Zapiski o nekotorykh narodakh i zemliakh srednei chasti Azii.

scarce work on Uzbekistan

Filipp Nazarov was a translator in the Special Siberian Corps of the Russian army having graduated from the Asiatic School in Omsk, which prepared secretaries and translators for the Siberian administration. In 1813 he was sent to Kokand in order to settle the incident of the murder of a Kokand ambassador who had been killed in the Russian-Kazakh border town Petropavlovsk while returning home from St Petersburg. Accompanied by a caravan of Russian merchants and laden with gifts to the Khan of Kokand from the Russian Emperor, Nazarov departed from Omsk in May 1813. He proceeded to Petropavlovsk, Sozak, Shymkent (in modern day Kazakhstan) and Tashkent and Kokand (both now in Uzbekistan) before settling in the Fergana Valley for about a year.

His travel notes include detailed and sometimes romantic descriptions of the regions he passed, a historical overview of the Khanate of Kokand, notes on the administration system, trade, manners and customs, sports, music of the local people et al. Nazarov's testimony about Kazakh, Uzbek and Tajik people is especially valuable due to his fluency in the Turkic languages.

First edition, 8vo (21 x 13 cm); very light waterstaining throughout to lower section, more so at the rear, Baku Soviet bookseller's stamp to p98, endpapers replaced, traces of removed manuscript numbers to title and lower flyleaf; contemporary half red straight grained morocco and marbled paper boards, rebacked retaining the original spine, tooling to spine and new labels with title in gilt; title and dedication, 98pp, a very good copy.