LA GEORGIE ENTRE PERSE ET EUROPE. Sous la direction de F. Helliot-Bellier et I. Natchkebia. Paris: l'Harmattan, 2009. 358 p.*

The Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies of Georgia, together with the French National Center for Scientific Research Mondes-Iranien etindien, has published a collection of studies of Georgian and French Orientalists in French. It includes works by Georgian researchers G. Sanikidze, I. Nachkebia, G. Beradze, M. Gabashvili, M. Svanidze, M. Alexidze, N. Ter-Oganov (now living in Israel), French scientists F. Hellot-Bellier, T. Zarkone, S. Urzhevich and Japanese scientist Hirotaki Maeda (Hokkaido University).

G. Sanikidze's work "Islam and Muslims in Georgian modernity" examines the areas of compact settlement of Muslims in the historical and ethnographic regions of Georgia-Adjara, Kvemo Kartli, Meskheti, Abkhazia, and the Pankisi Gorge. The author mentions the French traveler P. de D. Tournefort, who in 1701 noted the growth of the Muslim population in Tbilisi during the Safavid period. Describing the current conditions and historical situation during the adoption of Islam in this part of Georgia, G. Sanikidze notes that during the struggle of Ottoman Turkey and Safavid Iran in the XVI-XVIII centuries. The pressure on the Georgians of Adjara to change their faith and denomination has especially increased. It is known that after the Treaty of Amasi in 1555, which established peace between Turkey and Iran after a 40-year war, Western Georgia was recognized as the sphere of interests of the Ottoman Empire [Istoriya Vostoka, 1999, p. 72, 115 - 116]. Turks began to actively infiltrate Adjara and Meskheti (Javakheti), the Akhaltsikhe Pashalyk was created, the construction of mosques and the forced conversion of local Georgians to Islam began. However, proselytism has not been able to spread throughout Georgia, and despite intense pressure from its powerful Muslim neighbors, Georgians have remained largely Christian. However, in Adjara, Meskheti and Kakheti, Ingiloans partially converted to Islam.

Touching upon the difficult issue of the return to Georgia of Meskhetian Turks who were deported during the Second World War, G. Sanikidze notes that some of them have a Georgian identity and remember their ethnic roots. As for the Fereidan Georgians, they are mostly Shiites, while the Adjarian Georgians are Sunni.

The largest number of Muslim Azerbaijanis living compactly in Southern Georgia, from Marneuli to Dmanisi, was 303,600 according to the 1989 census, and about 200,000 according to the 2001 census (p. 285), which indicates their migration to Azerbaijan after the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

According to the author's definition, the number of Cysts (Chechens) in the Pankisi Gorge ranges from 8 to 12 thousand people, and their first appearance in these regions was recorded from 1817 to 1825 (p.291). At the end of the 19th century, the ideas of the Naqshbandiyah and Qadiriyah orders were spread among Muslims, and since 1997 Wahhabism began to spread, and a mosque of this branch of Islam was built in the village of Duisi.

In general, G. Sanikidze's work gives an idea of the settlement and number of the Muslim population in Georgia, but the author does not answer the question of how various groups of the Muslim population should adapt and integrate into the socio-political life of the republic.

In the work of M. Alexidze " Sheikh Sanahan of Tiflis/Tbilisi " examines an interesting story from medieval Muslim literature. The author comes to the conclusion that at the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries the legend of Sheikh Sanahan, who arrived in Tbilisi several centuries earlier, married a Georgian Christian and converted to Christianity, was born in the Tbilisi Muslim community. After his death, he was buried on Mtatsminda Mountain, in the courtyard of the Church of St. John the Baptist. David. The paper contains excerpts from the works of Mirza Hossein Farahani, Majid os-Saltaneh, Mohammad Kazem Sheibani Kashani, Farid al-din Attar, Paki Tehrani and other authors, indicating the popularity of the legendary plot in the world.

* Georgia between Persia and Europe / Edited by F. Hallo-Bellier and I. Nachkebia. Paris: Harmatta Publ., 2009, 358 p.

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Persian literature. The story of Sheikh Sanaan probably describes a rather rare case of a Muslim converting to Christianity.

The collection contains two articles by I. Nachkebius: "Tiflis / Tbilisi in the early 19th century according to French diplomats" and " Georgia's place in the Treaty of Finkenstein (1807)".

