Acknowledgements
Initially intending to pursue doctoral studies in Ottoman history, thanks to a series of circumstances and several inspiring people, I ended up venturing east, across the mountains, with the Zagros as a gateway, into medieval Iran. Thus, almost exactly seven years ago, I first opened the boxes containing Cecil John Edmonds’ personal papers, at the Middle East Centre Archive of Saint Anthony’s College in Oxford, in January of 2016. At the time, I had just defended my MPhil dissertation on the new sources and approaches for the study of the history of the Ahl-i Ḥaqq at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. Over the preceding two years I spent studying this religious community, I became acquainted with the works of V.F. Minorsky and C.J. Edmonds whose scholarship, not exclusively on the aforesaid subject, offered a fascinating glimpse into the history and culture of the Zagros and its peoples. Since both scholars, and Minorsky in particular, studied the Ahl-i Ḥaqq, his letters to Edmonds attracted my attention and sparked my curiosity to know more. Though I had never managed to use the materials in Edmonds’ archive in my dissertation, for I discovered it too late, I decided to look for the second part of the correspondence and thus travelled to Saint Petersburg, in April of the same year, where a large part of Minorsky’s papers, donated by his wife Tatiana, had been preserved at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts since his death in 1966.
Despite certain difficulties I eventually succeeded in gaining access to the second part of the corpus and thus formally began a long and not always easy, yet endlessly fascinating, process of reading, organizing, and transcribing these letters. This brings me to the first group of people whose time and efforts ought to be acknowledged, and I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to those who have helped me make the first step of what turned out to be a rather long journey. Firstly, I would like to thank Charles Melville, for his guidance on my path to the field of Iranian Studies, for his encouragement to undertake this project, for the letters of introduction allowing me to access both archives, and finally for reviewing and writing a foreword to this volume. Secondly, I wish to thank Debbie Usher, the archivist at the MEC Archive of Saint Anthony’s College, for her professionalism, responsiveness, and help in navigating Edmonds’ papers. Thirdly, I must express my gratitude to the archivists at the IOM, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, whose tireless efforts in negotiating on my behalf with the Sovyet Khraniteley (Rus. “the Board of Custodians”), in matters ranging from obtaining images of several missing letters to gaining access to Minorsky’s photographs, and most importantly getting the permission to publish their materials, helped make this volume a reality. Over this period, I have corresponded with three archivists – Anna Polesitskaya, Alla Sizova, and Mark Kozintsev – all of whom have contributed to the completion of the work on this volume in various but equally important ways.
The next group of people who have helped me along the way, in matters such as deciphering the two scholars’ handwritings, or figuring out obscure words throughout the corpus, suggestions on ways to frame and present the materials at hand, as well as providing many references used throughout, is in fact too numerous to list in full. However, those among them whose help is particularly appreciated include Derya Özdemir, Gabriel Lara, George Sims, Hamidreza Nikravesh, Yelena Abdullayeva, Reza Radbeh, and of course my co-author Metin Atmaca.
Finally, I wish to extend my gratitude to Abdurraouf Oueslati, of Brill, as well as to the peer-reviewers and copyeditors, for their role in preparing this volume for publication. Any errors or inaccuracies therein are my own.
Gennady Kurin
Funchal, January 2023
This work was initially submitted to Brill Kurdish Studies book series for publication. From the proposal to the final stage, the editorial board members of the series, Amr Taher Ahmed, Yavuz Aykan, İpek Demir, and Christine Robins, put a considerable amount of time and energy into reviewing and providing valuable suggestions for this book. Therefore, my special thanks go to them and to the anonymous reviewers. During the preparation of this work, I had tremendous support from my family. I thank kanîya dilşadîya min Aisha, and ronîya çavên min Rani and Hasan for their love, patience, and support throughout this endeavor. I was absent during some of the most joyful and precious times of my kids to find bits of information to annotate these letters. I cannot wait for the day when they read them and have a better grasp of why I was mumbling obscure words, place names, and persons while going through the text. My late brother Cengiz (1972–2020), who had for many years wandered among the communities of Kurdistan, encouraged and supported my pursuit of knowledge of the peoples and lands reflected in these letters. I dedicate my contribution to his beloved memory.
Metin Atmaca
Social Sciences University of Ankara
Ulus, June 2023