The history of the libraries in Turkistan (1870-1917 years)

It is well known that the 21st century is the age of information, science and technology, as well as computers, telephones and the Internet. In such an era of innovative globalization, in the development of highly spiritual, intellectual and competitive personnel, educated in the spirit of love for the motherland, loyalty to the family, respect for our values, the role of libraries and books is growing. The fourth of 5 important initiatives put forward by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sh.M. Mirziyoev is called as “the rise in the spirituality of the youth and propogandising readership among them”. It helped to start a new level of the reformation in this sector in Uzbekistan[1].

According to Andrew Carnegie, an American billionaire, reading must be planned as daily nutrition[2]. Andrew, whose family moved from Scotland to America, earned money by cleaning people’s shoes during the days. He spent his money on bying fine books and read them late under the nightlight.

Years later, Andrew Carnegie became “the father of steel industry” and the richest man in the world. As his wealth increased, Andrew Carnegie built 2,811 libraries bearing his name by the end of his life. He spent $ 40,000 on it. Today, 25 percent of Americans use these libraries[3].

According to the history, the first libraries were established in Uzbekistan in the last centuries of the first millennium BC. Libraries were established in many Central Asian countries, especially in ancient Sogdiana and Khorezm, at the end of the 2nd century and became rich libraries by the early 3rd century.

In Zarioastrians’ sacred book “Avesto” [4], Bekhistun written during the period of Ahemmenid Empire, and on the carved rock stones of Nakshi Rustam, which are thought to be primary written source on the territory of Uzbekistan, contain information about the nature and nations of Turan and Moverannakhr[5].

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In the period from the 14th century and 15th century, during the reign of Amir Temur and his grandson Mirzo Ulugbek, Samarkand became the most beautiful and prosperous city of that time, literally the beauty of the earth. The largest and richest libraries in the world, famous educational institutions such as observatories and madrasas, great scholars were on this land.”[6] In particular, the “Temur codes” written about the history of that period contain important information about the formation of Amir Temur and the Temurid kingdom[7], domestic and foreign policy, socio-economic and cultural life of the country.[8]

(Jalaliddin Rumiy) and the other one was “Shabistoni khayoli” (“Nights of Misteries”) by Makhmud Shbustaniy”.

In the early 19th century, Central Asia was invaded by the Russian military. Uzbek khanates -Bukhara, Kokand and Khiva were conquered and replaced by the General Governorship of Turkestan.[9]

Turkestan General Governorship is an administrative and territorial unit established on July 11, 1867 on the territory of West Turkestan occupied by the Russian Empire. In the same year, the Turkestan Military District was formed. The first governor-general of Turkestan was a close official of the Russian tsar, adjutant-general K.P. fon Kaufmann (1818–1882) was appointed. He ruled Turkestan with his strictness for 14 years.

Page 83 In the late 19^th century, the General Governorship of Turkestan consisted of Syrdarya, Yettisuv, Samarkand, Fergana and Caspian regions. The total area of the General Governorship of Turkestan was 1,779,618 versts. Russian ruling circles used all means to make Turkestan an integral part of the empire and to Russify its peoples. Cultural reforms in the country, especially in the field of library work, were the main aims.

There are three publications on the history of library work in Turkestan (1870-1917): works written during the colonial period of the Russian Empire (Dmitrovskiy N., Dobromislov A.,

Lakhtin, I. Bekhbudiy), works written during the Soviet period (Kasimova G., Abramov K., Betger E., Chabrov G., Burov N.), conducted during the years of independence (Karmilitsin A., Akhunjanov E., Berdieva Z., Kasimova O., Yesimov T., Yuldashev E.).[10]

A comparative analysis of the opening of public libraries and reading rooms in Turkestan by period (by region) can be made as follows. The first can be the Public library and reading rooms in Tashkent, the second can be the Public library and reading rooms established in the military governorship of Fergana, the third can be the Libraries and reading rooms opened in Syrdarya and Caspian regions.