In the first of them, the author introduces the reader to the little-known works of French authors describing urban life, characteristic details of everyday life, traditions and customs of city residents. Gamba, A. Jaubert, J.-F. Rousseau, A. Dupree, A. de Gardana. They saw the city still reeling from the devastating invasion of Aga Mohammad Khan in 1795 and captured its aftermath. In addition, I. Nachkebia uses little-known archival material, which speaks about the role of the South Caucasus in trade and economy, the first place in which, according to the French who wrote about Georgia at that time, this city was a priority. The article analyzes the place of Tbilisi in the plans of the Indian campaign of Emperor Napoleon, which during this period he was passionate about, the possibility of organizing a base here to supply French troops in Iran was considered. However, after the Peace of Tilsit in 1807, Napoleon abruptly changed his intentions and completely abandoned the Indian campaign. I. Nachkebia also cites the testimonies of French authors about the lively trade of Armenian merchants from Tbilisi with Nizhny Novgorod, Odessa, Astrakhan and other Russian cities. And Lieutenant Trezel writes that after the eastern cities, Tbilisi seemed to him the first European city.

The second article by the same author deals with the question of the return of Eastern Georgia (before 1801-the Kartli-Kakheti Kingdom) to Qajar Iran, discussed in articles 3 and 4 of the Finkenstein Treaty concluded between France and Iran in May 1807. I. Nachkebia discovered an unpublished draft of this treaty in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, which was published in the archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Like the final version, it consists of 16 articles, but has discrepancies with it: article 3 of the draft stated that Napoleon would secure Eastern Georgia to Iran if the Persians managed to capture Tbilisi, and in article 4 the emperor asked that if Iran fulfilled the conditions of Article 3, it should be supplied annually with Georgian Mamluks. Describing the reception of the Iranian Ambassador Mirza Mohammad-Reza Qazvini in Finkenstein, the author cites the French texts of the articles of the treaty, according to which Napoleon promised Iran to get Russia to return Eastern Georgia to Fatah Ali Shah. Moreover, in the text of the treaty, Shahanshah Fath-Ali Shah is referred to as "emperor" and thus, as it were, is placed on a par with the French ruler.

In the final parts of the study, I. Nachkebia analyzes the reason for non-fulfillment of the Finkenstein Treaty. As you know, two months after these events, Alexander I met with Napoleon at Tilsit and Russia signed the Treaty of Tilsit allied with France, which crossed out the Finkenstein Agreement. During the negotiations with Alexander, Napoleon never mentioned his intention to transfer Eastern Georgia to Iran. Perhaps he did not think to fulfill his obligations to the Persians, but agreed to include them in the text of the Finkenstein Treaty in order to flatter the Shah of Iran's vanity and gain his favor.

The author notes the role of members of the Gardan mission-Trezel, Trulier, Lamy, Fabier, Raymond, Finot, Marechal, Darmon, Bontam Le Fra, Verdier - in training and reorganizing the Iranian regular army in a short time (1807-1809). The article also contains versions that the Georgian princes Alexander and Teymuraz, who after 1801 hid in the territory controlled by the heir to the Iranian throne, Abbas Mirza, placed too much hope on the intervention of the French emperor in Georgian affairs.

M. Svanidze's work "Relations of France with the Ottoman Empire and Persia (1548 - 1555)" is interesting, which analyzes the documents of the French King's ambassador to the court of Sultan Suleiman Qanuni Gabriel de Louts Baron d'amaron. In 1547-1549, Baron d'amaron reported to the king on the results of the battles and the advance of the Turkish army to the east, to the Persian borders. There is also a description of the military campaign of the Turks in 1554 - 1555 in the vicinity of Erzerum. The article deals with the Amasi Treaty of 1555 between Turkey and Iran, which for the first time divided Western and Eastern Georgia, Western and Northeastern Armenia, Arab Iraq, Kurdistan, Samtskhe-Saatabago (Javakheti). In subsequent wars, this division was disputed.

In a thorough study of GG. Beradze "Paris - Tiflis / Tbilisi-Persepolis. Stanley's Visit to Iran via Tbilisi " examines the history of Sir Henry Morton Stanley's journey in the 1870s through Tbilisi-Tehran-Isfahan-Shiraz and other areas of Iran. Known geo-

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Count and traveler G. M. Stanley, after his expeditions to Central Africa, traveled to the Caucasus and Iran in order to study the route of the Indo-European telegraph, which was planned to be laid first to the Georgian capital (at that time the capital of the entire Caucasian Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, which included all the territories of the South and North Caucasus under Russian rule), then from it to Iran and through its entire territory all the way to the border with British India in the east. The paper presents rare photographs and drawings of G. M. Stanley during his stay in Tbilisi in 1870, tells about his meetings with Baron L. P. Nicolai, a graduate of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, former Governor-General of Little Russia and Bessarabia, senator and State Secretary of the Emperor, who from 1863 to 1875 headed the Central Committee for the Reorganization of the administration in the territory of Georgia. L. P. Nicolai headed the Caucasus branch of the Imperial Geographical Society and a number of other scientific societies in Tbilisi (Kavkaz, 1890). He was married to Princess Sofya Chavchavadze, daughter of Prince Alexander Chavchavadze, and in 1859 took part in the fighting of the Russian army against Shamil in the area of the village of Gunib [Nicolai, 1872-1874, part III XI].

