編者

Allen J. Frank, Ph.D. (1994) in Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, lives in Takoma Park, Maryland. He has published widely on Islamic Societies in Imperial Russia including Muslim Religious Institutions in Imperial Russia, (2001).

Mirkasyim Abdulahatovich Usmanov is Professor of Tatar history at Kazan State University, Kazan, Russia. He has written numerous works on various aspects of Tatar history, and is a leading specialist on the Islamic manuscript tradition among the Tatars. From 1963 until 1988 he directed Kazan's University's annual archeographical expeditions.

This biographical dictionary, based on a Turkic manuscript compiled in 1912, is essential for all those interested in the Islamic history of Central Asia under Russian and Chinese rule. Covering the period from 1770 - 1912, it brings to life the muslim communities of Sufis and scholars of the eastern Kazakh steppe. Its extensive biographical information provides fresh insights into the intellectual, political, and religious life of a region for which indigenous Islamic sources are virtually unknown.

With a historical and textological introduction, full English translation, extensive notes, and an Arabic-script Turkic text.