Constructing Turkmen cultural identity: Alexander N. Samoilovich (1880–1938) and his «indigenous» interlocutors

Dissertationsprojekt von Anton Ikhsanov

Betreuer: Prof. Dr. Andreas Renner

Contemporary historiography acknowledges the profound impact of philology on the development of humanities and social sciences, that is to say, the path for appropriation of the world. However, the adherence to the power/knowledge paradigm frequently eclipses the particular practices employed by scholars in the production of knowledge concerning Asian communities.
This project has been initiated as an endeavour to examine a dialogue between Russian/Soviet orientalists and their interlocutors representing the Turkmen communities. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Turkmen communities were predominantly perceived as enigmatic by European scholars who sought to find and systematise data on local languages, cultures and ways of life. These scholars espoused the belief that the pursuit of enriching ‘the knowledge of humanity’ should be enhanced by acquiring greater insight into the local communities. My vision of this concept has led to a shift in my initial perception of this topic, from a focus on the reconstruction of networks of text circulation to a more in-depth examination of the orientalists' practices, which were shaped by their subjectivity and positionality. The present study aims to analyse how the practices of acquiring, reading, interpreting and attributing texts were established and utilised. The work seeks to reveal the contextualisation of these practices in the turbulent political period of the disintegration of the Russian empire, which provoked the intensification of ideas' exchange, full of inner ruptures and instabilities. The analysis demonstrates how the collaborative efforts of polymaths, progressives, orientalists, ethnographers and political activists created the language used to describe the Turkmen communities and why it is methodologically unstable and incoherent.
This work focuses on the archival collection of Alexander Samoilovich, a scholar who began his research career as a collector of Turkmen manuscripts in 1902. He went on to study comparative linguistics and to be a high-level Soviet academician until his death in 1938 during the Stalinist purges. His extensive network of professional connections included several individuals who played pivotal roles in the cultural landscape of Turkmenistan, such as Hojaly-molla Myratberdi-ogly, Nikolaý Ýomudskiý, Muhammet Geldiýew, and Abdylhekim Gulmuhammedow. The present work delves into the intellectual and cultural history of Central Asia, illuminating its development through the lens of these interactions.