On the History of the Collection of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Manuscripts at the Institute of World Literature

This article is an attempt to reconstruct a collection of manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish languages accured at the Institute of World Literature in the 1930-40s. The core of the collection was presumably formed by manuscripts accumulated in the 1930s as part of the association “Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga” (“International Book”). Major part of the manuscripts was moved to St. Petersburg in the aftermath of World War II (now it is held by the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts). The remaining books are kept at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow. The fate of the remaining manuscripts from the former Institute of World Literature collection is still unknown.