THE ROLE OF HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS IN THE STUDY OF CENTRAL ASIAN HISTORY: HISTORIOGRAPHY OF POLITICAL EVENTS, STATE ADMINISTRATION, AND SOCIAL LIFE
Keywords:
Central Asia, historiography, historical manuscripts, source criticism, Arabic sources, Persian sources, political history, state administration, diplomacy, social history, paleography, textual studies.Abstract
This article examines the role of historical manuscripts in the study of Central Asian history from the perspectives of historiography and source criticism. It focuses on the significance of Arabic, Persian, and Turkic written sources in reconstructing political events, state administration, diplomatic relations, legal institutions, and social life in the region. Historical chronicles, including Muhammad Narshakhi’s History of Bukhara, as well as official documents, decrees, diplomatic correspondence, and legal records, are considered in terms of their historical and scholarly value. The article also addresses methodological challenges associated with manuscript research, including authorial perspectives, historical context, textual variations, and the assessment of source reliability. Particular attention is given to historical comparison, source criticism, textual analysis, and contextual interpretation. The study argues that the systematic and critical examination of historical manuscripts contributes to a more comprehensive and evidence-based understanding of Central Asia’s political and social development.
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