Adolf Berzhe

In this name that followsEastern Slavic naming customs,thepatronymicisPyetrovichand thefamily nameisBerzhé.

Adolf Berzhe
Адольф Берже
Portrait, 1886.
Pronunciation	Russian pronunciation:[ɐdəlʲfbʲɪrˈʐɛ]
Born	(1828-08-09)9 August 1828 Saint Petersburg,Russian Empire
Died	12 February 1886(1886-02-12)(aged 57) Tiflis,Russian Empire
Alma mater	Eastern Faculty of St. Petersburg State University
Known for	Chairman of the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission, Compiler ofActs of the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission
Parent	Peter Berzhé (father)
Scientific career
Fields	history,oriental studies,caucasology,archeography

Adolf Pyetrovich Berzhe(also spelledBergé;Russian:Адо́льф Петро́вич Берже́,IPA:[ɐdəlʲfpʲɪtrəvʲɪd͡ʑbʲɪrˈʐɛ];9 August [O.S.28 July] 1828 – 12 February [O.S.31 January] 1886) was anImperial Russianbureaucrat and anOrientalisthistorian, with principal interests in the history and culture of theSouth Caucasus.He was also an archeographer and archaeologist, and served as the chairman of the Caucasian branch of theArchaeographic Commissionfrom 1864 to 1886.

A Saint Petersburg native, Berzhe's father was from France and his mother was from Germany.Trained in Oriental studies atSaint Petersburg University,Berzhe's was dispatched to the chancellery of theViceroy of the CaucasusPrinceMikhail Vorontsovin 1851. He made two scholarly trips toPersiain 1853 and 1855. From 1864 to his death Berzhe's chaired theTiflis-based Caucasian Archaeographical Commission. He died at Tiflis in 1886, leaving behind a number of works pertaining to the history of the Caucasus and Middle East, including the monumental 11-volume collection of archival documents titledAkty, sobrannye Kavkazskoy arkheograficheskoy komissiyey(Documents collected by the Caucasian Archaeographical Commission, Tiflis, 1866–1886), the last volume of which appeared in print after Berzhe's death.

Background

Berzhe was born inSaint Petersburg,Russian Empire, on 9 August [O.S.28 July] 1828in the family of a French nobleman who had immigrated to Russia. His mother was a German fromMecklenburg.He studied in a private boarding school, then at a Reformed school and theGatchina Orphan Institute.From 1847 to 1851, Berzhe studied at the Educational Department of Oriental Languages at the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (later the Oriental Department of theHistorical and Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg University), from which he graduated as acandidate of the university.He acquired in his studies an excellent knowledge of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish languages, the history and geography of theOrient,and Russian history.

Civil service

After graduating from university, Berzhe entered thechanceryof theCaucasus Viceroyalty,governed then byMikhail Vorontsov.In 1852, Berzhe accompanied the expedition ofAleksandr Meyendorff,the materials of which were used for his workPrikaspiysky kray(The Caspian region). In 1853–1855, Berzhe visitedQajar Irantwice as a diplomat and was tasked with preventing a rapprochement between Iran andOttoman Empireduring theCrimean War.In Iran, he visited the cities ofTabriz,Qazvin,Tehran,Isfahan,Shirazand others.Berzhe further improved his knowledge of the Persian language, became acquainted with Iranian scholars, acquired rare books and manuscripts, wrote travel notes, and collected materials for stories that could have interested Russian readers. During this time, Berzhe also published his first works.

On 5 November [O.S.24 October] 1854,Mikhail Vorontsov, who was known as a patron of trade, industry and education in the Caucasus, resigned andNikolay Muravyovreplaced him as the viceroy of Caucasus. The young Berzhe was unhappy with this change, as can attested by his memoirs. Muravyov tasked Berzhe with the compilation of a dictionary that would allow about 1,500 the most commonly used Russian words to be pronounced in anyCaucasian language.However, the implementation of this plan was not carried out, and its inconsistency was noted by the famous linguistPyotr Uslarand Berzhe himself from the very beginning.

In 1855, on behalf of Nikolay Muravyov, Berzhe again visited Iran. While there, he wrote a correspondence to the newspaperKavkazcontaining information about the recent events in Iran like the Persian campaign inKhivaor theBabiduprising inZanjanin 1850–1852.During his visit in Iran, Berzhe published his Russian translation of the work ofAzerbaijanihistorianMirza Jamal Javanshir,Tarikh-e Qarabagh.Berzhe's most important archaeographic discovery was the library of Kalust Shirmazanian, a wealthyArmenianmerchant who had moved from Persia to Russia in 1821. At the time of Berzhe's arrival, the library was owned by Shirzamanian's son. In addition to 193 old Armenian and Persian books, some of which were unknown to Russian orientalists, Berzhe also discovered about 600firmansof Persian shahs. The information collected in Persia served as material for Berzhe's article "On national holidays, fasts and significant days among Shiite Muslims in general and among Persians in particular," published in 1855 in the almanacKavkazskiy kalendar,the editor of which Berzhe became in 1856.

