: The Jackson School offers bachelors and graduate degrees in Middle East Studies, Chinese Studies, and Russian and Eastern European Studies. Languages taught include Persian(Farsi), Arabic. Turkish, and Uzbek, among others. COURSES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: Contact the Jackson School for a detailed listing of courses in each of the above concentrations which are pertinent to Central Asia. ESTABLISHED EXCHANGE PROGRAMS WITH CENTRAL ASIAN INSTITUTIONS: Numerous opportunities for language study abroad exist, including in the Soviet Union, P.R.C., Pakistan and others. Contact the Foreign Study Office, 572 Schmitz Hall, at the 35 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) address listed above. 16. INSTITUTION: University of Wisconsin DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Central Asian Studies SURVEY RESPONDENT: Uli Schamiloglu ADDRESS/PHONE: Dept. of Slavic Studies 720 Van Hise University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (608)-262-3498 CONTACT FOR ADMISSIONS: Kemal H. Karpat Dept. of History 4121 Humanities Building University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (608)-263-1800/1825 FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Uli Schamiloglu--The Golden Horde, 13th-14th centuries Other faculty may be contacted directly. DEGREES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: Ph. D. may be earned in independent area when pursued through an academic department. COURSES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: A number of courses are offered, including several Central Asian languages. Some of these are available through intensive summer courses. 17. INSTITUTION: University of Wyoming DEPARTMENT/INSTITUTE/CENTER/PROGRAM: Dept. of Anthropology SURVEY RESPONDENT: Audrey C. Shalinsky, Professor of Anthropology ADDRESS/PHONE: PO Box 3431 University Station Laramie, Wyoming 82071 36 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) CONTACT FOR ADMISSIONS: Dept. of Anthropology FACULTY AND SPECIALIZATIONS: Audrey Shalinsky-- Northern Afghanistan, Uzbeks, Gender and Ethnic Relations. FACULTY RESEARCH IN PROGRESS: Shalinsky--Historical Ethnography of dispersed Uzbek population in Central Asia and Middle East. DEGREES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: MA in Anthropology COURSES RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIA: At graduate level, independent study courses on Central Asia on demand. * * * BOOK REVIEWS Michael Rywkin, MOSCOW'S MUSLIM CHALLENGE: SOVIET CENTRAL ASIA (revised edition) (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1990). 180 pp. If the history of past colonialism is any guide to the future, the Central Asia of tomorrow, whether united in a greater Turkestan or fragmented in an assemblage of "Soviet" republics, is apt to bear the lasting imprint of these last seven decades of Moscow's political control. In this newly revised edition of MOSCOW'S MUSLIM CHALLENGE, Michael Rywkin offers a comprehensive and systematic interpretation of those seventy odd years in the life of Central Asia. Beginning with a brief account of the earliest Russian influences in the sixteenth century, Rywkin 37 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) provides a clear and accessible account of the dynamic interaction between the colonizing Slavs and the subjugated Central Asian populations that brings us abreast of the present day. The first chapters are chronologically arranged to provide a well rounded yet highly detailed historical perspective on the key issues in contemporary relations between the Slavic dominated center and Central Asia. Stressing the Russians' geopolitical objectives in the "Great Game" --the rivalry among the Great Powers over influence in Central Asia-- Rywkin assesses both the style and objectives of Tsarist administration in the area. The second chapter recounts the period immediately following the revolution. Rywkin concludes that the revolution in Central Asia was "initially a settlers' affair" (p. 31) but eventually garnered support from some of the indigenous population. Many Central Asians who accepted the Leninist idea of national autonomy, however, soon were disabused of any expectations about meaningful political independence. This disappointment combined with social tensions to produce the Basmachi revolt, a political movement Rywkin recounts in detail in chapter three. Chapter four is a historical treatment of the economic development of Central Asia stressing agriculture and socio-occupational segmentation along ethnic lines. The strongest chapter of the book, chapter five, is devoted to an analysis of the implications of demographic changes for the labor force. This analysis is followed by a treatment of the role of Islam in Central Asia which concludes that the combination of Islamic-based nationalism and demographic tensions will constitute "the most important threat to Moscow." (p. 90) Chapter six provides an overview of key cultural questions, emphasizing language, education, and the representation of the "historical past" by native historians. 38 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Chapters eight, nine and ten are thematically arranged, addressing a variety of important issues of Central Asian politics. The issues include: political cooptation of the native elite; ethnic employment quotas; the strength of "national" (as opposed to "clan" or "supranational") allegiance; the political implications of the vocabulary of Marxist ideology; and the functional organization of institutions of political and economic management in Central Asia. There are no criticisms that might be levelled against this book that could not be levelled against virtually the entire body of Western of scholarship on Central Asia. Two are particularly important. First, this book, like the other major works in the field, stresses works either produced by Russians or produced by Central Asians whose main facility is with Russian. The danger of adopting Russian conceptual categories in comprehending Central Asia is that we run the risk of becoming captives of the Russian perspective. Ironically, this perspective encourages us to look at the Central Asians as subjects rather than actors. In the process, we are lead away from asking important questions about, for instance, the complicity of native Central Asians in the current economic and political crisis. Second, this book provides a comprehensive and critical assessment of what went wrong in Central Asia. Boris Rumer's recently published CENTRAL ASIA: A TRAGIC EXPERIMENT goes farther in this particular direction by providing more detail about the economic problems (although Rumer's book does not have the historical and thematic sweep of Rywkin's). But the two works arrive at essentially the same judgment regarding the diagnosis. What is less clear is what options are available for the future. Rywkin uses what is essentially a colonial model for interpreting Central Asian affairs. Unfortunately, the history of 39 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) post-colonial political success in Africa and Asia is not one that can inspire any great confidence in future prospects. For every successful post-colonial transition, there are many examples of failures. One must of course admire the courage and enthusiasm of those who say "give us political independence and we will succeed." But Central Asia does not have the advanced technical skills of the Baltic countries. It does not have the ready transportation and communication avenues of the Mediterranean and Pacific Rim countries. And, very likely, it will not have the support of its former colonial era metropole. Under these circumstances, one cannot help but see the outlines of the Great Game again in the not too distant future of Central Asia. If for that reason alone, this work deserves to be read by anyone who would seek to understand the momentous transitions that await this part of the world. The book will serve admirably as an introductory college text at all levels. Gregory Gleason University of New Mexico Piri Reis, KITAB-I BAHRIYE (Ankara: The Historical Research Foundation Istanbul Research Center, 1988). Volume 1. 