The Russian Empire (
to the east of the Volga region and the Caucasus) once again encountered the Muslim world and
, owing to
this experience, it did not seemingly count on the military power
[whose military power?]. This could most likely serve
as a reason for the accomplishment of numerous publications with adapted translations of
Biblical subjects
, first of all in Kazan’
which became a hotbed of missionary activities. It might also be for this reason that
study of Qisas ar-Rabghuzi, carried out by N. Ilminski, was in the first place
based on the stand of the missionaries ["missionary position" has a specific meaning and is best avoided: ]AskOxford: missionary position ,
and is the source of the famous and rather primitive cliché
of the “disclosure of Muhammadan religion” in which investigators N. Ostroumov and N. Katanov played a significant rol
e.
Nevertheless, Russian investigators created more academic works which dealt predominantly with the peculiarities of the language of Qisas ar-Rabghuzi as we
ll. The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century
is marked as a period in which Qisas ar-Rabghuzi was
a point of central attention
in Russian works of diverse
views/opinions. Obviously, such interest stimulated frequent printings at the Tashkent printing-houses of that perio
d. The work was used in the Turkic-speaking maktabs and even in some sufi khanakas of that tim
e.
Furthermore, at the beginning of the 20th century,
printed versions of Qisas ar-Rabghuzi
were used at special meetings of women of the Fergana Valley and Khorezm. At the same time, while such joint readings and lithographic editions were frequently referred to in Fergana,
the people of Khorezm preferred to consult manuscripts of Qisas ar-Rabghuz
i.