Career

Front page of Berzhe'smonographChechnya and the Chechens,republished inTiflisin 1859. First edition published in Kavkazskiy kalendar in 1858.

InKavkazskiy kalendar,Berzhe began publishing his works about the peoples ofDagestanandChechnya.These works, which were describing recent events, contained a large amount of raw historical data. This was later recognized by Berzhe's himself, who in 1879 critically reviewed his workChechnya i chechentsy(Chechnya and the Chechens), noting that, as "the first experience of this kind, this work is not without great shortcomings".

In 1857, Berzhe was appointed the head of theTiflis Public Library.In 1861 he published the library's catalogue.

In 1858, Berzhe visited Dagestan in search of the rumoredUtsmichest, a chest containing ancient manuscripts which once belonged to anutsmiof Kaitag.With the help of the local administration and especially Dagestani scholars, notablyImam Shamil's former philosophy teacher Bin Khitinou Lachinilou, the chest was found. There was a rich collection of manuscripts in the chest that was later transferred to theImperial Russian Academy of Sciences.It included a manuscript ofThe History of the Three Imams(a.k.a.The Shining of Dagestani Swords) by Muhammad Tahir al-Qarakhi, a history of the Caucasian War from the Caucasian perspective. Berzhe also found a magnificent handwritten ancient copy of the Quran in one of the mosques ofKhunzakh.It contained the genealogy of theAvar khansin its postscript that was published by Berzhe in one of the volumes of theActs of the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission.In addition, inTemir-Khan-Shura,Prince Dzhoradze gifted Berzhe the manuscriptChronicle of Dagestan.Berzhe's visit to Dagestan was unusually fruitful and it was covered in the first issues of the newspaperKavkazfor 1862.

Berzhe also discovered theautographof the famous Kabardian authorShora Bekmurzin Nogmov'sHistory of the Adyghe people.Berzhe wrote a preface to this work with the help of Kabardian intellectuals who personally knew Nogmov. He published the work in theKavkazskiy kalendarin 1861 and the German translation of the work in Leipzig in 1866. Publication of Nogmov's work was met positively by Pyotr Uslar, and later by Soviet historians and philologists likeGeorgy Kokiev,Tugan Kumykov,Georgy Turchaninov,Ilya Treskov andHasan Turkaev.

Together with academicMarie-Félicité Brosset,the famous Georgian poetRaphael Eristavi,historianDimitri Bakradze,local historians S. Amirejibi and Gulbani, Berzhe searched forgujari('deeds of gift') of Georgian monasteries, the texts of which were preserved in copies of Berzhe for Brosset.

For many years, in collaboration with local scientists, Berzhe collected samples of Azerbaijani poetry of the 18th–19th centuries that he wanted to publish in Russia.He collected the works and biographies of many Azerbaijani poetsin Iran which he compiled in his manuscript. He wrote a letter to academicianPyotr Kyoppenon 30 January [O.S.18 January] 1860 requesting his manuscript be published, but it was published only in 1869–1870 by the Leipzig publisher Zenker with a preface written by Berzhe in German. The work was never published in Russia despite several attempts.

On 23 March [O.S.11 March] 1860 Berzhe was appointed the chairman of the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. After the appointment, Berzhe visitedEuropeas part of his four-month business trip. The purpose of the trip was to publish the collection of Azerbaijani poetry and a Persian-French dictionary intended for those involved in the translation of Persian official documents. In recognition of his scholarly achievements, Berzhe was elected a member of theSociété Asiatiqueand the Société Orientale de France in Paris and a member of theDeutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaftin Leipzig. Returning to Tiflis, Berzhe began compiling documents for future publications of the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission.

Sources

• "Берже, Адольф Петрович"[Berzhe, Adolf Pyetrovich].Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary.1891 – viaWikisource.
• Georgiev, Vladimir (25 October 2023)."ВОРОНЦО́В МИХАИЛ СЕМЁНОВИЧ"[VORONTSÓV MIKHAIL SEMYONOVICH].Great Russian Encyclopedia(in Russian).
• Kolosov, L. N. (1987). "А. П. Берже: Материалы к научной биографии" [A. P. Berge: Materials for a scientific biography]. InNechkina, Militsa(ed.).История и историки: Историографический ежегодник. 1982—1983 гг.[History and historians: Historiographic Yearbook. 1982–1983](PDF)(in Russian). Moscow:Nauka.pp. 213–224.
• Mukhanov, Vadim."БЕРЖЕ́ АДОЛЬФ ПЕТРОВИЧ"[BERZHÉ ADOLF PYETROVICH].Great Russian Encyclopedia(in Russian).

This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:"Берже, Адольф Петрович".Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary(in Russian). 1906.