Adolf Berzhe

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In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Pyetrovich and the family name is Berzhé.
Adolf Berzhé
Адольф Берже́
Portrait, 1886.
Pronunciation
  • Russian pronunciation: [ɐdəlʲf bʲɪrˈʐɛ]
Born(1828-08-09)9 August 1828[a]
Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died12 February 1886(1886-02-12) (aged 57)[b]
Tiflis, Russian Empire
Alma materEastern Faculty of St. Petersburg State University [ru]
Known forChairman of the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission, Compiler of Acts of the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission [ru]
Parent
  • Peter Berzhé (father)
Scientific career
Fieldshistory, oriental studies, caucasology, archeography

Adolf Pyetrovich Berzhé (also spelled Bergé; Russian: Адольф Петрович Берже́, IPA: [ɐdəlʲf pʲɪtrəvʲɪd͡ʑ bʲɪrˈʐɛ];[c] 9 August [O.S. 28 July] 1828 – 12 February [O.S. 31 January] 1886) was an Imperial Russian bureaucrat and an Orientalist historian, with principal interests in the history and culture of the South Caucasus. He was also an archeographer and archaeologist, and served as the chairman of the Caucasian branch of the Archaeographic Commission from 1864 to 1886.

A St. Petersburg native, Bergé's father was from France and his mother was from Germany.[2] Trained in the Oriental studies at St. Petersburg University, Bergé was dispatched to the chancellery of the Viceroy of the Caucasus Prince Mikhail Vorontsov in 1851. He made two scholarly trips to Persia in 1853 and 1855. From 1864 to his death Bergé chaired the Tiflis-based Caucasian Archaeographical Commission. He died at Tiflis in 1886, leaving behind a number of works pertaining to the history of the Caucasus and Middle East, including the monumental 11-volume collection of archival documents "Acts, collected by the Archaeographical Commission at the Directorate of the Viceroy of the Caucasus" (Акты, собранные Кавказскою Археографическою коммиссиею; Tiflis, 1866–1886), the last volume of which appeared in print after Bergé's death.[2][3]

Background[edit]

Berzhé was born in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, on 9 August [O.S. 28 July] 1828[1] in the family of the nobleman-French emigrant Peter Berzhé. His mother was a German from Mecklenburg. He studied in a private boarding school, then at a Reformed school and Gatchina Orphan Institute [ru]. In 1847 to 1851 Berzhé studied at the Educational Department of Oriental Languages at the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (later the Oriental Department of the Historical and Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg University [ru]), from which he graduated as a candidate of the university [ru] and had a excellent knowledge of Arabic, Persian, Turkish languages, histories, and geography of the Orient and Russian history.[4]

Civil service[edit]

After graduating from the university, Berzhé entered the chancery of Caucasus Viceroyalty governed then by Mikhail Vorontsov. In 1852, Berzhé accompanied the expedition of Aleksandr Meyendorff [ru], the materials of which was used for his work Caspian Region. In 1853–1855 Berzhé visited Qajar Iran twice as a diplomat and was tasked with preventing a rapprochement between Iran and Ottoman Empire during the Crimean War.[4] In Iran, he visited the cities of Tabriz, Qazvin, Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and others.[5] Berzhé further improved his knowledge of the Persian language, became acquaintanced with Iranian scientists, acquired rare books and manuscripts, wrote travel notes, and collected materials for stories that could've interested Russian readers. During this time, Berzhé also published his first works.[4]

In 5 November [O.S. 24 October] 1854,[6] Mikhail Vorontsov, who was known as the patron of trade, industry and education in the Caucasus, resigned and Nikolay Muravyov replaced him as the viceroy of Caucasus. This change was met by the young Berzhé with a depressing impression as can attested by his memoirs. Berzhé's notable responsibility assigned by Muravyov was the compilation of a dictionary that would allow about 1 500 the most commonly used Russian words to be pronounced in any Caucasian language. However, the implementation of this plan was not carried out, and its inconsistency was noted by the famous linguist Pyotr Uslar and Berzhé himself from the very beginning.[7]

In 1855, on behalf of Nikolay Muravyov, Berzhé visited again Iran. While there, he wrote a correspondence to the newspaper Caucasus containing information about the recent events in Iran like the Persian Campaign in Khiva or the Babid uprising in Zanjan in 1850–1852.[7] During his visit in Iran, Berzhé published his Russian translation of the work of Azerbaijani scientist Mirza Jamal Javanshir, Tarikh-e Qarabagh. The most important archaeographic discovery of Berzhé was the library of Calouste Shirmazanian, a wealthy Armenian merchant who had moved from Persia to Russia in 1821. The library, by the time of Berzhé's arrival, was owned by Shirzamanian's son. In addition to 193 ancient Armenian and Persian books, some of which were unknown to Russian orientalists, Berzhé also discovered about 600 firmans of Persian shahs. The information collected in Persia served as material for Berzhé's article On national holidays, fasts and significant days among Shiite Muslims in general and among Persians in particular, published in 1855 in the Kavkazskiy kalendar, the editor of which became Berzhé in 1856.[7]

Career[edit]

Front page of Berzhé's monograph Chechnya and the Chechens [ru], republished in Tiflis in 1859. First edition published in Kavkazskiy kalendar in 1858.