463 Pp. [Orders from U. S.: KITAB-I BAHRIYE, POB 727, Annandale VA 22003.] Piri Reis (c.1465/70 - 1554) wrote the first draft of his "Book of Seafaring" in 1521. Later, he revised and expanded it. Through Damad Ibrahim Pasha, he presented to Sultan S leyman I in 1526, as a compendium of practical sailing directions for the known world. 40 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Through this connection, the book was preserved for modern scholarship. Today, there are 29 known manuscript copies of the original. Most of them are in Istanbul, although 9 copies are in European libraries outside Turkey. The best and most complete of these manuscripts is the copy which Sultan Mahmud I bequeathed to the Ayasofya Library in 1730. The editors of this edition have used this manuscript to provide color facsimiles of each manuscript page. Facing each facsimile page, there are three versions of the text for that page printed side by side in columns: The first column contains a transliteration of the original Ottoman text; the second is a translation into modern Turkish and the third is an English translation. Under the general editorship of Ertugrul Zekai kte, Captain Mert Bayat, a member of the faculty at the Turkish NAval War College, prepared the English Translation and served as the general advisor on naval history and science. The English translation is based equally upon the Ottoman and Turkish texts, and the translator has rendered them into English with a style that he remembered with relish from boyhood reading of Marco Polo's TRAVELS and Xenophon's ANABASIS. In dealing with proper names in the text, he chose to transcribe them as Piri Reis used them, thus, for example, Alexander the Great becomes Iskender and Genoa is Ceneviz. The translator has employed a different type-face for these, and usually provides a footnote to give a modern, alternative spelling. Piri Reis is particularly well known for the maps which he drew in 1513 and 1528, showing discoveries in the Americas, the first of which is used as the illustration on the end-papers to this volume. Because of his cartographical skills and knowledge, one must make a special note of the reproduction here of his coastal and harbor charts within this manuscript. Some 41 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) 25 such charts are included here, to which the editors have added, on each facing page, a modern area map and enlargements of manuscript details as well as explanatory notes in both modern Turkish and English. For the most part, these explanations are very clear and helpful, but sometimes, as in the case of the material on Pp. 82a and 86a, the reader is baffled in trying to make a connection between the modern and the manuscript map. At the end of the volume, seven additional modern maps have been added to illustrate the general areas mentioned in the text. The editors have planned three subsequent volumes to complete the transcription and translation of the KITAB-I BAHRIYE. One warmly welcomes this major transcription and translation of the most important Turkish classic of maritime and naval history. The publication in this form must not only make the work better known, but lead to a broader scholarly understanding of its place and its importance. The editors have made a central contribution to the scholarly debate over Piri Reis and his accomplishments. They have given the scholarly world the material upon which judgements and further research can take place. Today, the name of Piri Reis is known to only a handful of historical specialists and his name is often forgotten in the general reference literature. This edition makes his work readily accessible and available for scholarly discussion. It is particularly important that it is coming available now that renewed interest in the age of discoveries is following along with the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage. All maritime historians must certainly look forward to the appearance of the remaining volumes of this edition, including the general index and bibliography. It must certainly be an acquisition for every library collecting in the area of maritime history and the 42 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) expansion of Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries as well as for collections on Turkish history and culture. John B. Hattendorf, D. Phil. Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History Naval War College Newport, Rhode Island Thomas Heberer, CHINA AND ITS NATIONAL MINORITIES: AUTONOMY OR ASSIMILATION (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1989). The past decade has seen an increase in scholarly interest in China's national minority peoples, whose collective population today stands at some 90 million, still largely inhabiting the border regions of the Chinese state. As suggested by the title of Thomas Heberer's book, the presence of an ethnically diverse population presents the Chinese central government with a dilemma not easily resolved through government intervention; indeed, historically there have been but few choices of action open to any government intent on the integration of ethnic minorities; alternatives range from genocide or forced assimilation on one end of the scale, to autonomy and self-determination on the other. In China the last of these is not a policy option. Instead, the Communist party has chosen to offer its minority peoples a Chinese-designed system of regional autonomy which, on paper at least, offers them certain political and cultural freedoms, in keeping with historical differences between them and the Chinese majority. The system of autonomy does not, however, extend to any possibility of eventual self- determination, regardless of historical, linguistic, racial and/or religious differences or of individual minority group's political aspirations. 