Russian Poet and Harari Booklore. III. Manuscripts

St. Petersburg's academic institutions house a collection of manuscripts brought back from Abyssinia by Nikolai Gumilev (1886—1921), one of the most celebrated Russian poets of the 20th century, an indefatigable traveller and a courageous cavalry officer. The collection was the result of an expedition to the Muslim areas of Abyssinia organised by the Kunstkamera Museum in 1913. Most of the manuscripts relate to the city of Harar, which played a pivotal role in the spread of Islam not only in north‑eastern Ethiopia but also in the Horn of Africa. In 2008 and 2010, new expeditions by the Museum traversed Gumilev's routes. This article is the third in a series devoted to the study of his collection [1]. The findings of the study suggest that Gumilev's handwritten notes on the manuscripts are closely related to his field journals and provide complementary insights.