Quranic motifs as the dominant of D. P. Oznobishin’s creative searches

Coverage of the activities of representatives of Russian literature, in whose works the motives associated with the Muslim East, whose spiritual base is the holy book of Muslims, are traced ‒ The Quran is relevant in the field of comparative study of the literatures of peoples who are genetically unrelated, but close in geographical region. And we are talking not only about the famous “ Imitations of the Koran” by A. S. Pushkin or the Caucasian poems by M. Y. Lermontov, but also about the work of their contemporaries, among whom V. K. Kuhelbecker, Ya. N. Polonsky, L. A. Yakubovich, A. G. Rotchev, A. F. Veltman should be singled out, D. P. Oznobishin and many others who played an equally significant role in the process of mastering foreign artistic images. Their artistic heritage is an interesting material for observations on the dialectic of national and foreign in the framework of the Russian-Eastern literary and cultural dialogue. In this regard, the Quranic motifs of the Russian poet, writer and translator Dmitry Petrovich Oznobishin (1804–1877), whose orientalism, which was mostly philosophical and contemplative, is still poorly studied, are of undoubted interest. We distinguish seven Quranic motives: the motive of prayer, the motive of an oath, the motive of repentance, the motive of Quranic verses, motives associated with Muslim customs and with the procession of the Sharia court, the motive of Quranic traditions and the motive of Quranic eschatology. The main content of the article is the identification of the features of these motifs on the example of the collection “Arabesques, or Collection of Oriental stories” by D. P. Oznobishin, which includes ten works: “Visitation” (Oriental novel), “Ideal” (Oriental novel), “The Rivalry of Six Slaves” (Oriental novel), “Dispute” (Oriental novel), as well as arrangements of the makama (novella) by Abu Mohammed al-Hariri (1054–1122) “Caravan”, “Desire” (Arabic novella), “Love”, “Thief”, “Reconciliation” and “Gold Coin” (Dinari makama). The analysis of the Quranic motifs found in a number of Oznobishin’s novels allows us to state with confidence that the Russian poet, who turned to this topic, tried to present his own idea of the most important issues of being through the comprehension of another, previously unfamiliar to him, religious philosophy.

Koran, Islam, motive, Russian literature, mastering, poet, Oznobishin