[FARSI-ARABIC-RUSSIAN DICTIONARY] Polnyi persidsko-arabo-russkiy slovar’ [i.e. Complete Farsi-Arabic-Russian Dictionary]
Item #954
Tashkent: Electr.-steam typo-lithography of Turkestani military district HQ, 1909. [2], IV, 1815, [4] pp. Contemporary half-leather. Small piece of the title page is missing from the top (restored). Otherwise near fine copy.
First and the only edition. The first attempt to create the universal dictionary for Turkic people of Russian Empire.
Even though Arabic studies were quite developed in Europe, in Russia I.Yagello was among the pioneers of Middle East studies, and his dictionary preceded and inspired great Russian linguist Harlampij K. Baranov (1892 – 1980) to create his absolutely brilliant Arabic – Russian dictionary. I.Yagello developed effective system of root alphabetic order, which is implemented in contemporary comparative dictionaries.
Pg. III contains Rules of pronunciation for “harakyat”, i.e. common for all Arabic -based alphabets signs for vowels. The author presents detailed explanation of every vowel, comparing it with Russian sounds.
This edition is the first academic work compiling full dictionary of Farsi, Arabic and Russian language, where Farsi is the base while Arabic roots are used mainly to define the Arabic sub stratum in Persian and Hindustani. Lexis of Arabic origin is marked, and even though it is quite limited but still enough to demonstrate all the necessary examples of common lexical units for both Arabic and Farsi. As soon as the dictionary was meant to become the 1st part of fundamental Hindustani language dictionary, I.Yagello implies that it should be used equally for all the languages containing adoptions from Arabic and Farsi, e.g. Turkic, Azeri, Urdu, Pashto, Hindustani, Benghali, Tatar etc. Russian translation for this lexis made this book a universal source for studying large group of languages.
The importance of this edition recognized mainly because of Russian strategic plans of that time – composing key scholar work on Hindustani, I. Yagello meant to comply with the needs of Turkestani military disctrict, where Russian Empire was involved in power-play with Great Britain for the influence in Northern India and I.Yagello himself was engaged in Imperial Intelligence in Turkestan district which was one of the crucial points of the Great Game. Russian political strategy required specialists speaking Indian languages to communicate with potential rival, so Yagello created his dictionary as a perfect guide for those who wanted to get deeper into Indology and Turkology within a short space of time. Taking into consideration the fact that I.Yagello served as a Secretary of Commission for Turkestan district Intelligence and trained officers to work in British India, his work contains all required language data for officers to acquire Hindustani skills and abilities for language improvisation.
Ivan Yagello was born in 1865 in Russian noble family, his father was a high – ranking officer, and Yagello followed in his wake. In 1892 he entered Oriental Languages Faculty for officers in Asiatic department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after that special decree assigned him to Paris to Oriental Languages School where he studied Urdu. In 1897 following political course of Russian Empire to India Military administration of Caspian Area issued a decree to start Hindustani courses in military organizations of the area, and I.D. Yagello was appointed to be the first in Russian empire Hindustani teacher, because before this time in Russia only Sanskrit was taught. The courses were organized in Ashgabat, and whereas it was the first Hindustani course ever taught in Russia, Yagello created language books – “Practical Grammar of Hindustani – Urdu”, “Hindustani – Russian dictionary”, and adapted for officers “Bagh-e bahar” (“Garden and Spring”), classical poem by famous Mir Amman Dihlavi (1748–1806). In 1933 was persecuted for political reasons, but then acquitted, died in 1942.
WorldCat doesn’t show any copies in the USA.
Price: $2,850.00