The Сontribution of Сritical Text Publications and Translations to the Study of Central Asian History

Abstract

Following the independence of the Central Asian states from the
Soviet Union in 1991 there was an increase in cooperation between local
and international scholars who worked on aspects of pre-modern Central
Asian history, due to the lifting of restrictions on travel and engagement
that typified the Soviet period. One product of this trend is the explosion
in the preparation and publication of Persian and Chagatai Turkish sourcelanguage materials for the study of Central Asian history. These publications
take the form of either (and in some cases, both) critical text editions and
translations. However, the collapse in state funding immediately after the
fall of the Soviet Union meant that many local scholars were unable to
pursue to completion the edition of source-language materials. Fortunately,
private foundations and research institutes in Western Europe and East
Asia were able to step into the gap and provide much-needed funding and
resources for the continuation of this scholarship. There has always been a
strong tradition of philological training in Central Asian doctoral programs
of history and literature, so that now these collaborations are a product of
both scholarly rigor and adequate institutional support.