In Kavkazskiy kalendar, Berzhé began publishing his works about the peoples of Dagestan and Chechnya that have not lost their scientific significance in modern historiography. Berzhé's works, created in the fresh wake of events, were quickly filled with raw material. This was later recognized by Berzhé's himself, who in 1879 critically reviewed his work Chechnya and the Chechens [ru], noting that, as "the first experience of this kind, this work is not without great shortcomings".[7]

In 1857, Berzhé was appointed the head of the Tiflis Public Library. In 1861 he published the library's catalogue.[7]

In 1858, Berzhé visited Dagestan in search of the rumored Utsmi chest, that contained ancient manuscripts, which once belonged to an utsmi of Kaitag. With the help of the local administration and especially Dagestani scientists, notably Imam Shamil's former philosophy teacher Vin Hitinou Lachinilou, the chest was found. There was a rich collection of manuscripts in the chest that was later transferred to the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences. It included the manuscripts The History of Three Imams (a.k.a. The Sparkle of Dagestan Checkers). Berzhé also found a magnificent handwritten ancient copy of the Quran in one of the Khunzakh mosques. It contained the genealogy of the Avar khans in its postscript that was published by Berzhé in one of the volumes of the Acts of the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission [ru]. In addition, in Temir-Khan-Shura, knyaz Dzhoradze gifted Berzhé the manuscript Chronicle of Dagestan. Berzhé's visit to Dagestan was unusually fruitful and it was covered in the first issues of the newspaper Caucasus for 1862.[8]

Berzhé's merit was the discovery of an autograph of the famous Kabardian scientist Shora Bekmurzin Nogmov [ru] History of the Adyghe people that Berzhé provided a preface written with the help of Kabardian intellectuals who personally knew Nogmov. He published the work in the Kavkazskiy kalendar in 1861 and the German translation of the work in Leipzig in 1866. Publication of Nogmov's work was met positively by Pyotr Uslar, and later by Soviet historians and philologists like Georgy Kokiev [ru], Tugan Kumykov [ru], Georgy Turchaninov [ru], Ilya Treskov and Hasan Turkaev [ru].[8]

Together with academic Marie-Félicité Brosset, the famous Georgian poet Raphael Eristavi, historian Dimitri Bakradze, local historians S. Amirejibi and Gulbani Berzhé searched for gujari (lit. 'deeds of gift') of Georgian monasteries, the texts of which were preserved in copies of Berzhe for Brosset.[8]

For many years, in collaboration with local scientists, Berzhé collected samples of Azerbaijani poetry of the 18–19th centuries that he wanted to publish in Russia.[8] He collected the works and biographies of many Azerbaijani poets[d] in Iran which he compiled in his manuscript. He wrote a letter to academician Pyotr Kyoppen [ru] on 30 January [O.S. 18 January] 1860 requesting his manuscript be published, but it was published only in 1869–1870 by the Leipzig publisher Zenker with the preface being written by Berzhé in German. The work was never published in Russia despite all tries.[10]

On 23 March [O.S. 11 March] 1860 Berzhé was appointed the chairman of the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. After the appointment, Berzhé visited Europe as part of his four-month business trip. The purpose of the trip was to publish the collection of Azerbaijani poetry and a Persian-French dictionary intended for those involved in the translation of Persian official documents. Because of Berzhé being recognized for his scientific merits, he was elected in Paris, France, a member of the Société Asiatique and the Société Orientale de France; in Leipzig a member of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft. Returning to Tiflis, Berger began compiling documents for future publications of the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission.[11]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ O.S. 28 July.[1]
  2. ^ O.S. 31 January.[1]
  3. ^ Pre-reform orthography: Адольфъ Петровичъ Берже́.
  4. ^ Akhund Molla Penakh, Molla Panah Vagif, Gasim bey Zakir, Mesikh [az; ru], Kenberg, Karbalai [az; ru], Abdullah Jami, Baba Bek [az; ru], Mehdi Bek [ru], Ashiq Peri, Molla Vali Vidadi, Kazim agha Salik, Arif Nasir, Abdur-Rahman Shapr, Nebati Ajaf and Masum.[9]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Mukhanov.
  2. ^ a b Jersild, Austin (2002), Orientalism and Empire: North Caucasus Mountain Peoples and the Georgian Frontier, 1845-1917, p. 67. McGill-Queen's University Press, ISBN 0-7735-2329-4
  3. ^ Адольф Петрович Берже. Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. rulex.ru. Accessed July 24, 2012.
  4. ^ a b c Kolosov 1987, p. 214.
  5. ^ Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary 1891.
  6. ^ Georgiev 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d e Kolosov 1987, p. 215.
  8. ^ a b c d Kolosov 1987, p. 216.
  9. ^ Kolosov 1987, pp. 216–271.
  10. ^ Kolosov 1987, pp. 216–217.
  11. ^ Kolosov 1987, p. 217.

Sources[edit]

Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

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