Alexander Kasimovich Kazembek ( or ; Azeri

Azerbaijani language

Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...

: Aleksandr Kazımbəy or Mirzə Kazım-bəy) (22 July 1802, Rasht

Rasht

Rasht is a city in and the capital of Gilan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 551,161, in 159,983 families.Rasht is the largest city on Iran's Caspian Sea coast. It is a major trade center between Caucasia, Russia and Iran using the port of Bandar-e Anzali...

, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

—27 November 1870, St.Petersburg), Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, born Muhammad Ali Kazim-bey (Azeri: Məhəmməd Əli Kazımbəy), was a famous orientalist, historian and philologist of Azeri

Azerbaijani people

The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...

 origin. He was the grandfather of the Mladorossi

Mladorossi

The Union of Mladorossi was a political group of Russian émigré monarchists who advocated a hybrid of Russian monarchy and the Soviet system, best evidenced by their motto "Tsar and the Soviets"....

founder Alexander Kazembek

Alexander Kazembek (White emigré)

Alexander Lvovich Kazembek , often spelled Kazem-Bek or Kasem-Beg, was a Russian émigré and political activist, and founder of the Mladorossi political group.-Life:Kazembek was born into a wealthy noble family of Azeri origin...

.

Early life

Alexander Kazembek's father, Hadji Kasim Kazem-Bey, was a prominent Azeri Muslim cleric and a native of the city of Derbent

Derbent

Derbent |Lak]]: Чурул, Churul; Persian: دربند; Judæo-Tat: דארבּאנד/Дэрбэнд/Dərbənd) is a city in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, close to the Azerbaijani border. It is the southernmost city in Russia, and it is the second most important city of Dagestan...

 (then part of the Quba Khanate

Quba Khanate

The Quba Khanate was an independent principality on the territory of modern day Azerbaijan from 1747-1806. The Quba Khanate was founded as a feudal hold around 1680 as a result of a land grant to the Saytaq family, who were related to both the Qajar dynasty and the Utsmi of Tarki in Dagestan and...

, later part of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

), whose father (Alexander Kazembek's paternal grandfather) Nazir Muhammad khan was paymaster general of the Derbent Khanate. On his way back from a religious pilgrimage to Mecca

Hajj

The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...

, Muhammad Qasim Kazim-bey visited Rasht (present-day Gilan province, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

) and met a woman named Sharafnisa, daughter of the local governor Bagher-khan. The two married and settled in Rasht, where Kazembek was born. In 1811, his father was appointed qadhi in Derbent, and the family moved there. Kazembek completed his studies in Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 and, already fluent in Azeri

Azerbaijani language

Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...

 and Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

, also excelled in Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

, Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

 and Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

. At the age of 17, he wrote his first book named Topics in Grammar of the Arabic Language (originally in Arabic). His father wanted him to become a Muslim scholar and was going to send him away to Persia and Arabia to master Islamic studies

Islamic studies

In a Muslim context, Islamic studies can be an umbrella term for all virtually all of academia, both originally researched and as defined by the Islamization of knowledge...

. However, in 1820, Muhammad Qasim Kazim-bey was charged with espionage on behalf of Persia, deprived of his religious title and exiled to Astrakhan

Astrakhan

Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...

 along with his wife.

Religious views

While residing in Derbent, young Kazembek often met with Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 Presbyterian missionaries. They would have long discussions during which he, then a devout Muslim, would try to "undeceive" his opponents. However, these discussions led to Kazembek's frequent inquiries about the principles of Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

. He started studying Hebrew and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 in order to have access to more information on this subject. In 1821, Kazembek visited his father in Astrakhan to arrange his own enrollment into foreign Islamic schools. There he once again came across missionaries and, after grave cogitation, he converted to Christianity. This resulted in conflict with his parents, who never came around to his decision. Despite this fact, Kazembek was later one of the few European scholars who strongly disagreed with the view that Islam was an obstacle to social development -- a stance which was common among Westerners in the 19th century.

