Institute of Oriental Studies (RAS)

Institute of Oriental Studies (RAS)
Name	Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Native name	Институт востоковедения Российской академии наук
Established	1818 (as Asiatic Museum), reconstituted 1930
Location	Saint Petersburg, Moscow
Parent organization	Russian Academy of Sciences
Fields	Oriental studies, Asian studies, Middle Eastern studies

Contents

Institute of Oriental Studies (RAS) is a premier research institution in Russia dedicated to the study of Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Islamic world. The Institute traces institutional continuity to early 19th‑century efforts in Saint Petersburg and has played roles in scholarship related to Napoleon, Alexander I of Russia, Tsar Nicholas I, Vasily Bartold, Ignaz Goldziher, and Edward Said-era debates. It maintains major centers in Saint Petersburg and Moscow and engages with global institutions such as SOAS University of London, Columbia University, Harvard University, Leiden University, and the University of Tokyo.

History

Founded from the collections of the Asiatic Museum created under Peter the Great's legacy and later formalized during the reign of Alexander I of Russia, the Institute’s antecedents appeared alongside the rise of Russian diplomatic ties with Qajar Iran, Ottoman Empire, and Mughal Empire studies. In the 19th century figures connected to the Institute corresponded with scholars from Oriental Institute (Oxford), École des langues orientales (Paris), and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and its manuscripts circulated among collectors like Sir William Jones's successors and Eugène Burnouf. During the Soviet era the Institute navigated ideological shifts alongside institutions such as the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and engaged in projects with Vladimir Lenin-era archives, while its staff debated interpretations with scholars linked to Max Weber, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, and Benedict Anderson. Post‑Soviet restructuring involved interactions with Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and contemporary ministries, and led to partnerships with the British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, National Diet Library (Japan), and Library of Congress.

The Institute operates under the Russian Academy of Sciences with administrative ties to ministries and cultural agencies represented by actors like Sergei Lavrov in diplomatic exchanges and collaborations with university systems such as Moscow State University, Saint Petersburg State University, Higher School of Economics, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, and the Russian State University for the Humanities. Directors and leading administrators historically interacted with personalities including Vladimir Ivanov, Boris Piotrovsky, Yuri Knorozov-adjacent researchers, and internationally with figures from UNESCO, UN delegations, European Union cultural programs, and foundations like the Ford Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Institute comprises divisions focusing on regions and themes historically linked to scholars of Central Asia, Caucasus, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Middle East, and North Africa. Departments engage in studies touching on sources such as Manuscripts of Dunhuang, Pazyryk textiles, Dead Sea Scrolls-era comparative philology, and textual traditions related to Sanskrit, Classical Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Mongolian, and Tibetan. Research clusters collaborate with external centers including Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (RAS), Institute of History (RAS), Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents, and international partners like Peking University, Seoul National University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, American University of Beirut, and Cairo University.

The Institute publishes monographs, critical editions, and periodicals that enter global citation networks alongside journals such as Journal of Asian Studies, Die Welt des Islams, Iran and the Caucasus, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, and titles from Brill and Routledge. Its serials and book series feature works on philology, history, archaeology, and art history engaging topics like the Silk Road, Mongol Empire, Timurid dynasty, Safavid dynasty, Qing dynasty, Tokugawa shogunate, and modern state formations such as Republic of Turkey, Islamic Republic of Iran, People's Republic of China, and Republic of India. The Institute’s editorial collaborations reach publishers and repositories including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Springer, De Gruyter, and national presses in Japan, China, France, and Germany.

Holdings include manuscript collections comparable to those in the British Library, Vatican Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Princeton Geniza Project, encompassing codices in Coptic, Hebrew, Sogdian, Uighur, Uyghur, Khotanese, and Old Turkic scripts, as well as epigraphic records similar to the Behistun inscription. Archaeological archives document excavations connected to sites like Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent, Khiva, Palmyra, and Assur, and the Institute preserves photographic collections, maps, and audio files used in comparative studies with holdings at the Smithsonian Institution, Rijksmuseum, and State Hermitage Museum.

The Institute trains postgraduate researchers and visiting fellows in coordination with programs at Moscow State University, Saint Petersburg State University, Higher School of Economics, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Chicago, and regional centers such as Aligarh Muslim University, American University in Cairo, and Beijing Foreign Studies University. It runs summer schools, language instruction in classical and modern tongues like Arabic, Persian, Japanese, Korean, and Hindi, and joint projects with international grants from European Research Council, Horizon Europe, and bilateral accords with ministries in China, India, Turkey, and Iran.

Scholars affiliated with the Institute intersect with broader networks including figures like Vasily Bartold, Nikolai Marr, Vladimir Minorsky, S. A. Tokarev, Mikhail Vainberg, Sergey Oldenburg, Viktor Zhivov-adjacent researchers, and alumni who later worked at UNESCO, UN, World Bank, and universities such as Harvard University, Columbia University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Leiden University, University of Oxford, Sorbonne University, University of Tokyo, and Seoul National University. The Institute’s personnel have contributed to international exhibitions and catalogues in cooperation with curators from the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Louvre, Pergamon Museum, and State Hermitage Museum.