Authors

Roman Osharov¹;  ¹ New College, Oxford, UK

Discussion

My paper explores the series of articles authored by Nil Sergeevich Lykoshin (1870-1922) titled Pis’ma iz Tuzemnogo Tashkenta [Letters from Native Tashkent]. These were published in Turkestanskiia Vedomosti, the official newspaper of the Russian administration. In this series, Lykoshin, a colonial scholar and official responsible for administering the Asiatic quarter of Tashkent, chronicled what he called the ‘quite original life’ of native residents of the capital city of Turkestan. Of the 15 articles Lykoshin wrote, four covered various aspects of native economy and trade, and another three explored religious education, judiciary, and elections to the Tashkent assembly. Two articles each were on Sufi Islam in Tashkent and on native cultural life. Three articles were on Tashkent’s community of Hindus. Finally, one article was on the colony of lepers just outside Tashkent. In my paper, I will try to answer three questions. First, what topics did Lykoshin cover in his Letters from Native Tashkent series? Was this a form of colonial outreach, and if yes, who was the primary audiences? Second, how did Lykoshin’s articles fit in with his other writings and with the works of his Turkestan contemporaries about the region’s native people? Finally, what do these articles tell us about Lykoshin as an Orientalist at the formative stage of his work and throughout his 40-year long distinguished career in Turkestan?