Sergey Efimovich Malov (russian: Серге́й Ефи́мович Ма́лов; 28 January 1880,

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering ...

- 6 September 1957,

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

) was a

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 ...

Turkologist Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative conte ...

who made important contributions to the documentation of archaic and contemporary

Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...

, classification of the Turkic alphabets, and the deciphering of the Turkic

Orkhon script The Old Turkic script (also known as variously Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script, Turkic runes) was the alphabet used by the Göktürks and other early Turkic khanates from the 8th to 10th centuries to record the Old Tu ...

Biography

Malov studied at the

Kazan Theological Academy Kazan Theological Seminary (russian: Казанская духовная семинария) is the principal Russian Orthodox seminary in the Diocese of Kazan and Tatarstan. History Orthodox Christian Theological education has its roots dating ...

. He later graduated from the Petersburg University in Oriental Languages. During his school years, he was drawn to the circle of

Baudouin de Courtenay Jan Niecisław Ignacy Baudouin de Courtenay (13 March 1845 – 3 November 1929) was a Polish linguist and Slavist, best known for his theory of the phoneme and phonetic alternations. For most of his life Baudouin de Courtenay worked at Imperia ...

and attended Nechaev's course for Experimental Psychology. S.E. Malov majored in Arabic, Persid and Turkic languages. Early in his career he studied the Chulym Turks. After graduation he worked as a

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

in the Museum of

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

and Ethnography, affiliated with the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

. For the Foreign Ministry, S.E. Malov studied languages and customs of

Turkic peoples The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose memb ...

living in China (

Uyghurs The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghur ...

, Salars,

Sart Sart is a name for the settled inhabitants of Central Asia which has had shifting meanings over the centuries. Origin There are several theories about the origin of the term. It may be derived from the Sanskrit ''sārthavāha'' "merchant, tra ...

s, and

Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan *Kyrgyz people * Kyrgyz national games *Kyrgyz language *Kyrgyz culture *Kyrgyz cuisine *Yenisei Kirghiz *The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China ...

). He collected various rich materials about

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, r ...

and ethnography, made musical records, and acquired precious ancient

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

, including the most important work of medieval Uyghur

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

literature - the Uyghur manuscript of the

Golden Light Sutra The Golden Light Sutra or ( sa, IAST: Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājaḥ), also known by the Old Uygur title Altun Yaruq, is a Buddhist text of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the full title is ''The Sovereign King of Sutr ...

, later published in cooperation with

Vasily Radlov Vasily Vasilievich Radlov or Friedrich Wilhelm Radloff (russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Ра́длов; in Berlin – 12 May 1918 in Petrograd) was a German-born Russian founder of Turkology, a scientific study of Turkic peoples. ...

. In 1917, Malov became a professor in

University and a director of

Numismatic Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also includ ...

collection. Simultaneously he studied the ethnography and

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that ...

s of the

Volga Tatars The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars ( tt-Cyrl, татарлар, tatarlar) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are Russia's second-largest ethnicity after th ...

, being one of the first to investigate the Mishar dialect of the

Tatars The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

. In 1921, Sergey Malov was behind the idea of renaming the Xinjiang Turkic to Uighur at the Tashkent Conference. In 1922, Malov returned to

Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

(former

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

) and was elected a lecturer in the Petrograd University. He continued working in

(former Petrograd) universities, museums, and research, and Oriental and Linguistic institutes of the

USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

. As a University Professor and Dean of Turkic

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

, S.E. Malov taught Chagatai, Uzbek,

Oirot Altai ( alt, Алтай тил, Altay til) is a set of Turkic languages, spoken officially in the Altai Republic, Russia. The standard vocabulary is based on the Southern Altai language, though it's also taught to and used by speakers of the No ...

