This collection consists of manuscripts from the Library of 'Alī al-Ghumūqī in Dagestan, Russia. Alī al-Ghumūqī (better known in some contexts by his Soviet name Ali Kaiaev) was a major figure in modern Dagestani intellectual history, whose oeuvre encompasses an astonishing range of genres, languages, contexts, and cultures. The Ghumūqī Collection is important for many disciplines and areas of inquiry, including Islamic intellectual history, Arabic, Persian, and Turkic literatures, and the Muslim cultures of the former Soviet Union. Al-Ghumūqī was one of the last Soviet citizens to receive extensive training in a major centre of Islamic learning, Cairo’s al-Azhar University. As a provocative thinker whose writings on Islamic law earned him many followers and critics, the manuscripts al-Ghumūqī collected during his travels across the Middle East shed light on the vibrant intellectual milieu of early th century Dagestan. More broadly, the Ghumūqī Collection bridges pre-Soviet Dagestani intellectual history with the post-Soviet (and post-secular) present, wherein countless Dagestanis Muslims are returning to Islam, yet unable to access their country’s rich history.
Unfortunately, the Endangered Archives Programme did not receive the final metadata from the project holder. We took the decision to obtain catalogue information about the manuscripts through a crowdsourcing appeal. If you would like to enhance the information about these manuscripts, please email us at endangeredarchives@bl.uk.
Extent: 216 manuscripts.
