“The Sketch of the Arabic Literature” by V. F. Guirgass (1835–1887) in the context of the Russian Arabic Studies d the 19th century and the present situation in our branch of scholarship

Professor of the Oriental Faculty of the Imperial University of St. Petersburg Vladimir F. Guirgass (1835–1887) is one of the founders of the Academic Arabic Studies in Russia and the first Russian Arabist of the European level. As a young man V. F. Guirgass carried out an extremely fruitful Academic journey to the Arab Orient, which was also eminent for him from the vie-point of areal studies. The results of this travelling experience produced a substantial effect upon the rest of the life of Guirgass as a scholar and as a professor. The legacy of Guirgass appears to be to a high degree fundamental. Among his exploits are educational supplies (on the Muslim Law and the Arabic Literature), readers for beginners in Arabic, as well as for advanced students (the latter is aimed at instructing future experts in divers genres of the Classical Arabic Literature) and the first Arabic-Russian Vocabulary, which still remains unique as a dictionary of the Classical Arabic in Russia. At the termination of his earthy life V. Guirgass prepared for the publication the text of a major classical Arabic Medieval work on History, that is Kitab al-Akhbar al-Tiwal (The Book of the Long Narrations) by al-Dinawari ( 9th c.). Some of the attainments carried out by V. Guirgass are shared by his disciple, who later was promoted to the membership of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences, V. R. Rosen (1849–1908). The two scholars were active at those times, when the essential Arabic sources, that they were anxious about, still remained unpublished in the form of manuscripts. All these items are under the discussion in the present article. In the course of the presentation, the Author analyses the works by Guirgass that became available to him for a study lake that. Special attention is paid to “The Sketch of the Arabic Literature” (1874), as there is a project of carrying out its new edition. The work is of a special importance, as it has been for a long time the only complete account of the Classical Arabic Literature in the Russian Language, aimed at the purposes of the Higher Education in the field of the Arabic Studies. While informing the present-day Arabists about the life and acts of a for-father of our contemporary Studies, the Author was striving to reveal their continual value for our profession.