, and other languages, as well as the linguistics of ancient Turkic

monuments A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

. In 1929, Malov published his discovery of the Talas script, a third known variant of the old Turkic "

runiform Runiform may refer to scripts or inscriptions similar written with letters that are similar in form to the runic scripts that were historically used to write various Germanic languages in Northern Europe. It may refer to: *Coelbren y Beirdd * Old ...

" alphabet. In 1931, Malov initiated a transfer to the Oriental Department “to register and inventory books, newspapers and manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and, mainly, in all Turkic languages”. The work in the library afforded him an exceptional and uncensored “access to the current literature in Turkic languages”. In 1933, after the beginning of the Communist government's campaign to switch the writing of the Turkic peoples to Latinised scripts, Malov left the Oriental Department of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1939, he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in language and literature. During World War II, Malov worked in

Alma-Ata Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1936 as an autonomous republic as part of ...

as a Professor in the Kazakh University and Kazakh Pedagogical Institute. S.E. Malov is known as a brilliant expert on live and extinct Turkic languages of the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

and adjacent countries. He penned around 170 publications on the language, folklore, history and ethnography of the Turkic peoples of the central and western China,

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 millio ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former ...

and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part o ...

and

Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchm ...

regions. He was the first to scientifically describe a number of Turkic languages; discovered, researched, and published many ancient Turkic written monuments; and is credited with the creation of alphabets and orthographic rules for languages of the peoples of the USSR who did not have their own national historical script. Malov was one of the few scientists who attracted the Szekler alphabet, among other Eastern Europe runiform alphabets, in his comparative studies. Another of his achievements was the conclusion that the Enisei runiform inscriptions included diverse ethnic groups of the Kirgiz Kaganate. In his capital 1952 work, ''The Enisei Script of the Turks: Texts and research'', S.E. Malov covered texts written in the Enisei runiform script, irrespective of their geographical location (

Khakassia Khakassia (russian: Хакасия; kjh, Хакасия, Хакас Чирі, ''Khakasiya'', ''Khakas Çiri''), officially the Republic of Khakassia (russian: Республика Хакасия, r=Respublika Khakasiya, ; kjh, Хакас Рес ...

Tuva Tuva (; russian: Тува́) or Tyva ( tyv, Тыва), officially the Republic of Tuva (russian: Респу́блика Тыва́, r=Respublika Tyva, p=rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə tɨˈva; tyv, Тыва Республика, translit=Tyva Respublika ...

), and successfully combined a paleographical, historical and sociopolitical approach to classify the alphabets of those monuments. It was the scientific analysis of Malov and J. Nemeth that allowed A.M. Scherbak to develop his seminal conclusion that “the Turkic runiform script has arisen in Central Asia as transformation of a preceding alphabet, and from there it spread in two opposite directions: to the east and to the west”.Scherbak, A.M. "Runiform writing of Southeast Europe". – ''Soviet Turkology'', Baku, 1971, No 4, p. 82 S.E. Malov had a very active scientific life. He participated in the preparation of encyclopedias, dictionaries, and reference guides. S.E. Malov is revered as an icon of Russian Turkology. His works are prized for erudition, detailed knowledge, scientific honesty, and scrupulous research.

Major works

*"Ancient Turkic gravestones with inscriptions in the basin of r. Talas". News of the USSR Academy of Sciences (IAN), 1929 *''Monuments of Ancient Turkic Writing: Texts and research''. М.; L., 1951 *''The Enisei Script of the Turks: Texts and research''. М.; L., 1952 *''Monuments of Ancient Turkic Writing of Mongolia and Kirgizia''. М.; L., 1959 *''Lobnorskij jazyk. Teksty, perevody, slovar (The Lob Nor language: Texts, translations, dictionary)''. Frunze: Izdat, 1956. AN Kirgiz. SSR. 196pp.

References

Biography at the Russian National Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malov Russian orientalists Linguists of Turkic languages Linguists from Russia 1880 births 1957 deaths Al-Farabi Kazakh National University faculty 20th-century musicologists 20th-century linguists