Lecture Vitaly Naumkin «Russian South Arabian Studies. New Data from Family Archives of Upper Yāfi‘»

On 30 November 2021 the President of the Institute of Oriental Studies RAS, Full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Professor Vitaly Naumkin gave a public lecture «Russian South Arabian Studies. New Data from Family Archives of Upper Yāfi‘» and spoke about the IOS RAS scientists’ studies of the culture and dialects of South Arabia. The book “Documents from Upper Yāfi‘. Family Archives in the XVII-XX centuries“, which has just been published, stands out among the works reflecting the results of these studies. The late medieval documents published in Arabic, Russian and English in the book are kept in Professor Naumkin’s personal archives and were introduced for the first time today. The materials were provided to Vitaly Naumkin by families from Upper Yāfi‘ region. These valuable sources, difficult to read and translate, represent an example of the local language dating back to two-three centuries. Professor Naumkin underlined that not so many researchers, both foreign and Yemeni, were engaged in the