In Turkestan, the preparation and reproduction of books by calligraphy took a long time. Xylography emerged as a result of research into the mass reproduction of book copies. In the 1910s in Turkestan, there were publishing companies “Russian outsirts”, “Turkestan comradeship of printing”, “Culture”, “School”, “Turkestan Library” engaged in publishing and distribution of books. Wealthy and enlightened people of the local population and Jadids, as well as progressive Russian and Tatar intellectuals worked here.[11]

The first edition of the book in Turkestan was published in 1870[12]. The establishment of book publishing led to the spread of books among the population.

Bekhbudiy wrote all his books in the way of human interest and enlightenment. He was a man who knew the history of the world very well, who had an in-depth analysis of the current political events in the world. In particular, he studied the reasons for the dependence of not only Turkestan, but also the entire Muslim world on other countries, and conveyed these ideas to the people through his books.

Ibrat Turakurganiy (1862–1937), the son of Iskhakkhon Junaydullokhoja, a historian from Fergana who lived in the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century, emphasized the need for people to know the history of their homeland.[13] Ibrat was the first effective organizer and promoter of the National Library and readership as well. The Iskhokiya Library Fund, which he founded, was quite rich in this respect, the giving and receiving of books was in accordance with a certain procedure in that.

Many libraries were established in Turkestan due to the need for books. The first of them is the Public Library (the State National Library of the Republic of Uzbekistan named after Alisher Navoi)[14] opened on May 21, 1870 in Tashkent. Its book fund included 2,200 copies of 1,200 titles. For a short time the number of books increased, and in 1876 it reached 4401 copies.

It should be noted that libraries in Turkestan were established and put into operation by the letter[15] of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Governor-General of Turkestan dated September 4, 1896” On common and public libraries and free reading rooms in the General Governorship of Turkestan.” A copy of the letter was sent by the governor to all regional and district centers, requesting the establishment of local libraries and approval of its charter. According to the letter, public libraries and reading rooms were opened in the cities like Osh, New Margilan, Kokand, Namangan, Andijan, Skobelev, and Jizzakh City (Samarkand Region), Lepsinsk, Omsk, Kazala and Przhevalsk Cities (Syrdarya and Uratepa Regions).

According to archival documents, the letter of the Governor-General of Turkestan No. 3150 of May 10, 1897, in Lepsinsk City of Yettisuv (Semirchens) Region[16], a common library and a reading room were opened[17].

According to the decision of the military governor of Akmola region, General M.A. Levintsov (1825–1896)[18] No. 1840 of the year 1897 on the “Omsk City Library”, a library was opened in Omsk. On September 2, 1897, the charter of the library was made up[19]. The public library in Kazala[20] City was opened on October 28, 1899.[21]

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In 1900, another library was opened - Przewalsk City Library. The Przewalsk City Library, like other libraries, had a task to elaborate the library’s charter and submit it to the military governor.

The charter of the Avliyota city library was approved on December 19, 1907 by the governorgeneral of the Syrdarya region, lieutenant general M.Y. Romanov (1848–1915).[22]

According to the order of the Governor-General of Turkestan No. 16468 of December 18, 1899, the Amudarya library was opened and its temporary charter was adopted. The library’s reading room was located at the Farob station of the Central Asian Railways. By 1907, the PetroAleksandrovsk Library was established in the Amudarya District of the Syrdarya Region.[23]

The libraries followed strict procedures, storing only the literature permitted by the imperial Ministry of the Internal. The ministry even took control of information about the content of books in bookstores and prevented illegal sale of books[24].

In accordance with the decision of the military governor of Samarkand region No. 6 of May 1910, a library was opened in Jizzakh City.[25]The services of the head of the district lieutenant colonel Rukin and the people’s adviser of the Jizzakh city council Mulla Yusuf Abdullaboev in opening the library deserve special recognition because they were directly involved in the formation of the library fund.

In 1907, with the initiative of Makhmudhoja Bekhbudi, the Bekhbudiya Library was established in Samarkand[26] in honor of his father. His library was considered one of the richest Muslim libraries in Turkestan.[27]There were school textbooks such as “Adibi Avval”, “Adibi Soni”, “Yer Yuzi” created by Munavvar Kori, as well as a newspaper “Shukhrat” and “The First Teacher”, ”The Second Teacher”, “Turkiy Guliston Yokhud Akhlok” founded by Abdulla Avloni.

