"BOTH WORLDS" COULD FIT WITHIN HIM

The 19th century was a time of the flourishing of humanitarian thought. It was then that the basic concepts of modern philosophy, sociology, linguistics, history and other humanities were laid. One of the main areas that developed in the Russian Empire was oriental studies. In the vast expanses of the empire, hundreds of scientists studied the languages, customs and history of the peoples. Our countryman Mirza Cafar Topcubasov, a man of outstanding and comprehensive talents, was not just one of them, but the best of his kind.

Fount of fine languages

The Topcubasov family, who lived in Tiflis, came from Ganca. The grandfather of Mirza Cafar - Ali Mardan served at the court of the Georgian kings Irakli II and George XII, was the commander of an artillery regiment and the commandant of the fortress that housed the royal palace. His brother Ali Akbar was a career second lieutenant. His nephew, well-known Alimardan Bay, was a prominent public figure, statesman and co-founder of the first Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. The surname of Topcubasov was very famous in Russia because many world famous Russian orientalists were students of Mirza Cafar Topcubasov.

"Mirza Cafar taught students to speak Persian not only correctly, but also elegantly - to such an extent that the Persian language of Kazan teachers seemed to students of Mirza Cafar not only wrong, but also coarse, Tatar in the spirit, and not real Persian," his student and famous Russian orientalist, Professor Vasiliy Grigoryev, wrote of him.

Most of his life, Mirza Cafar taught oriental languages in the empire's largest (and one of the best in the world) St. Petersburg State University. Russian oriental studies in those days (it is the beginning of the 19th century) were engaged only in four major Eastern languages for the empire: Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Tatar. Mirza Cafar was fluent in all these languages.

Starting from 1845, the Department of Oriental Literature at St. Petersburg University began to teach Tatar (Azerbaijani), Georgian and Armenian languages and literature. Although according to the statute of the university, the teaching of the Azerbaijani language was supposed to begin as early as 1835, this process began only in 1845. As for the Turkish language, only with the arrival of the Russian orientalist, polyglot, writer and editor, Osip Senkovskiy, at the university in 1822, did this issue begin to move forward, and here Mirza Cafar was his closest advisor. On the initiative of Mirza Cafar, Senkovskiy even translated into Russian the Azerbaijani tale "Wooden Doll", which was published in the Decembrists' anthology Polyarnaya Zvezda.

In his book "St. Petersburg University in the first fifty years of its existence", Grigoryev writes that "Mirza Cafar's lectures on Persian literature fascinated everyone and his students learnt the Persian language very quickly". In 1835, Topcubasov succeeded orientalist professor Francois Bernard Charmoy who had reached the retirement age. And eventually he became head of the Persian Language and Literature Department. We must say that Mirza Cafar taught his students not only the Persian language and literature, but also canons of calligraphy that are necessary in this case.

Grigoryev also wrote that students of Mirza Cafar mastered calligraphy as successfully as languages. The professionalism of a calligrapher, as you know, was considered one of the main indicators of good education in the East. In this sense, Mirza Cafar was not just an impeccable calligrapher, but almost a painter. In any case, Mirza Cafar had many talents.

Poet and translator

"In the class of the Persian language, students have read all of 'Gulistan', the works of Sa'di and the 41st chapter of Farid al-Din Attar's 'Pandnameh' over the last six months ... Many of them were engaged in translating from the Russian language into Persian, and quite successfully. Some even begin to get into the habit of talking with each other and with the teacher; their good pronunciation does credit to the activity and diligence of the teacher Mirza Cafar." This report to the Ministry of Public Education at the beginning of Topcubasov's work in the university (he was only 23) was written by the trustee of the school district, S. Uvarov.

As befits a real connoisseur of the East, Mirza Cafar could not imagine his work without the knowledge of poetry. He eagerly recited poems to students, translated them himself and encouraged students to engage in translation as well. He knew that there can be no real orientalist without love for poetry.

Mirza Cafar could be described as a mediator between East and West. And it is not just training. He was the first in the world to professionally translate the Bible into Persian. This work was so highly praised by European orientalists that he was appointed a member of the Royal Asiatic Society in London.

We must say that with his diligence, high professionalism and love for his profession, Mirza Cafar made many Russians understand and love the East. For example, his friend P. Petrov, who became a professor at Moscow University, wrote: "When Mirza Cafar explained to me the mystical meaning of some odes and ghazals of Hafiz, I decided to definitely translate the best of them into Russian in verses, which I will perform. Either I have become completely oriental or they are really a miracle of the highest poetry."

Mirza Cafar translated a lot of the best examples of oriental poetry into Russian: "Pandnameh" of Attar, "Bustan" and "Gulistan" of Sa'di, Hafiz's selected ghazals, some masnavis of Jalal al-Din Rumi, excerpts from "Shahnameh" by Ferdowsi (this work is very copious and was translated in full later), some passages from "Tazkire'i - Mukin Hani", "History" of Wassaf and "Makhzan ul-Insha".

By the way, under the leadership of Topcubasov the abovementioned Grigoryev created a Russian translation of the work "The History of the Mongols from Ancient Times to Tamerlane", which is part of Handemir's chronicle "Habib us-Seyr".

Diplomat

Topcubasov came to St. Petersburg from his native Tiflis very young in 1817. Initially, he worked as a translator at the Persian embassy and then went to work at the university. And he also travelled a lot, communicated with diplomats and had the post of privy councillor, i.e. in the modern sense, he was a political consultant.

For his successful work at St. Petersburg University, the Russian Archaeological Commission and the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Empire, Mirza Cafar was awarded the Order of St. Anna in the 1st and 2nd degrees, St. Vladimir in the 3rd degree, St. Stanislav in the 1st degree and the famous Iranian Order of Shiri-Khurshid.

Views

Despite his translation of the Bible and the fact that Topcubasov lived most of his life in St. Petersburg, he did not change his religion. Like all the "advanced" Muslims such as Nasimi, Mirza Cafar was a Sufi. Moreover, he made many enlightened people love and understand the Sufi philosophy.

Topcubasov was a connoisseur of the poetry of the Sufi school. Professor Veselovskiy wrote that as a mystic Mirza Cafar was a fan of Eastern poetry, and the poems of Sa'di, Hafiz and Jalal al-Din Rumi with his comments gave students real pleasure.

At the end of his life, Topcubasov gave his faculty five-per-cent state-owned banknotes worth 1,000 roubles (a large sum in those days) for the establishment of the "Topcubasov Award". It was designed for students, who had particularly distinguished themselves in the field of management and administration. Two-year interest rates on the prize totalled 100 roubles. With the decision of the Senate and with the permission of the tsar, this award was given official status and was awarded after his death.

Even many years later, when the famous Ali Mardan bay arrived in St. Petersburg, the name of his uncle Mirza Cafar, which went down in the history of St. Petersburg Imperial University, was pronounced in academic and political circles of the capital with great respect and admiration.