Beirut: Ergon Verlag GmbH, 2011. 351 p.*

(Beiruter Texte und Studien, Band 130 / Orient-Institut Beirut)

The authors of this beautifully published work, which contains a large number of facsimiles of documents and illustrations, do not need to be presented in detail.

M. A. Rodionov is a Russian scholar of Arabic studies, a world-renowned expert in the field of Middle East and Arabian studies, whose articles and books are published in Russian, Arabic and English. In particular, his book "Classical Islam" was published in 2004, another book "Western Hadhramaut" (1994) was reprinted in English in 2007; in 2013, the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences published a voluminous work " Maronites: History, Traditions, Politics "(co-authored), which is being translated into Arabic. Currently, M. A. Rodionov has participated for many years in the Russian Integrated Expedition in the Republic of Yemen (since its foundation in 1983, then-the Soviet-Yemeni Integrated Expedition, SOIKE). This book is based on the scientist's South Semyon studies of the field seasons of the expedition from 1983 to 2008.

Hanne Schoenig is a researcher at the Martin - Luther-Universitat (Halle-Wittenberg) Center for Interdisciplinary Regional Studies (ZIRS, Germany), a leading specialist in Arabic and Islamic studies.From 1996 to 2000, she also worked at the Archives of Sayyoun (Yemen).

The main body of documents was made available for study and publication by the Al-Qatiri Yemeni Archive in Seyoun, Wadi Hadramaut. It covers the period from 1919 to 1958. However, the authors also analyze documents that go far beyond this time frame (texts from private collections and official publications): one monument from the collection of the famous Yemeni scientist-archaeologist Abdallah Ba Wazir is dated 1904; a document provided by the South Yemeni musician and writer Ali Ba Raja is dated 1970 Included are the official regulations of the Seyun district administrations concerning the observance of social customs and traditions (1974 and 1986), and the "Regulations on Weddings and Traditions in the Southern Mudiriya (District)" published in the Ash-Sharara newspaper (Mukalla) (1974).

It is important to point out the main source of the methodological approach chosen by the authors to this topic: the ideological inspirer and one of the authors of the two-volume book "The Invention of Everyday Life" ("L'invention du quotidien", authors: Michel de Certeau, Luce Giard, Pierre Mayol. The first volume was published in 1980) by Michel de Certeau. The authors considered it necessary to clarify the concepts of "family life" and "social customs" contained in the title in the first paragraph of their work. The first of them, "family life", is proposed to be considered not as intra-family relations - the interaction between members of the "basic social and economic unit" defined by common paternal ancestors, but to a much greater extent as the space of personal life protected from external influences (interior domain of privacy). In terms of gender, the authors see family life as a point of intersection between the world of women and the world of men in a society that is largely divided by gender.

"Social customs" include life-cycle rituals, religious observances and holidays, certain everyday customs, and ways to resolve social conflicts. These are a kind of generally accepted models of social behavior - at the level of both individuals and social groups. The paper analyzes traditions, rituals and customs related to "rites of passage" (birth of a child, wedding, funeral), religious ones, including pilgrimages, ritual hunting, traditional methods of conflict resolution, etc.

Part 1 of the book-theoretical-contains valuable generalizations about the social structure and traditions of the life cycle, features of religious institutions and local rituals, customs of everyday life and tender issues. These generalizations are based on

* Mikhail Rodionov, Hanne Shsnig. Documents of Hadhramaut, 1904-1951: Family life and social traditions under the last Sultans. Beirut: Ergon Verlag GmbH, 2011, 351 p.

They are accompanied by a detailed presentation of the facts gathered in the analyzed documents and their interpretation in historical, linguistic and ethnographic contexts.

Rites and rituals are often described as fully as possible and in great detail. At the same time, Arabic terms (in English transliteration) are constantly used to denote elements of rituals or related details. These terms are collected at the end of the book in a glossary, and are also included in the index.

Part 2 includes a catalog, facsimiles of documents, their Arabic transcription and English translation. The largest number of documents from the Al-Qatiri archive dates back to the 1930s, with one document dated to 1919 and two dated to 1923. A total of 51 documents from this archive are published. From private collections, there are 6 documents that differ in time. Three more are official publications of the post-Sultan period, mentioned above.

Perhaps, some confusion of readers of this work can cause the principle of arrangement of the main body of documents. Obviously, the authors followed the order of documents in the Seyunek archive of Ll-Katiri, which only partially respects the chronological principle. Although it is likely that the chronological principle would be more appropriate to create a more coherent picture of the details of everyday life, intra-family and social relations reflected in published documents and to trace the dynamics of their changes over time.

In addition to facsimiles of documents, the book contains a large number of illustrations, a voluminous glossary and indexes of proper names, toponyms, documents, etc. The appendix contains a list of eight sections of the Al-Qatiri archive (official documents of a political nature, official correspondence, financial documents and unofficial ones-contracts, trade affairs, etc.), as well as a list of the sultans of Al-Qatiri (Sayyun) and Al-Quaiti (Mukalla) from the late 1860s to 1967.

It is safe to say that the documents presented in the book richly illustrate the social history of South Yemen. The private nature of most of them allows you to look beyond the dense veil of family traditions of South Yemeni society, to see hidden from prying eyes everyday details. At the same time, they provide an opportunity to make some generalizations in such a popular area as the history of everyday life, as well as the sociology of the family and social relations in general in the Hadhramaut area in historical retrospect.

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