Duration:01.01.2005-31.12.2007

The craftsmen’s risala is a well-known part of ’traditional work’. As far as the texts are concerned, the concept of crafts includes agricultural activities, so it is more appropriate to speak about ’gainful occupation’ (Ar., Pers., Turki kasb).

The texts are of varying length and originate from those Republics of Central Asia which used to be part of the former Soviet Union, from Afghanistan as well as from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region situated in the northwestern part of the People’s Republic of China. The copies known to us date mostly from the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. The genre as such has so far not been the subject of systematic research, and it is also unclear, when and how they became obsolete in the different regions.

The texts give information about the patron saints of the profession in question and they ensure that the occupation is lawful in religious terms. There is little information concerning the technical side of the production. But the texts allow us an insight into the perceptions of work, e.g. through the terminology or through references to the hierarchy of occupations. In addition, they also shed light on the social organisation of work, the hierarchical organisation of craftsmen as well as their vocational training.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union (and to some extent following the end of the Cultural Revolution in China) there is a perceivable ’return to tradition’ in these regions. The ’traditionalisation’ of crafts is part of this process. The project therefore focuses on some aspects of the concept of ’tradition’ in Central Asia. Especially within the context of the former Soviet Union and in Xinjiang (Afghanistan is only investigated in the historical period) local forms of transmitting knowledge and know-how were to some extent several times interrupted. This further relativises the concept of tradition: when in modern Usbekistan reference is made to ’our traditions’, which period is exactly meant? The pre-revolutionary, or the time preceding Russian colonisation? Is it possible to speak about the authentic survival of the production techniques, organisational forms of crafts, the transmission of knowledge and local discourse about work?

The topic forms the basis of a social historical case study of the perception of production and of work. The aim of the project is to study the texts and their use in their historical and social context as well as to look at the changes in the organisation of crafts production. Thus it combines the methods of philology, history and to some extent social anthropology.