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The library had 200 copies of historical and scientific books, in particular, a translation of the Holy Koran and historical books, 15 copies of newspapers and magazines. Books and newspapers were mainly in Arabic, Persian and Russian. Scholars from about 15 of the world’s most famous cities, such as Mecca, Medina, Istanbul, Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Makhmudkhoja Bekhbudiy and librarian, secretary Abdukholiqov played an important role in the establishment of the library.[28]

Samarkand City public library (now Samarkand regional scientific library named after A.S. Pushkin) was founded in 1909. Book storage, literature processing, reader service, periodicals, information and bibliography, technical and agricultural literature, family classroom, art, foreign literature, scientific-methodical catalogs and card indexes, literature on local lore and legal information centers available were included in the library. There was a storage of about 2,000 copies of literatures.[29]

According to the archival documents, in 1898, the Fergana regional administration adopted a Resolution No. 421 “On the opening of public libraries and classrooms in regional and city centers.”[30]In accordance with the resolution, libraries were immediately established in various cities of Fergana region.

In 1898, the Osh Public Library and Study Room of the Fergana Military Governor’s Office were opened.[31] On January 14, 1899, in accordance with the decision of the governor of Fergana region, the city public library of New Margilan (renamed Skobelev from 1907) was established. On October 24, 1900, a library was opened in Kokand. On January 26, 1901, the

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Namangan Public Library[32] started to function. It contained about 250 books, and a list of them was compiled and cataloged.

In 1907, by order of the military governor of the Fergana region, the library was reorganized in Skobelev (in the same year the city of New Margilan was renamed Skobelov, and the city library was reorganized). On November 18, 1908, according to the protocol No. 144[33] of the Skobelev Public Library was adopted, and the activities of the library were regulated and it became an official institution.

Several libraries were opened in Fergana region and their number was growing. In Andijan district, the library was established in 1902 for 1192 rubles collected by the local population. In 1905, a small reading room of the library was established.[34]

The Uratepa city library of Jizzakh district was opened in August, 1909 by Artsishevsky, a local police officer. In 1911, there were 1,623 books in its reading room.[35]

In the same year, a free library and a reading room were opened in Tashkent by local Muslim intellectuals. This was reported in the 24th issue of the Turkestan Bulletins[36] in 1913. A citizen Kasim Tyumen and domla Olimjon donated to the library the most valuable books they had collected for 50 years. Reading room of the library was opened with the money raised from Muslim performances held in Tashkent twice a month and charitable donations. Its charter was written in Russian, and library books were also required to be formed from Russian language literature.[37]

On January 9, 1911, the library of the Turkestan branch of the Russian Society of Technology was opened. Also, in 1910 the reading room of the Tashkent Central Railway Library was opened. The library itself was established in 1902. In 1913, a library for police officers was ⁸⁶ opened in Tashkent.[38]

Many books were stored in the libraries. The manuscript fund included books on history, country study, geography and linguistics. They contained copies of books written by great scholars that were not available in the libraries of the world. The creation of this fund had a long history. Twenty years after the opening of the first public library in Tashkent in 1870, E. Kal registered 87 volumes of the manuscript collection.

This list incudes “Sharkh al-mulakhas fi-l-khayati” (the commentary on the summary in Astronomy) the book by Makhmud bin Mukhammad bin Umar-al-Cjagminiy al-Khorazmiy (died in 1344) which is about spheric astronomy, “Risolai istiorai Khoja Abulkosim Samarkandiy”(a treatise on the metaphor of Hodja Abul Qasim Samarkandi) (XV) the manuscript giving information about the meeting dedicated to the metaphor in which great scholars such as Taftazoniy and Jurjoniy who had been to Amir Temur’s, “Zafarnoma” (the book of victories) the work by Sharafuddin Ali Yazdiy written about Amir Temur (was translated from Persian to French).

