On Wednesday, December 28, the presentation of the collection of articles “Ars Islamica” dedicated to the outstanding Russian expert in Islamic studies, Stanislav Prozorov, took place in the Green Hall of the RAS Institute of Oriental Manuscripts.
The event was attended by the guests from Saint Petersburg and Moscow: M.B. Piotrovskiy (expert in Islamic and oriental studies, dean of the Oriental Department of the Saint Petersburg State university, general director of the Hermitage Museum), I.F.Popova (director of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, doctor of historical sciences), T.Yu.Ogilko (head of the Regional Trade and Economic Cooperation Department of the Goverment of Saint Petersburg), S.M. Anikeeva (director of the “Vostochnaya literatura” publishing house), H.R. Hadavimogaddam (president of the Islamic Culture Research Foundation), S.N. Tabai (vice-president of the Islamic Culture Research Foundation) and others.
A.K. Alikberov (orientalist, historian and expert in Islamic studies, candidate of historical sciences, deputy director of the Institute of Oriental Studies) and V.V. Naumkin (expert in oriental and Islamic studies, political analyst, doctor of historical sciences, professor, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academic advisor of the RAS Institute of Oriental Studies) participated remotely in the book presentation.
The most important fact was that the presentation was attended by Stanislav Prozorov himself, in whose honour the abovementioned book was prepared and published.
Ars Islamica is a valuable collection of articles. The president of the Islamic Culture Research Foundation, Hamid Reza Hadavimogaddam, said in his speech that “he shows that Islamic studies in Russia are developing and demonstrates diversity and depth of academic works devoted to Islamic studies”.
The collection contains articles on different topics, e.g. Islamic beliefs, Islamic law, traditions, architecture, art, issues related to translation of Islamic sources, methodology of Islamic studies etc.
No wonder this voluminous collection of articles is dedicated to Stanislav Prozorov, as it reflects his academic interests. This famous expert in Islamic studies worked and is still working with various classical texts; he devoted a number of articles and books to Muslims’ beliefs and wrote about Muslims in Russia. Apart from that, Ars Islamica tells about himself: the book presents his biography, the list of his academic works and different photos from his personal archives.
During the event M.B. Piotrovskiy, S.M. Prozorov and A.K. Alikberov thanked the Islamic Culture Research Foundation for supporting publications of works related to Islamic studies and for contributing to development of Islamic studies in Russia.
Following the event, the director of the Foundation and M.B.Piotrovskiy agreed to develop cooperation with the Saint Petersburg State University and to strengthen the ties.