Reading Al-Farabi in Soviet Central Asia

The sudden interest to Abu Nasr al-Farabi (ab. 870-950) in academic circles of the Soviet Union in the 1970-80s resulted in numerous publications dedicated to his treatises in Central Asian Soviet Republics. This process was identified later by local intellectuals as ‘the comeback of the Great Teacher’. Al-Farabi’s 1150th anniversary was celebrated by numerous cultural and educational institutions of Central Asia in 2020 as one of the most important national events. How could such a turn towards this Islamic philosopher occur in the Soviet intellectual milieu dominated by Marxist-Leninist philosophy?

Zifa-Alua Auezova is a historian of literature. Born in Moscow (1966) she grew up in Kazakhstan. She graduated from and received her PhD degree at the Department of Oriental Studies of St. Petersburg State University (1994). In 1991-92 with the scholarship from the Open Society Institute she worked as a research scholar at the Oriental Institute at Oxford University. In Kazakhstan she taught for several years at Al-Farabi National University in Almaty and worked as the Executive Director of the Educational Center Bilim-Central Asia in Almaty. In the Netherlands she taught courses on Religion and Society in Central Asia and Intellectual History of Central Asia at Leiden University. Her research interests cover the history of the Middle-Eastern and Central Asian literature, intellectual history of Central Asia and literary articulations of state ideologies (selected publications can be found at: academia.edu). Currently she lives in the Netherlands.

Please RSVP through Zoom link: https://unc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcrduqvrzwsGN25qMQxiT8RBN967rVx4M-4