43 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Chinese central government sensitivity to minority related issues has remained heightened over the past decade as a result of persistent attempts by some of the larger nationalities to gain ever greater recognition of their distinctive cultures, their rights to greater local control and, in several instances, to their right to discuss separate political futures. Issues surrounding China's national minorities are thus extremely important as well as increasingly sensitive today as the world faces a future which may see the further erosion of ethnic Russian political power over non-Russian peoples nd the possible emergence of truly autonomous republics on China's northwestern periphery. Books that can help to elucidate the issues involved and which can help the general public to understand present Chinese policies, in particular, are most welcome -- even, one could suggest, urgent -- given the potential for upheaval in Eurasia and the current international focus on minority rights, be they Kurd or Azerbaijani. While Heberer's book is a contribution to such literature, overall the book has a number of shortcomings that detract from its usefulness as an introduction to national minority issues in China. Derived from a longer study (available only in German and which includes a portion on China's Yi minority, not included in the present work) this brief survey (131 pp.) is very much a general work, offering sweeping conclusions about minority affairs and government policy. The conclusions reached suffer from oversimplification and over-generalization, partly the result of trying to do too much in too small a volume. The very first chapter sets the tone of what is to follow. Chapter One guides the reader quickly through some of the basic concepts of both western and Chinese views on minorities and minority rights, offers brief treatment of the problems of definition, cultural, political and historical differences east and west, and 44 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) then presents a discussion of nations and nationalities, all in the space of 18 pages. While some interesting questions regarding minority legal status in the world at large and in China in particular are raised, the brevity of the discussion and the over- simplification needed to fit all this material into the discussion result in a superficial and cursory treatment of extremely complex issues that are not easily presented -- let alone discussed -- in such an abbreviated format. The same breathless treatment is evident in each of the nine chapters, and constitutes one of the chief weaknesses of the book. The problem can be illustrated by two examples, Chapter 7 and 8. Chapter 7 concerns religious policy and consists of 13 pages of general background on religion in China, the main point of which is that China has always been areligious, leading to the author's belief that government control over religion in China is thus logical (page 117). As this book is dealing with minorities, may of whom remain adherents of some of the world's great religions, one would expect some discussion of these religions and their role in the borderlands, in particular, but in the three pages actually concerned with minorities and religion, this of course cannot be done. While one may well agree with the author's conclusion that there is little real religious freedom in China for either the Han Chinese or for minorities, the discussion that leads one to that point is inadequate, and in some respects even misleading. Chapter 8 concerns the "Tibet Question." Information again is summary in nature, beginning with an encapsulated history of the region in little over two pages. The author sues his historical survey to arrive at the statement that Tibet basically has been Chinese territory since the Yuan dynasty (page 118). While this conclusion may be considered correct by some authorities and certainly by 45 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) the Chinese government, his statement does little to help us understand the issues of religion, ethnicity, and continued loyalty to the Dalai Lama within Tibet itself or to comprehend where China's current Tibetan policy is headed. Besides the problems of over-generalization, the book's sources also raise questions about the author's basis for analysis and discussion. In some instances, the author has relied solely on PRC sources as authority for his statements (e.g. the majority of migrants to Xinjiang and Heilongjiang were there by their own initiative, page 94); other facts are asserted but no source is offered at all (e.g. page 90, that infectious diseases and alcoholism are decimating such small minorities as the Oroqen). On the other hand, some revealing PRC documents on the subject of assimilation now available in a number of PRC publications dealing with minority affairs are not included in the bibliography, an oversight which must lead one to question the amount of background brought to bear on this pivotal point, at least as suggested in the book's title. The author clearly is knowledgeable about the Yi, but he also relies too heavily on them as an example of minority policy in action, attempting, to extrapolate from their experience an overview of minority policy throughout China. This, too, is problematic. Despite the criticism offered above, there are several good sections of the book, including a reasonable introduction to the birth control question in China as it pertains to minorities and the movement of Han Chinese into what were once predominantly minority lands. This issue of domestic migration is certainly an important one, and, as the author states, this movement is clearly a violation of the policy of regional autonomy (page 97). Indeed, this policy has already so undermined the whole basis of the regional 46 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) autonomy system in some regions that it is no longer a question of curtailing such migration but of reversing it if autonomy is to have any meaning at all in China. A short introductory work such as this always requires hard decisions on what information to include and what to leave out. Here, it is not only the choice of material that is questionable, but also the misleading conclusions that result from oversimplification. If one seeks a discussion of assimilation or autonomy issues in China, or information on which to base an informed opinion on China's minority affairs, this book should be used with some caution. One would still do well to read June Dreyer's 1976 book, China's Forty Millions, and to wait for an authoritative update of that invaluable earlier study. Linda Benson History Department Oakland University Natalie Kononenko Moyle, THE TURKISH MINSTREL TALE TRADITION (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Harvard Dissertations in Folklore and Oral Tradition, A Garland Series, Edited by Albert B. Lord, 1990). Pp. 267. (152 pages of text plus appendices and bibliographies.) One must welcome the publication of this study of the Turkish minstrel tale in a visible series which can not help but call attention to a little known yet quite accessible oral tradition of great intrinsic interest. One must regret, however, that the work is exactly what the series title states it to be: a doctoral dissertation which has undergone no revision. But for the addition of a brief introduction update, the 47 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) omission of some diagrammatic details from Appendix B, the exclusion of one frank footnote at page 141 and the conspicuous excision of fifteen pages of analysis at page 137, the work