Tumanskiy, Aleksandr Grigorevich (Russian: Туманский, Александр Григорьевич) (1861–1920) was an orientalist,

military interpreter An interpreter officer or army interpreter is a commissioned officer of an armed force, who interprets and/or translates to facilitate military operation. Interpreter officers are used extensively in multinational operations in which two or more ...

, and

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

of the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

, belonging to an ancient Ukrainian

aristocratic Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

family which had originated from the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was Partitions of Poland, partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire, Habsburg Empire of ...

Biography

Aleksandr Grigorevich Tumanskiy (Toumansky) (Tumansky) was born on 23 September 1861. From 1888 to 1891 Tumansky, then an officer in the Imperial Russian Army, received his Oriental education at the Officers' Courses of

Oriental Languages A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Tur ...

organized by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He studied

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, Turkish and Persian; in all he spoke eleven languages. From 1891 to 1895 Tumansky was stationed in Central Asia. In 1894 he was responsible for establishing communications with

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Between 1900 and 1905 he served as the Russian vice consul in

Van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

. From 1908 to 1909 he was ordered to Persia again to resume his diplomatic duties. In 1911 he was appointed the head of the officers' Oriental language preparatory school in

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

(

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

), which functioned under the

Headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

of the Caucasian Military Command. In March 1917, Tumansky retired from the military service with the rank of Major-General. He left Russia after the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mom ...

in 1917 and died in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

(

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

) on 1 December 1920.'Худуд аль-алам': рукописи Туманского , введение и содержание В.В. Бартольда, Ленинград, 1930 (факсимиле. издание).

Scientific activity

Tumansky is one of the first Russian-language scholars to investigate the Bábí movement in Persia in the middle of the 19th century and the first followers of the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the ...

in the East. He befriended the Baháʼís in

Ashgabat Ashgabat or Asgabat ( tk, Aşgabat, ; fa, عشق‌آباد, translit='Ešqābād, formerly named Poltoratsk ( rus, Полтора́цк, p=pəltɐˈratsk) between 1919 and 1927), is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan. It lies ...

where Mirza Abu'l-Faḍl wrote for him the ''Risáliy-i Iskandaríyyh'', a summary of the life of the

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

of the Baháʼí Faith. In 1899 he discovered the ''

Kitáb-i-Aqdas The Kitáb-i-Aqdas (Arabic: The Most Holy Book) is the central religious text of the Baháʼí Faith, written by Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the religion, in 1873. Though it is the main source of Baháʼí laws and practices, much of the con ...

'' by

Baháʼu'lláh Baháʼu'lláh (born Ḥusayn-ʻAlí; 12 November 1817 – 29 May 1892) was the founder of the Baháʼí Faith. He was born to an aristocratic family in Qajar Iran, Persia, and was exiled due to his adherence to the messianic Bábism, Bábí ...

and translated it into

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

. Now the ''Kitáb-i-Aqdas'' is generally known, but in that time it was an epochal discovery. During his research of the Bábí movement Tumansky corresponded with E.G. Browne through Baron Victor Romanovich Rosen. Another of his discoveries was a lost work of Ulugh-Beg, an ancient manuscript entitled "Olus-e-Arbaa", part of which, "Hudud ul-alam", was published in 1930 and in 1937. Being a military man, he wrote a book entitled ''Military Art of the Ancient Arabs'' in 1897.

Opinions and memories about A.G. Tumansky

Russian Orientalist I. U. Krachkovskiy (1883–1951) wrote that Tumansky was one of the rare orientalists by his calling but not by his profession.И.Ю. Крачковский, "А.Г. Туманский" �екролог 'Новый Восток', блокнот 1, Москва и Петроград, 1922, стр. 112.

Bibliography

Russian State Archive of Literature and Art Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (russian: Государственный архив литературы и искусства (РГАЛИ), or RGALI) is one of the largest state archives in Russia. It preserves documents of national l ...

, case 777, dos'e 87, sheets 7, 8 2. Full service record of Colonel A.G. Tumansky in March 1917, Russian State Military-Historical Archive, fond 409, opis' 1, case 148-610 (1917 year)

Selected works

1. И.Ю. Крачковский, "А.Г. Туманский" �екролог 'Новый Восток', блокнот 1, Москва и Петроград, 1922, стр. 112. 2. 'Худуд аль-алам': рукописи Туманского, введение и содержание В.В. Бартольда, Ленинград, 1930 (факсимиле. издание). 3. Hudüd al-Ālam: 'The Regions of the World', A Persian Geography 372 A.H. — 982 A.D., ed. and tr. V.Minorsky, London, 1937. 4. Н.А. Кузнецова ''К истории изучения Бабизма и Бахаизма в России,'' Иранский сборник 6, Москва, 1963 г., стр. 90–91 5. Hudüd al-Ālam: 'The Regions of the World', A Persian Geography 372 A.H. — 982 A.D., 2nd ed. pref. V.V.Barthold, ed. C.E. Bosworth, London, 1970. 6. Идем (Рай), Иран в период революции XIX века, 1983 г., стр. 199–231. 7. Дж. Дорри, "Proceedings of a Seminar on Nabil-i-Aʻzam-i-Zarandi" Wienacht, Switzerland, 1996, pp. 125–50. 8. Абу'ль-хази Бахадор Хан, Родословная Туркмен (Генеалогическое древо туркменского народа), перевод А.Г. Туманского, Ашхабад, 1897 г. 9. М.К. Басханов, "Русские военные востоковеды до 1917 года: библиографический словарь", Москва, 2005, стр. 242–243.

Notes

References

TUMANSKIǏ (Toumansky), Aleksandr Grigorevich
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tumansky, Alexander Russian military personnel Military personnel of the Russian Empire Ukrainian orientalists Russian orientalists Bábism 1861 births 1920 deaths