The rare work “Fatava al-Akhsikati” (“Ethical and legal decisions of the mufti al-Akhsikati”) by Abu Bakir Akhsikatiy (1123–1194) dedicated to Legal, moral and social relations of Central Asian society in the X-XII centuries.

Also, the famous Sufi moral-educational masnavi by Abdurakhman Jomiy (1414–1492) “Silsikhat ul-zakhab” (“Golden chain”). The work is dedicated to Mavlono Jomiy’s son and future generations, the third chapter about the qualities of public administration and a fair (just) king. The work was copied by the famous calligraphist Darwish Ali Mashhadi’s school.

In particular, in an article written in 1895, N.V. Dmitrovskiy noted that the Turkestan library has 90 volumes of manuscripts in Eastern languages.[39] This fund of the library was enriched in various ways, such as purchases and gifts. From 1918 to 1943 the department of “Oriental manuscript” of the library was replenished with unique books stored in Samarkand and Bukhara.[40] Well-known orientalist A.A. Semyonov called these collections “an opportunity to reflect the intellectual activity and needs of Central Asian society.”[41]

It should be noted that the Public Library in Tashkent was located in two rooms of the building near the office of the Governor-General in Tashkent. Most of the books were confiscated from the authorities during the occupation of Tashkent (later sent to the Saint Petersburg Public Library by fon Kaufmann), and they also consisted of the sources from the Tashkent Book Publishing House, founded in 1870, as well as books from Russian scientific societies.

On December 13, 1882, the Governor-General of Turkestan M.G. Chernyaev closed the Public Library in Tashkent. The books were sent to the Tashkent Museum and were placed in the “Book Storage Room” of the museum. In 1884, N.O. Rosenbach, who had been appointed as the Governor-General of the country instead of M.G. Chernyaev, managed to restore the library to its former state.

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The Supervisory Committee, established in 1883, played a positive role in these difficult periods in the history of the library. In different years this committee consisted of N.A. Maev, N.V. Dmitrovsky, A.A. Semenov, A.A. Divaev, N.G. Malisky and similar famous scientists, educators, historians, ethnographers.

On January 13, 1887, Tashkent, in the name of the library, was replaced by the word Turkestan and renamed the Turkestan Public Library. The name remained until August 26, 1906, during the time of the new governor, D.I. Subbotich (1852–1920). From 1906 to 1919 it functioned as the Turkestan People’s Library.

The library contains many books about Central Asia. The Turkistan Collection is a particularly important source. The collection was regularly compiled by the famous bibliographer V.I. Mejov (1830–1894) until 1887, and in 1920 he prepared 416 volumes and published them 3 times with alphabetical and systematic indexes. The collection was continued in 1907 by bibliographers such as N.V. Dmitrovskiy, A.A. Semyonov, E.K. Betger after a 20-year break.

In 1920, the library was given the status of the State Library, and it changed dramatically. By 1925, the library fund had grown to 140,000 volumes. In early 1920, the Library began accepting copies of publications made in Turkestan[42].

In the early days of the library’s history, the creation of the “Album of Turkestan” was of great importance. In creating this unique photo album, the orientalist A.L. Kun played a big role.

According to the academician A.A. Semyonov, who compiled the “Catalog of Manuscripts of the Turkestan Public Library”, by 1917 the manuscript fund of the library reached 250 volumes.

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During this period, the first lithographic books published in Khiva and Tashkent were purchased. These lithographic books include A. Navoiy’s “Khamsa” (1880), “Devoni Munis”, “Devoni Raji”, and also “Stoykost Slabikh” written by the famous poet of the 17th century Sufi Alloyor and others.

Thus, libraries have become scientific and educational centers telling stories from the pages of distant history. Their functions was based directly on research. The results of the research carried out in the library were stored in books, audiovisual tapes, videos, film and photo documents.

Today, the functions of the National Library have expanded significantly. It serves as a coordinating and methodological center for all information and library institutions in the country. The Republican Methodological Council established under the library is devising recommendations for improving the activities of libraries through the wider introduction of information and communication technologies, model regulations for individual libraries, methodological and bibliographic manuals and other targeted documents. The national standards of information and library activities regulating relations in this area have been elaborated.