remains virtually identical to the manuscript submitted to The Ad Hoc Committee for a Doctoral Degree in Slavic and Turkic Languages, Literatures and Folklore at Harvard University in 1975. This is unfortunate for Moyle's study deserved and certainly could have benefited from the insights and corrections of scholars more thoroughly conversant with the minstrel tale tradition than a young graduate student could possibly hope to be. It is also unfortunate that this young researcher was not directed towards the intensive research activities then taking place at the Faculty of Literature at Atat rk University in Erzurum which began publishing in the early 1970s an important series of completed collections and analyses of minstrel tales which should not have been disregarded. These include the following: [I] Muhan Bali's 1973 study of variants of the minstrel tale, Emrah of Ercis and Selvi Khan, [ERCIS'LI EMRAH ILE SELVI HAN HIK YESI: VARYANTLARIN TESBITI VE HALK HIK YECILIGI BAKIMINDAN NEMI. Atat rk niversitesi Yayinlari No: 213, Edebiyat Fak ltesi Yayin No: 47, Arastirma No: 38, Ankara, 1973]; [II] Fikret T rkmen's 1974 comparative study of one of the best known and most widely distributed of minstrel tales, Ashik Garip, [ASIK GARIP HIK YESI ZERINDE MUKAYESELI BIR ARASTIRMA, Atat rk niversitesi Yayin No. 357, Edebiyat Fak ltesi Yayin No. 70, Arastirma Yayin No. 59, Ankara, 1974]; [III] The 587 page transcription of the K roglu cycle of tales recorded from Beh et Mahir by Mehmet Kaplan, Mehmet Alkalin and Muhan Bali, [K ROGLU DESTANI. Anlatan: Beh et Mahir. Derleyenler: Mehmet Kaplan, Mehmet Akalin, Muhan Bali. Atat rk niversitesi Yayinlari No. 314, Edebiyat Fak ltesi Yayin No. 63, 48 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Arastirma Serisi No. 52, Ankara, 1973]; and [IV] Ensar Aslan's study of the life, poems and tales of one of the most outstanding minstrel poets of the turn of the century, Ashik Senlik of Kars (1850-1914) which although not published until 1975 had been completed by September of 1973. [ ILDIRLI ASIK SENLIK: HAYATI, SIIRLERI VE HIK YLERI (INCELEME-METIN-S ZL K) Atat rk niversitesi Yayinlari No. 359, Edebiyat Fak ltesi Yayinlari No. 72, Arastirma Serisi No. 61]. There was no call for the dismal picture Moyle paints in her original Introduction of the state of research on oral narratives in Turkey and her statement, "One cannot name a single scholarly edition of minstrel tales." is factually incorrect. One would have preferred that the Introduction provide a specific description of Moyle's own fieldwork and a discussion of methodological issues. For it is not at all clear from the subsequent five chapters that any substantive fieldwork was undertaken in the provinces of Erzurum or Kars where minstrel tale performances actually take place, and it would appear that Moyle was deprived of observing minstrel poets of any real stature in performance in their own contexts. Thus, much of Moyle's discussion seems unnecessarily speculative even if well-grounded in a meticulous reading of secondary sources. The carefully constructed descriptions and arguments presented in the first four chapters, which treat the structure and content of the minstrel tale, the story-telling situation, the life of a minstrel, and the manner of learning the art, draw most heavily upon the scholarship and fieldwork of Pertev Naili Boratav, Zarifov and Zhirmunskii, and Ilhan Basg z, most particularly upon work of the latter whose recordings made in the 1950s from three minstrel poets, Sabit M dam , Dursun Cevlan , and Latif Yilmaz, provide the only original source material used by Moyle in the 49 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) analytic portions of her work. One of the appendices, D, does present three items recorded by Moyle in 1972 in Ankara and Aksaray from someone named Molla Mustafa Ak a. However, it is Ak a's mediocrity as a singer- poet which Moyle discusses in the footnote deleted from page 141, and the only other singer with whom Moyle seems to have interacted, one Ali Yildirim of Aksaray, is mentioned only in passing as an example of the ability of ordinary people to compose folk verse orally. Moyle's dependence upon the field work of Basg z becomes especially problematic in the case of her extensive and non-critical use of an interactive interview between folklorist and poet as the spontaneous "autobiography" or objective "biography" of Ashik M dam who is then cast as a kind of prototypical minstrel poet throughout the work but especially in Chapters III and IV. Furthermore, despite the use of footnotes and the clear labelling of one of the appendices, the manner in which Basgoz's work has been appropriated into Moyle's discourse makes it hard to believe upon occasion that it was not Moyle who was the investigative presence. An example of this tendency can be found early on in Chapter I, pages 29 and 30, including footnote number 17. A further problem which arises with this use of Basg z's material does not manifest itself so pervasively, since most of the examples of sung poetry and rhythmic prose used to illustrate points regarding narrative structure and poetic form remain untranslated. A full translation of the transcription of Basgoz's 1956 interview with M dam is, however, provided as the first half of Appendix A. It is a translation heavily peppered with errors and misunderstandings, some of less consequence than others, but all serving to erode the reader's confidence in the self-assured authorial voice of the 50 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) body of the dissertation. For example, M dam 's reference to the adoption of the Latin alphabet in 1928, "Yirmi sekizde, tabii, harf inkilabinda," (p.195), is rendered as "In 1928 because of the War of Independence," (p.168) and his statement regarding the historical obscurity of many minstrel tales, "Bir ok hik yeler tarihen namal m." (p. 195) is translated in reverse, as it were, "Most minstrel tales are historical." (p. 167). As most of these errors do not surface in the dissertation itself, they will not be pointed out here. There are, however, three instances of this kind of divergence from what M dam actually says in Turkish which do carry over directly into the argument of the dissertation in a manner that requires a few words of comment. In the first of these, a confusion on the part of the translator is deflected onto the poet. Moyle asserts that M dam 's chronological account of the early stage of his career is "rather disconnected, with the change from the old Islamic lunar calendar to the modern Gregorian one which occurred around this time contributing considerably to the confusion. If M dam 's dates are correct, he first acquired a real saz in 1934, when he was twenty..." (pp. 90-91) But M dam 's dates are consistent and the confusion was not on M dam 's part. He states at the opening of the interview that he was born in 1334: "Dogum tarihimiz bin y z otuz d rt." (p. 186) The first sentence of the English translation, however, is: "I was born in 1330 (1914 A.D.)