Cultural Memory, Imperial Imagination, and the Psychological Representation of Central Asian Heritage in Russian Oriental Studies: The Timurid and Shaybanid Eras
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Objective: This study aimed to examine Russian Orientalist representations of Central Asian heritage through the lenses of cultural memory, imperial imagination, and psychological representation, with a focus on the Timurid and Shaybanid eras.
Methods and Materials: A qualitative historiographical and cultural-psychological analysis was conducted. The study drew on archival documents, manuscript-related studies, scholarly reports, catalogs, and works by Russian Orientalists, including V. V. Bartold, V. L. Vyatkin, A. A. Semenov, N. I. Veselovsky, A. P. Khoroshkhin, and related scholars. The analysis combined historical interpretation with concepts from cultural psychology, memory studies, postcolonial studies, and body–mind–culture scholarship. Particular attention was given to manuscripts, monuments, waqf documents, genealogical records, and historical chronicles as material carriers of collective memory and symbolic identity.
Findings: Russian Orientalists contributed to the collection, classification, translation, and preservation of Central Asian manuscripts and historical materials. However, their scholarship was also shaped by imperial categories of knowledge, including scholarly curiosity, administrative interest, colonial imagination, and cultural hierarchy. The Timurid era was represented as a period of scientific, architectural, and cultural achievement, especially through Samarkand, Ulugh Beg, and Timurid monuments. The Shaybanid era was less prominently developed but remained important for interpreting political transition, religious authority, dynastic legitimacy, and manuscript continuity. These representations shaped academic historiography and broader images of Central Asian identity.
Conclusion: Russian Oriental studies functioned as both a scholarly and cultural-psychological enterprise in which manuscripts, monuments, memory, identity, and imperial perception interacted.
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