Career as a historian

Kazembek was an author of several historical books. He wrote Assab as-Sayyar (Seven Planets) on the history of the Crimean khans

Crimean Khanate

Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...

 from 1466 to 1737 (in Turkish) and The Study of the Uyghur on Ancient Uyghurs in 1841. He also translated Muhammad Avabi's Darband-nameh (17th century book on the history of Dagestan

Dagestan

The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...

) into English and published it in 1850. His biggest historical work was Báb and the Bábis: Religious and Political Unrest in Persia in 1848-1852, which he published in 1865. His other works were mostly focused on Islamic studies: Concordance of the Koran (1859), Muridism and Shamil (1859), History of Islam (1860), etc.

Career as a philologist

Kazembek started his career as a linguist by translating Christian books into Oriental languages. In addition to the languages he already knew, he learned French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 and Tatar. In 1825, he received an invitation to complete his bachelor's degree in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. However the Russian government refused to let him out of the country, fearing that Kazembek would choose to stay and work in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 upon graduation. Instead by Imperial decree he was appointed as a teacher of the Tatar language in Omsk

Omsk

-History:The wooden fort of Omsk was erected in 1716 to protect the expanding Russian frontier along the Ishim and the Irtysh rivers against the Kyrgyz nomads of the Steppes...

, thus being held away from his academic instructors. He never made it to Omsk as, while staying in Kazan

Kazan

Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...

 due to an illness, Kazembek met historian Karl Fuchs and was invited by him to pass an academic test to determine Kazembek's eligibility to teach Arabic and Persian at Kazan University. The test was passed and Kazembek was hired as a senior teacher. In 1828, he was chosen to be a member of the Royal Asiatic Society

Royal Asiatic Society

The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was established, according to its Royal Charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." From its incorporation the Society...

 and became head of the newly established Faculty of Turkic languages at Kazan University. In 1831, he attained a master's degree after writing an academic essay called Views on the History and Vocabulary of the Arabic Language (in Persian). In 1835 he was admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences

Russian Academy of Sciences

The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....

 as a Corresponding Member. In 1837, he earned a Ph.D. degree at Kazan University. In 1839, he wrote a detailed work called Grammar of the Turco-Tatar language (at that time, most Turkic languages

Turkic languages

The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...

 were regarded as dialects of one single language unit often referred to as 'Tatar' or 'Turco-Tatar'), where he compared Ottoman Turkish

Ottoman Turkish language

The Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...

, Azeri and various dialects of Tatar in terms of their phonology, morphology, and syntax and for which he received the Demidov Prize

Demidov Prize

The Demidov Prize was a national scientific prize in the Russian Empire awarded annually to the members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. One of the most prestigious and oldest scientific awards in the world, its traditions influenced other awards of this kind including the Nobel Prize...

. The second edition of this book was published in 1846 and incorporated the author's latest research in the field. It became popular in Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

, being the richest academic source on the Turkic languages at that time, and was used in universities as a primary reference book until 1921, when Jean Deny published his Grammar of the Turkish language (Ottoman dialect).

In 1849, Kazembek was transferred to St. Petersburg University, which by his initiative was reorganized into the main Russian post-secondary institution for studying Oriental languages. In 1855, he became dean of the newly formed faculty. In 1863, he secured the establishment of the Department of Oriental History. He organized internships for students who showed interest in field studies of Oriental cultures. In 1854, he published another linguistic work named Study Manual for Turkish Language Courses, which included several reading materials typed in various scripts, and a Russian-Turkish dictionary of 6,700 words (the richest one at the time). That same year, he also published The Explanation of the Russian Words Similar to Those in Oriental Languages, a major work on loanword

Loanword

A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...

s in the Russian language.

In 1868, Kazembek initiated an academic movement aimed at studying the linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

, ethnography

Ethnography

Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...

, numismatics

Numismatics

Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the...

, and epigraphy

Epigraphy

Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...

 of Turkestan

Turkestan

Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...

. Unfortunately, with his death, this idea was mostly abandoned.