Historians note uniqueness of new multi-volume book about Circassians

The "DeGruyter", German academic publishing house, is starting to publish a 30-volume series of books "Europe and Circassia: 1760-1870". The new project contains many unique materials, Giorgi Mamuliya and Naima Neflyasheva, historians, have noted.

Azamat Kumykov, a doctoral student of the Cambridge University, under whose guidance the collection of books was prepared for publication, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the series "Europe and Circassia: 1760-1870" will allow introducing the never before published documents from the archives of Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Turkey, Iran, Holland, Russia, USA, Ukraine and Georgia into the scientific circulation.

The series of books, which is planned to be published in full within the next 10-12 years, is based on the materials identified and prepared in recent years by a large group of scientists (historians, linguists and manuscript specialists). "It is assumed that the publication of these unique sources will significantly improve our understanding of the Circassians' modern history, as well as the history of other Caucasian nations," Azamat Kumykov has commented.

Doctor Giorgi Mamuliya, a historian and one of the editors of the series, from the French School of Higher Public Political Studies (École des hautes études en sciences sociales – EHESS), has expressed his opinion about the project, emphasizing that the uniqueness thereof is in its general scientific novelty and scale.

According to Naima Neflyasheva, a Candidate of History, the Azamat Kumykov's project will bring the Caucasian studies to a new level. "The historian has opened earlier unknown archival funds; he worked with sources in different European languages, and brought the earlier unknown names out of the shadow," Ms Neflyasheva has notes.

The first book of the series, containing materials from French archives, will be published in autumn 2022.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 1, 2022 at 02:51 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.