." (p.155) The error would, in fact, appear to be twofold for, if the conversion tables I have on hand are correct, 1330 H. corresponds to 1911- 1912 A.D. Further on, M dam states that it was in 1934 that he began playing the saz. He then repeats both the year of his birth, 1334, and the year he began playing the saz, 1934, in order to avoid any possible confusion arising from the use of two calendars: " 51 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Yanlis olmasin. Bin y z otuz d rt dogumum. Dokuz y z otuz d rtte sazi elime aldim." (p.186) But here again the translator gets the date wrong and even goes so far as to provide an indication in Latin that the translation correctly reproduces an error on the part of M dami! : "That is (let there be no mistake) I was born in 1934 (sic). In 1934 I first picked up the saz." (p.156) It is difficult to chalk this kind of error up to simple carelessness when in the subsequent two sentences the name of a place to which the poet went is placed in the English sentence as if it were a name for his saz and the word "village" is taken for "villager." The explanation for what would appear to be a casual disregard for accuracy becomes more clear when one considers the second instance of a direct transfer of translation errors into the body of the dissertation. Like the first, it reflects both a basic unfamiliarity with Turkish idiom and the existence of implicit assumptions regarding the level of sophistication and mental acumen of the poet. An additional factor enters in, however, in the form of an inclination to interpret what is said, and even to supply what is not said, according to the needs of the argument being made. In Chapter IV, "Learning the Art," Moyle's vantage point is that provided by her readings of Zarifov and Zhirmunskii on the system of apprenticeship among the Uzbeks. Anxious to press parallels on the basis of what can be gleaned from Basg z's interview, she has M dam say, "Yes, I served my apprenticeship with him because he seemed like the most learned man in the world to me. If what the people want is not in your shop, you might as well close up that shop." (p.157) when fact, M dam has said nothing at all about serving as an apprentice, but rather, "Yes, we observed from this that, if you like, be the wisest person in the world, if you can't find 52 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) the goods the customer wants in your shop, you might as well close up your shop." (p.188) (Evet, biz de bundan m l h za ettik ki, istersen, all me-i cihan ol m sterinin istedigi mali d kk ninda bulamazsan, sen de d kk nini kapat." ) (p.188) At no point does M dam utter the words, "I served my apprenticeship," nor does he, in fact, ever use the actual term for apprentice, irak, in speaking of his three-year association with an experienced poet-storyteller, Yakupoglu Tevfik Usta, from whom he learned thirteen stories. And, of course, the phrase, "be the wisest person in the world" refers back in its potentiality to M dam himself. This divergence from the Turkish is heightened when transferred into the dissertation itself as further words are put into M dam 's mouth which serve both to inflate the importance he attributes to his meeting with Yakupoglu and to imply that a master- apprentice relationship has been explicitly stated. Moyle says: "The master minstrel recognized M dami's raw talent and offered to take him as an apprentice." (p. 94) The basis for this statement is the following invitation extended by Yakupoglu: "I've been begging God for a companion like you. Let's set out on the road together." ("Ben, senin gibi bir arkadas Allahtan diliyordum. Seninle bir geziye dogru ikalim.) (p. 188) Moyle continues in her enhancement of the material: For M dam this was a dazzling opportunity. His ambition to be a minstrel, held in the face of all the slights to which he had been subjected, made this offer seem like "the answer to all my prayers." At that time, he says, Yakupoglu Tevfik Usta seemed to him, "like the most learned man in the world." (p.94) 53 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Nowhere, however, does M dam use anything remotely resembling the phrase, "the answer to all my prayers." Moyle's inspiration for this may have been Yakupoglu's statement, "I've been begging God for a friend like you." As noted above, the statement that M dam looked up to Yakupoglu as "the wisest man in the world" rests upon a translation error abetted by a preconceived notion of M dam 's fundamental na vete. Parallels with the Uzbek system of apprenticeship may, indeed, exist, but they have not been demonstrated here. What has been demonstrated is a lack of regard for accuracy and the freedom to exercise it with impunity when a relatively powerless dissertator is writing in an academic context in which investigator and investigated are conceived as being worlds apart. This impunity becomes particularly glaring in the third and final example of a translation error which surfaces in the dissertation itself. In this case, an attitude of condescension towards the poet, perhaps fostered by the dissertator's mentors, is matched by exceedingly low expectations regarding the poetry itself. For how else could one explain acceptance of the following translation of two lines in which a poet expresses his conflicting emotions as he admonishes his own obstinate heart to give up on the beloved while yet urging that his heart be left free to suffer the consequences of this love: "The inconstant one did not take off her glove When she tried to take it off, my heart was a saz." (p. 142) (Dedim, hercaiden el ek ekmedi Degme, eksin cezasidir g nl m m) (p. 191) One might assume that the translation given actually belongs to another poem except for the fact 54 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) that the reference to the removal of gloves could have been inspired by the words "el" meaning "hand" and " ekmek" meaning "to pull," the idiom, "bir seyden el ekmek," meaning to relinquish, withdraw or give up on something. There are no easily discernible grounds for the use of the phrase, "my heart was a saz." Clearly, it would not have taken much of an interest in poetry or knowledge of Turkish to realize that something was seriously amiss here. Even if the translated lines had made good sense, the removal of gloves should have rung untrue, even for the non-expert, as being as foreign to the world of Turkish love poetry, courtly or folk, as they are to traditional Turkish indoor attire. These are all flaws that should not have escaped the attention of Moyle's dissertation advisors in 1975. A doctoral dissertation a decade and a half old should be either corrected and revised by the scholar at his or her current level of maturity and expertise or simply made available through University Microfilms so that both the price and the expectations of the reader might be of a different order of magnitude. This is not to say that Moyle's voice from the past is not without some merit and relevance for today. Indeed, having entered the time warp her dissertation presents, one can see a young scholar who has had the courage to challenge what was at the time axiomatic for adherents of the powerful and attractive oral-formulaic theory, namely, that oral composition and the idea of a fixed text are incompatible and mutually exclusive. In this Moyle has succeeded. Chapter V, "The Songs of the Minstrel Tale," demonstrates