So, about whom and what does the collection “Majmua-i Murasalat” talk about?
According to sources, “Majmua-i Murasalat” was created directly by order of Hazrat Mir Alisher Navoi. For this reason, it is also called the “Navoi Collection”. This collection is considered a precious source associated with the 15th century. It included, among other things, original copies of 594 letters written to Alisher Navoi. The authors of the letters are 16 people, including such famous historical figures as Abdurrahman Jami (1414 - 1492), Khoja Ubaidallah Ahrar (1404 - 1490).
According to Abdulkadyr Muradov, a researcher of the history of Central Asian calligraphy, “Each of the mentioned people wrote letters to Alisher and partly to Sultan Hussein Mirza with their own hands, with a specific goal in mind.” Alisher Navoi, in turn, ordered the letters to be collected and glued together in the form of an album "It was very difficult to read them because most of them were written without periods and sometimes in shikasta style."Also as the author states: “This collection changed hands over time and became the property of the famous writer Muhammad Sharif Sadri Zia Bukhari.” Sadri Zia was born in 1865 in the city of Bukhara into the family of a domullah named Abdushukur. "Sadr" is his academic title. Sadri Zia died in 1932. He collected and studied manuscripts related to the history, literature and religious heritage of the peoples of Central Asia.
According to another researcher Nematulla Muhammedov, the famous Uzbek orientalist-source scholar, Doctor of Historical Sciences Asomiddin Urinbaev, in collaboration with the American scientist, professor at the University of New Jersey Jo Ann Gross, translated these letters into English in his book. “Letters of Khoja Ubaydullah Akhror and his murids” were published in 2002 by the world famous Dutch publishing house “Brill”.
You can learn more about this topic in the book-album “The Collection of the Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental studies, the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan” (Volume XXIII) from the series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections".
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What is the collection of works “Majmua-i Murasalat”?
In the “Collection of the Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan” in the series “Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan” (XXV volume), among hundreds of works related to the rich historical and scientific heritage of our people, there is also a collection “Majmua-i Murasalat” (“Collection of letters").