Sergey Oldenburg

By the beginning of the 21 century a continuous problem for all libraries was intensified: on the one hand, the need to insure good physical condition of the rare books collection, and on the other hand the necessity to consider the readers’ interests, who need to use these books. This complex issue of preservation and access has now appeared in Tajikistan in full measure

This issue became the main goal of this project on access to rare books and preservation of those books in the library of the Academy of Sciences in Tajikistan, funded by the US Embassy in Tajikistan under the Ambassador Fund on cultural heritage preservation program.

The Ambassador’s Fund for cultural preservation program was launched by Congress in 2001 and is being implemented by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. The mission of the program is assistance to developing countries in preserving their cultural heritage, including preservation of monuments, rare books, dance and musical arts masterpieces, and valuable museum collections. The document heritage preservation activities of the library excellently demonstrate international community cooperation in world cultural heritage preservation efforts.

One of the largest book collections in Tajikistan is the collection of the Central Scientific library of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, which includes over a million and a half items. Among the most valuable book collections of this academic library is the Rare Book collection with over 15 thousand books.

The CD of S.F. Oldenburg's works will be the first CD issued in the planned series of electronic publications. The main goal of the series is making available the contents of the Rare Book collection of the Central Scientific library of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Sergey Oldenburg

Academician Oldenburg, a man of incredible talents and magnificent erudition, a brilliant expert on wide variety of Oriental languages, and a founder of several trends in contemporary Oriental studies, left a bright mark in the history of science.
Sergey Oldenburg was born in 1863 to a family of old noble Mecklenburg origin, whose members migrated to Russia in the time of Peter the Great. He graduated from the Oriental department of the St. Petersburg University.
There he received his Candidate degree, and worked abroad in the libraries of Paris, London and Cambridge. In 1889 he started giving lectures in the St. Petersburg University. After receiving a Masters degree in Sanskrit philology in 1894, he was nominated a professor. In 1900 he was elected an academician and in 1904 he began working as permanent secretary of the Academy of Sciences. Oldenburg now entered a brilliant community of scientists, ones who had done much for the development of the modern idea of the unity of cultural processes.

S. F. Oldenburg's wide learning and deep commitment to the ideals of science determined his role as organizer of scientific thought. Acting as permanent secretary of the Academy of Sciences, Oldenburg was virtually leading it for almost a quarter of a century, until 1929. In his professional output and dedication to his country, Oldenburg showed great versatility; besides the work in the Academy he placed high emphasis on his obligations as a member of the State council and a member of the Cadet Party Central Committee; he was also a Minister of Enlightenment of the Temporary Government.

The quantity of his scientific works is significant, and one can be amazed by the breadth of his scientific interests, from study of folklore, philology, and linguistics to the economic problems of Oriental countries.

It is not by chance that we are learning at present with such interest about the life and work of Sergey Oldenburg. Besides all the aspects of his versatile scientific and organizational activities there is another very important side of his activities, related to the history of Tajikistan and development of science in this country. S.F. Oldenburg was the first Chairman of the Tajik headquarters of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1933 and did much for its development, especially in forming the library of the Academy.

After his death the complete private book collection of Sergey Oldenburg was acquired for the Tajik headquarters of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1937 it was transported to the capital of the Republic, and now is kept in the Central Scientific library of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, which at present houses about one and a half million items.

The private library of Professor Oldenburg is unique in its contents. Suffice it to say that it accumulates a huge number of 18th and 19th century books in Russian, German, English and French devoted to the history and culture of the Oriental (Middle Eastern and Central and Sub-Asian) region. This is perhaps the only collection of European study of local lore with such high value in the Republic of Tajikistan. The oldest book of this collection is dated to the second half of the 16th century. That is the book of Honteri Joan “Rudomentorum Cosmographicorum”, Antverpiae edition. Books on Iran studies are of particular interest. They make it possible to assert that Oldenburg, being in the first place an incredible expert on the history and culture of India, also showed great interest in the whole Indo-European world, including the history and culture of the Iranian people, with special attention given to magnificent masterpieces of classical Tajik-Iranian literature.

Books from the Oldenburg collection help scientists, specialists and everyone who is interested in more precise study of the history of the Tajik people and all peoples of Central Asia.

February 2004 marked seventy years since the death of S.F. Oldenburg. Taking into account the outstanding achievements of Sergey Fyodorovich Oldenburg in the field of Oriental studies, and expressing our sincere appreciation and gratitude to the distinguished scientist, who has done so much for the development of science in Tajikistan, the Academic library has prepared a CD with works of S.F. Oldenburg that are kept in the library collection. We consider publication of his scientific works particularly important, because during the past seventy years not a single collected work was issued, and that looks like obvious injustice.

The main contents of his not-so-voluminous, but numerous (more than 150) scientific works are religion, poetry and arts, antiquities and history of India, Persian and Western literatures. Academician I. Krachkovskiy has noted, “The scientific heritage of Sergey Fyodorovich Oldenburg is extensive and diverse. Even his print works are not completely made known yet; the large sparseness of his works creates significant difficulties with research. Poor accessibility and huge quantities of various titles in which parts of his ouevre were printed, strongly demand re-publication of his works”.