through a comparison of sung poems from two tales from two different minstrels and of sung poems from two performances by the same minstrel that the poetry inset in the prose narrative of the tales is, as minstrel poets say it is, memorized. In other words, Moyle has shown that in the Turkish tradition, memorization and the idea of a fixed 55 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) text can and do exist side by side with the ability to compose orally. While this may seem to be belaboring the obvious for those familiar with the Turkish tradition, in the context of the still simmering debate about the composition of the Homeric poems it is an important contribution and one which has ramifications for the broader discussions manifest in such recent works as Jack Goody's THE INTERFACE BETWEEN THE ORAL AND THE WRITTEN. Sarah Moment Atis University of Wisconsin-Madison Otis Hays, Jr., HOME FROM SIBERIA: THE SECRET ODYSSEY OF INTERNED AMERICAN AIRMEN IN WORLD WAR II. (Texas A & M University Press, 1990). xiv + 232 Pp. Appendices, bibliography, index. An event as historically important and wide-spread as the Second World War is bound to give rise to a vast number of interesting incidents and human interest stories. This diary-like book is one of these --the internment of almost 300 American airmen in the Soviet Union. It is not the only publication about these men of the US Army Air Corps and the US Navy who crash- landed in the Soviet Far East after conducting bombing raids on Northern Japan. The bibliography lists 25 items pertinent to the topic, including three books and several articles that deal with it alone, including the two newspaper articles of late 1944 that leaked the essence of the story and caused certain American Air- crews on the way home to be returned to internment in Soviet Central Asia. Stalin's government did not desire its neutrality pact with Japan to be compromised and accordingly wanted it to appear that Americans who had 56 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) attacked Japan were not being allowed to return to active service in the war. The Soviets even fired at all incoming American aircraft, much to the surprise and alarm of their crews, who had been briefed about possible emergency landings on the Kamchatka Peninsula but not about the actual nature of their reception over Soviet territory, in order to play the Soviet game of neutrality to the fullest. Whether the pursuing Japanese pilots were fooled is unlikely since almost no hits were scored. Yet it must have been a terrifying experience for a crew of a damaged plane, perhaps with wounded on board, pursued by Zeros, to run into flak from their only hope of landing and refuge. But refuge turned into captivity, physically trying, long-drawn-out and boring, without benefit of regular contact or communication with the American embassy, much less with relatives and friends at home. In the few letters crewmen managed to send home they could say only they had been interned in a "neutral country." Internment seems to have been one long culture shock and conflict. Ordinary young American males, desirous of returning to their country and getting back into the war quickly ran up against that extremely slow-moving and incommunicative object, Soviet bureaucracy, made even more difficult to budge by Stalinism and the exigencies of war. Promises of deportation in three days would turn into waits of three weeks and then become three months and more. Yet it seems clear the internees' "keepers," the Soviet military, treated them as best they could. More than one internee said they received the same rations as did the Soviet military. Sometimes they were given Lend- Lease food and clothing. Hardest to bear, perhaps, was surgery without anaesthetic. Several died from wounds or disease. After being held in Kamchatka, where most landed, sometimes by plane but usually by train, 57 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) through either Magadan or Khabarovsk to Novosibirsk and then southward through Alma-Ata to the camp near Vrevskaya, near Tashkent, in Uzbekistan. Some tried to escape but were rounded up and returned to the camp. There may have been reasons for the Americans' internment-captivity other than the general Soviet proclivity toward secrecy for its own sake. A few remarks made by some of the American internees suggest the possibility, but only that, of the Soviet Union preparing for war with Japan prior to the agreement reached at Yalta to enter the war in the Pacific three months after the defeat of Germany. An important fact that emerges clearly from the book is that the future strategic capability of the USSR was greatly enhanced by the arrival on Soviet territory of these 37 aircrews comprising 291 men (223 army and 58 navy). The USSR acquired several examples of at least four types of American bombers (B17, B24, B29 plus one or more navy types). Some planes were hardly damaged. Was a Norden bombsight also acquired? Release came not individually or by aircrew, but by groups of aircrews on five occasions, between May 11, 1943 and August 24, 1945, usually by truck convoy at night across mountains and desert into Iran with NKVD in charge of the operation. Once out of the USSR, the men came under the control of American bureaucracy at its most secretive. All released before the war ended had to sign secrecy pledges, sometimes more than once, promising they would never divulge that they had been interned in the Soviet Union. Not until 1988 did Congress pass special legislation that entitled those still alive to benefits due prisoners of war, a status that many of the airmen felt applied to them. Only three of the airmen ever visited the Soviet Union again. A suggestion by one of the navy fliers for a reunion in Tashkent never got off the ground. 58 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) HOME FROM SIBERIA is an inherently interesting and at times moving account of people, American and Soviet, attempting to survive under difficult wartime conditions made even more trying by the desire of two governments to make certain these men's existence did not affect policy. Karl W. Ryavec University of Massachusetts-Amherst Muriel Atkin, THE SUBTLEST BATTLE: ISLAM IN SOVIET TAJIKISTAN. (Philadelphia: Foreign Policy Research Institute, 1989) viii + 66 pp., footnotes/bibliography, paper. This slim volume is the first book length account, in English, of "the status of Islam" (p.3) in Tajikistan. Based on Soviet and Western researchers work on Islam, both as a system of religious beliefs and practices and as a political force under Soviet rule, this publication of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia appears to be part of an ongoing debate related to the United States policy concerns in the region. The central aim of this study seems to be to debunk the widely held view of most Western experts on the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s, that Islam and Muslims pose a threat to the stability of the Soviet state. Such an assertion, if true, could have significant policy implications. Muriel Atkin, however, argues against the notion that Islam presents a powerful dissident force against Soviet rule in Muslim Central Asia. In view of the rapid changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union since the publication of the book in 1989, her position on this point appears to have been borne out, at least for the moment. 