Vol. 3 No. 3 November 1997

Manuscripta Orientalia. International Journal for Oriental Manuscript Research.

CONTENTS

TEXTS AND MANUSCRIPTS: DESCRIPTION AND RESEARCH - 3   E. Kychanov. "The Altar Record on Confucius' Conciliation", an Unknown Tangut Apocryphal Work - 3 I. Kulganek. Manuscripts and Sound Records of the Mongol-Oirat Heroic Epic "Jangar" in the Archives of St. Petersburg - 8     TEXT AND ITS CULTURAL INTERPRETATION - 11   E. Rezvan. The Our'an and Its World: III. "Echoings of Universal Harmonies" (Prophetic Revelation, Religious Inspiration, Occult Practice) - 11 S. Klyashtorny. About One Khazar Title in Ibn Fadlan - 22     PRESENTING THE COLLECTIONS - 24   O. Yastrebova. Reconstruction and Description of Mirza Muhammad Muqim's Collection of Manuscripts in the National Library of Russia - 24     MANUSCRIPTS CONSERVATION - 39   M. Blank, N. Stavisky. Conservation of Medieval Manuscripts in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America - 39      ORIENTAL MANUSCRIPTS AND NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES - 46     P. Zemanek. Corpus Linguistics and Arabic - 46      PRESENTING THE MANUSCRIPT - 54      L. N. Menshikov. An Album of Illustrations to the Famous Chinese Novels - 54     BOOK REVIEWS - 69

AUTHORS

Dr. Margarita Blank- a paper and parchment conservator at the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (New York), author of several publications on various aspects of paper conservation, including the development of new methods, primarily on leafcasting.

Prof. Sergey G. Klyashtorny - Head of the Turkic and Mongolian Studies Department of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, expert in the ancient and medieval history of Turkic peoples, author of several monographs and numerous articles in the field.

Dr. Irina V. Kulganek - Researcher at the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, specialist in the field of Mongolian literature and culture. Author of a book on Mongolian folklore and of a number of articles and translations into Russian of Mongolian poetry.

Prof. Dr. Evgeniy I. Kychanov - Director of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, specialist in the history and culture of China and the Tangut empire, author of a series of monographs and numerous articles in the field.

Prof. Dr. Lev N. Menshikov - Head of the Group of Far Eastern Textology of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, founder of Dunhuang studies in Russia, expert in the history of Chinese literature and culture, author of a series of monographs and articles.

Dr. Efim A. Rezvan - Deputy Director of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, specialist in Arabic and Islamic studies, author of a number of monographs and articles devoted to problems of Russian-Arab relations, the history of Islam and Oriental studies computing.

Dr. Alexey G. Sazykin - Senior Researcher of the Turkic and Mongolian Studies Department of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, expert in Mongolian literature and Oriental manuscript tradition, author of a number of catalogues of Mongolian manuscripts and block-prints, of monographs and a number of articles.

Mrs. Nellie Stavisky - a parchment and paper conservator at the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (part of the year), and privately in Jerusalem (the rest). Author of several publications on conservation and hand papermaking.

Dr. Petr Zemanek - Deputy Head, Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. Specializes in Arabic and Semitic linguistics, especially in phonology, and computer-aided analysis of Arabic and other Semitic languages.

Miss Olga M. Yastrebova - Ph.D. student at the Oriental Department of the St. Petersburg State University, keeper of the Oriental collection at the Manuscript Department of the National Library of Russia.