The article examines writings of the outstanding Dagestani scholar, journalist and poet, religious figure Abu Sufyan Akayev (1872-1931) from the village Nizhnee Kazanische. As an influential representative of Jadid movement at the beginning of the twentieth century, he belonged to the renown Muslim reformers and enlighteners, such as Muhammad ʻAbduh, Rashid Rida, Ismaʻil Gaspraly, ʻAbd al-Rahman Umerov, Qayyum Nasiri, Shihad al-Din Marjani.He wrote works mostly in Kumyk, Arabic, as well as in Azerbaijani and Persian languages. His writings in Arabic are still poorly studied.Some of them appeared in all the 12 issues of the popular magazine on Shariʻa matters of the early Soviet reforms known as Bayan al-haqa᾽iq (1925-1928) whose editor-in-chief he was. He was also the author of articles appeared in some issues of the Arabic-language newspaper Jaridat Dagistan (1913-1918). Some of his letters composed in Arabic are very informative. In addition, Abu Sufyan was the author or compiler of several other publications in Arabic, including a number of booklets devoted to tajwid; multilingual (in 4, 5, 6, 7 languages) dictionaries, in which Arabic vocabulary has always been given in the first place; explanatory-etymological and political dictionaries; several bilingual (Arabic-Kumyk) books.It is noteworthy, that it was Akayev who edited with detailed comments the Arabic book of the well-known Dagestani scholar Hasan Alqadari Divan al-Majnun. Some poetic works created by him in Arabic have been preserved too.Akayev is known as a Katib (copyist) of more than 15 Arabic-language books published in Temir-Khan-Shura, Port-Petrovsk, Bakhchisarai and Simferopol. He is the author of a historical work written in Arabic about the events of the period of the 1917 Revolution and the Civil war in Dagestan.

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Within the framework of an archaeographical research, the authors analyse marginal notes on the Arabic-language manuscripts from M. Gadzhiev’s private collection (Rugelda, Shamilsky district, the Republic of Dagestan). The records under study are made by the ancestor of the collection owner cadi Hira Muhammad ar-Rugildi. The records are of genealogical nature and characterize the manuscript owner as a representative of the Dagestan spiritual elite. Scientific originality of the paper lies in the fact that the researchers use the information contained in marginal texts to study genealogies. The research findings are as follows: the data are arranged in the chronological order; the family trees of some representatives of this clan are compiled.

Research objectives: To conduct a detailed comparative analysis of the toponymic source known as “Hand Drawn Portolan of the Caspian Sea (1519)” by Vesconte Maggiolo, and ascertain the range and chronology of its sources. Research materials: At the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there were a few navigational maps – portolan charts – created in Italy which contained rather precise outlines of the coastline of the Caspian Sea. The present Portolan excels all earlier items in terms of precision of the depicted topographical realities of the region. The quality of the map we are examining was surpassed only in the seventeenth century after Peter I’s hydrographic expeditions. The high level of shoreline’s precision also strongly suggests that the map was based on authentic topographic input. Maggiolo’s map contains 136 geographical names. Results and novelty of the research: For the first time ever in domestic scholarship, we conducted a comparative historical analysis of the hand drawn portolan chart of the Caspian Sea. We also proved the correlation of some toponyms of the West Caspian region with the Timurid and local sources that covered the military campaigns of Amir Timur in the region. In our view, the “Hand Drawn Portolan Chart of the Caspian Sea (1519)” created by Vesconte Maggiolo is one of the most notable among similar works. It finds many common features with the portolan from the island of Lesina, but also contains some common elements with the Mallorca cartographic school and Fra Mauro, Egerton MS 73, and Egerton MS 2083. This research allows us to extend and systematize our understanding of Italian cartography in relation to the Caspian region. It also details or adds some facts about the presence of Europeans in this region during the Golden Horde era. Based on this topographic and toponymic analysis, we furthermore come to a conclusion that the portolan in question is derived from a protograph created in the first half of fifteenth century, reflecting the realities of the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.