59 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Atkin's argument in support of her position is three fold: First, methodologically, she says, the assumptions regarding rising Muslim militancy in the USSR since the 1970s are based, for the most part, on partial and highly abstracted and generalized information. Most of the data utilized in support of the prevailing assumptions, she asserts, come from the north and northeastern Caucasus and Turkmenistan in Central Asia, a relatively small area, and "may not be representative" of the Soviet Muslim population as a whole (p. 3). Furthermore, available information from these regions is primarily on sufism, a presumed "vital form" of Islam as well as "the most politically militant" expression of the religion (p. 2). Second, Atkin contends that there is no substantiated evidence indicating either any real upsurge of Islamic militancy in the Soviet Union, or unusual Soviet concerns over potential danger to the Communist system from Muslims or Islamic movements. Western writers had predicted these events because of the presumed impact of Islamist movements world-wide since the 1970s, and the more immediate influences of the successful Islamic revolution in Iran and Islamist armed resistance against the Soviets in Afghanistan, just across the southern frontiers of the USSR. Such assumptions on the part of Western researchers, she argues, may have been primarily a function of the heightened awareness in the West about Islamist movements, and a projection of their own fears, rather than an indication of any meaningful change in the nature of relations between Soviet Muslims and the Soviet state. Finally, by turning her attention to a single republic, Tajikistan, the only titular republic in Muslim Soviet Central Asia sharing a common language (Tajik/ Persian/Dari) with neighboring Iran and borders with Afghanistan, Atkin characterizes relationships extant between Muslims and the atheistic Soviet State in Tajikistan as "THE 60 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) SUBTLEST BATTLE," the title of her book. In this ongoing battle, Soviet policies towards religion in general and Islam in particular have remained consistently hostile, aimed at the eventual total destruction of Islamic beliefs, institutional forms and practices. In this endeavor, Soviets have pursued a varied but pragmatic course in fighting their battles against Islam and Muslims, most notably by creating an "official Islam" in the form of Muslim Religious Boards, in order to co-opt, politically emasculate, and use Islamic symbols, ideals and human resources towards the furtherance of Soviet domestic and international policies, as deemed necessary. Cognizant of Soviet intent and the presence of a variety of institutional structures to undermine Islamic beliefs and practices, Muslims in Tajikistan have fought, and to a large extent won, their own defensive battles in preserving important components of the Islamic traditions as part and parcel of their Tajik "national tradition" (p.31). Thus, presumably, long standing battles of Communist atheism and Islam in Tajikistan, subtle or not, continue without clear winners or losers as yet. Atkin also asserts that the developments in Iran and Afghanistan have had little or no detectable political impact upon the Tajik Muslims' relations with the Soviet State. This reviewer finds her general argument persuasive given the kinds of data she is working with. The true value of this booklet, described by Adam M. Garfinkle, the series editor at FPRI, as "a careful, scholarly, and important case-study of Islam in the Soviet Union" (p.vii), lies less in what it reveals about the "status of Islam" in Tajikistan than in what it tells us about the sadly underdeveloped (conceptual, methodological and analytical) state of Western and Soviet approaches to the study of Islam and Muslims in the Soviet Union. Principally, the approach taken in this book, a study of Islam in the Soviet Union from a 61 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) distance, is the same as the approach of other Western scholars it criticizes--i.e., it relies primarily on Soviet publications in Russian, and in this case a number of Tajik authors who are working primarily to promote the cause of atheism, the clearly articulated anti-Islamic policies of the Soviet state. It seems that our understanding of Islam and Muslims is limited to the views of those whose very job and livelihood within the Soviet System have been contingent upon the representation of Islam and Muslims as a danger to the Soviet state. In other words, we in the West, and elsewhere, have been exposed to continuous, well orchestrated monologues and diatribes that portray Islam and Muslims as either dangerous or threatening. We have yet to hear the voice of a single Soviet Muslim, of any age or sex--whether defined by the Soviets as a "true believer"/ "fanatic", "religiously Muslim", "culturally Muslim", "sufi" or "an un-official mullah"--other than those working as propagandists for atheism, speak for him/her self. Much to her credit, Muriel Atkin is aware of the limitations of the data she is using, but the fact remains that she continues to pose the same old questions, employ the same old worn out concepts and categories, even if she reaches a slightly different conclusion about "the political significance and strength of Islam in Tajikistan" (p.27) than those propounded by other Soviet experts. The problems of restricted access to field research among Muslims in the Soviet Union is to blame for some of the shortcomings of the current state of Central Asian studies, but not for all of them. Undoubtedly, much to the chagrin of some researchers on Soviet Islam, the Soviet system appears to be unravelling without any help from the alleged Islamic threat to it. These rapidly changing political and ideological conditions, however, promise unprecedented opportunities for first hand study of the 62 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) status of Islam and Muslims in Central Asia, and the rigorous application of the available conceptual and analytical tools of Western social sciences for a better and more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of Muslim societies under Soviet rule. This effort may have to begin with a critical and comparative examination of relationships between power and production of knowledge of, and about, Islam in the Soviet Union. It must also address not only the questions of how, why and in what forms (institutionalized and private, secret and public, folk and modern, rural and urban, "official" and "un- official", etc.) Islamic beliefs and practices have persisted AGAINST and IN OPPOSITION OR REACTION TO other forces, as it is often depicted by outside observers, but also present Muslim adherents' own REASONS FOR COMMITMENT to Islamic beliefs and practices under very trying circumstances. In other words, it is not sufficient to explain the persistence of Islamic beliefs, and the absence of a more strident Muslim opposition