Persian-language Manuscripts from India in the collection of the National Library of the Republic of Bashkortostan named after Akhmet-Zaki Validi

This article examines two previously unstudied Persian-language manuscripts housed in the Manuscripts and Rare Editions Department of the A.-Z. Validi National Library of the Republic of Bashkortostan. Both manuscripts were created in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent in the 17th and 18th centuries and contain Sufi writings devoted to various aspects of the mystical practices of the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya and Suhrawardiyya brotherhoods. The discovery of a manuscript describing the practices of the first order in the region is expected given the spiritual continuity of Indian and Bashkir Sufis. Their reading of the Suhrawardi text fits within the framework of their intellectual interests. Both works, presented in manuscripts housed in Ufa, are comparatively rare in Russian book collections. The work “The Treasure of Instructions in Revealing the Beginning and Completion [of the Mystical Path]” by Muhammad-Baqir b. Sharaf ad-Din al-Lahuri al-Husayni al-‘Abbasi is represented in Russia by three copies, two of which are in Ufa. The work “The Collection of Letters of Sheikh Yahya Maniri” is popular in the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent, but is virtually unknown in Russia. It provides an archaeographical description of both monuments, reconstructing the route and circumstances of their arrival in the Southern Urals based on owner’s inscriptions, as well as various versions of their use in religious practice and education. Based on owner’s inscriptions and marginal comments, the formats of reception of these texts by Russian Muslims are established. The first manuscript was used in religious practice and as a relic, con-firming the authority of specific religious leaders. The second came to Russia as a collector's item. A broad historical and cultural context is used to identify the factors that influenced the changing routes of Indian manuscripts arriving in the Southern Urals, as well as the functioning of the Persian language in the intellectual space of the region. Using two manuscripts as examples, the process of gradual transformation of Sufi manuscripts from reading and study material into collectibles is described.