The trans-European telegraph project was conventionally referred to as the Paris-Tbilisi-Persepolis telegraph, although the ancient capital of Iran lay in ruins at that time and no habitable villages or cities were observed in its immediate vicinity [Bosworth, 1998, p. 219-220]. G. M. Stanley visited the ruins of Persepolis and even left a post on the site. on one of the stone slabs is his autograph, stamped in English, with the date (1870), the photo of which was taken by G. G. Beradze and is given in his article (p. 186). Thanks to the skilful presentation of the available material by the author of the article, the historical episode about G. M. Stanley's journey through Tbilisi to Persepolis is perceived vividly and with great interest.

In the study of F. Hello-Bellier "Migrations of Iranian Azerbaijanis to Tiflis in the 19th century" analyzes the religious, economic and ethnic factors that contributed to the migration of Armenians, Assyrians and Nestorians (Iranians) to Georgia based on French sources. The author cites well-known figures of migration in the first half of the XIX century. to the South Caucasus (mostly to the Armenian regions, but for some reason she doesn't mention it) 40 thousand Armenians and includes Nestorians, although there were only a few thousand of them (p. 222). As F. writes: According to European sources, the population of Tiflis province in 1874 included: 289,018 Georgians, 158,323 Armenians, 36,390 Russians, 5,033 Tushins, 4,896 Germans, 1,872 Poles, 1,692 Persians (Iranians), 1,018 Kurds (probably Yezidis) and 342 Turks (probably Azerbaijanis), separately speaks about the labor migration of Persian workers from Iran (p. 223, 227). I would like to note that the Tushins are Georgians living in the mountains of Kakheti on the border with Chechnya.

T. Zarkone's article "Tiflis / Tbilisi as a place of intellectual life of Muslims" deals with the importance of Tbilisi as the intellectual center of the entire South Caucasus. The author cites the facts of publication in the Turkic language in the capital of the viceroyalty, tells about the publication of materials about the economic life and customs of the Caucasian Turks in "Tiflis Vedomosti", the newspaper "Kavkaz", the magazine "Transcaucasian Bulletin", the annual "Caucasian Calendar", the magazines "Ekinchi", "Diya", "Diya Kavkassiya", ""Hekmat", as well as the impact on tanzimat of various publications on ways to modernize Asian societies. The paper concludes that by the end of the 19th century, Tbilisi began to play a significant role in the intellectual life of Muslims in the Caucasus, and indeed in the whole of Russia.

Sh. Urzhevich examines the process of modernization (industrialization)in his work "Tbilisi and Eastern Modernism: Pace and Control". In the East and on the example of Tbilisi amkars, the author analyzes the role of craft associations in this transformation. Separately, he examines the social strata that participated in the performance of the Tbilisi Amkars in 1865. In the end, the author draws a conclusion about the slow pace of modernization in Tbilisi, as well as in the entire East.

The collection also contains the works of X. Maeda "Head of the Allahverdi Khan family: an example of patronymy in Safavid Iran"; N. Gelashvili "Artistic relations between Georgia and Iran in the XVII century" on Persian miniatures of the XVII century; I. Kochoridze "Oriental art in Georgia" on Persian painting in Georgian museums; D. Gudiashvili " The formation of sericulture in the Caucasus in the XIX century. "on the production and trade of silk in the Caucasus, in particular in Tbilisi.

In conclusion, I would like to note that all the works of the collection were performed at a high scientific level, in compliance with all the requirements for the design of notes and references. The publication is richly illustrated. With the publication of this publication in French, the Institute of Oriental Studies of Georgia has once again confirmed its high international status, achieved thanks to well-known academic staff in the post-Soviet space.

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list of literature

Istoriya Vostoka [History of the East], vol. III, ed. by R. B. Rybakov. 1999.

Caucasus. Gas., Tiflis (Tbilisi). 1890. N 259, 261, 262.

Nicolai L. P., Baron. Caucasian antiquity / / Extracts from the diary of Adjutant-General Baron L. P. Nicolai. Ch. I-XIV. Tiflis, 1872-1874.

Bosworth C.R.E. The Persian contribution to Islamic historiography in the pre-Mongol period // The Persian Presence in the Islamic World / Ed. R.G. Hovannisian. Cambridge: University Press. 1998.

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