to the Soviet system simply as a function of "manifest deficiencies in Soviet efforts" to promote atheism, especially in the countryside "where most Central Asian Muslims live" (p.52-53). The only real link between ideals and ideologies (religious or otherwise) and actions (political or otherwise) are human individuals, in this instance Muslims (believers, un-official mullahs, shamans, etc.) who live and make decisions in particular social, historical, economic and political contexts--i.e. in a rapidly changing Soviet state and society--and we must begin to focus our scholarly attentions on the thoughts and activities of Muslims themselves, especially in view of the heightened Western policy concerns in the region. We need to discern not only what it means to be a Muslim in Soviet contexts but also what difference, if any, being a Muslim makes in the behavior of individuals in 63 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) particular social situations in their daily lives. Muriel Atkin's THE SUBTLEST BATTLE: ISLAM IN TAJIKISTAN sheds some light onto the tortuous and challenging research path ahead. Are the rest of us ready to join the battle? M. Nazif Shahrani Indiana University, Bloomington Frank J. Miller, FOLKLORE FOR STALIN: RUSSIAN FOLKLORE AND PSEUDOFOLKLORE OF THE STALIN ERA. Studies of the Harriman Institute. (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1990). 192 pp. This volume presents a history of the way politics affected the collection, study, publication, and even creation of folklore during the time of Stalin. The origins of "Soviet folklore" and the main contributors to its development (Maxim Gorky and the folklorist Iurii Sokolov, pp. 7-8) are covered in the first chapter. The second deals with the new type of epic termed "novina," the third concerns the adaptation of folk tales to new Soviet content, and the fourth covers the fate of "pseudofolklore" after the death of Stalin in 1953. Three appendices contain English synopses of "novina" and Soviet tales, and complete translations of selected pieces of "Soviet folklore." The volume opens with a foreword by William E. Harkins and concludes with standard notes, bibliography, and index. Since many traditional folklore genres were still viable in the 1920s and 1930s among the Russian population in the Soviet Union it is not surprising that folklore was eventually subjected to political control and was exploited for propaganda purposes. A new type of "Soviet folklore" was developed, and was supposed to reflect the ideals and achievements of a 64 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) new Soviet society. Suitable performers were sought out, advisers were sent to help them reshape traditional folklore genres, and the resulting texts were adjusted to the standard language and to "correct" political ideas. In opposition to the folk name "starina" for oral epics, a new genre called "novina" was created and was devoted to people in the "Soviet pantheon," the chief ones being Lenin, Stalin, Chkalov, Chapaev, Kirov, and Voroshilov (p. 14). A classic clash between "form and content" ensued since the poetic language and motifs of the epic were mixed with literary expressions and political jargon. Thus Krupskaia is referred to as a "pretty maid" ("krasnaia devitsa," p. 50) and Lenin is called the "red sun" ("krasnoe solnyshko," p. 46), a phrase customarily reserved for Prince Vladimir of Kiev. A. V. Morozova's poem "Of the Miracle Stairway," which she composed about the subway after her visit to Moscow and which was published in "Pravda" in 1935, is a representative example of the "novina" (pp. 152-54). In the preface, the author states that his book "is a study of the artificial folklore based on the traditional genres: the epic song (the 'bylina'), the lament for the dead, the lyric song, and the folktale" (p. xiii). He makes a distinction between "western definitions of folklore as the oral cultural tradition of a specific group of people" and folklore defined in the Soviet Union since the l930s as the "oral poetic creations of the broad folk masses" (p. 4). "Soviet folklore" is different because most contributors were literate, many wrote out their new creations, and some even read these works before audiences. In the fourth chapter the author offers an overall definition, saying that "the term Soviet folklore had come to signify works by folk performers and folklorists in praise of the Soviet people, their life, their government, and their leaders, particularly Stalin" (p. 95). 65 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) Folklorists as early as the late 1940s but especially after 1953 criticized the very idea of "Soviet folklore" and most came to believe that no such thing ever existed. Since this episode in Russian folklore scholars have largely ignored "Soviet folklore." A few points of clarification need to be mentioned. First, one has to distinguish between "Russian folklore" and "Soviet folklore" because good collections and studies of Russian folklore were published in this period. Second, it is not easy to form a universal definition of folklore because as life changes so folklore also changes. One may admire the oral literature collected over the last two centuries in Russian folklore, but should one take this kind of "classic folklore" as an immutable standard? Third, folklore has often been exploited for other purposes, the most obvious one today being tourism in many countries. "Soviet folklore" may represent one of the most blatant instances of such exploitation. Fourth, in Russian an interaction has taken place between written literature and oral literature since Kievan times, in particular around the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of he nineteenth century when poets such as Pushkin, Lermontov, and Koltsov wrote folklore stylizations. In some cases, such literary works were later collected from folk performers, thus showing that no clear boundary exists between the two kinds of literature. Fifth, one may question the statement that Marfa Kriukova, who coined the word "novina" and was one of its main creators, "was a folk performer par excellence" (p. 51). Her ability to turn almost anything she read into an epic places her in Astaxova's category of "improvisers" (p. 50), but such performers might more aptly be described as revealing how the decline of the Russian oral epic was well advanced before "Soviet folklore" came into existence and as showing how individual originality was replacing 66 AACAR BULLETIN Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall, '91) communal tradition. Her unprecedented repertory of 129 songs consequently should be regarded with some skepticism. Most of these points show how difficult it is to make a precise distinction between "authentic folklore" and "pseudofolklore." Frank Miller has provided a well documented study about how politics influenced the collection and investigation of folklore under Stalin. This book fills a gap in the history of the study of Russian folklore, and should be useful both to folklorists and to those who study the history of this period from various viewpoints. James Bailey University of Wisconsin-Madison. 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