Ближний Восток и его соседи

g 129 h Firuza Melville Diaghilev’s Scheherazade and Russian Orientalism Introduction: It is my great pleasure to send my tribute of appreciation to the Festschrift of one of the most senior colleagues at my alma mater , the Fac- ulty of Asian and African Studies (former Oriental Faculty, St Petersburg State University) whom I have known for about forty years 1 . The choice of the topic I am offering today might seem quite unusual for the occasion; however, in my opinion apart from Professor Dyakov’s academic interests, it does reflect both his quite artistic personality and his unchangeable stylish appearance. Perhaps the idea was triggered by a comment by one of my English col- leagues who happened to see a photograph of Nikolay Nikolaevich Dyakov be- ing presented a copy of a rare English translation of Barthold’s Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion , which was prepared and published under the auspices of the Gibb Memorial Trust 2 . The book was presented on the occasion of the bien- nial Congress on Oriental Studies organised by the Faculty, in memory of acad- emician Vasily Barthold (June 2019). The English version of Barthold’s Turkestan was introduced by the Gibb series editor and the Chairman of the Trust Charles Melville, Professor of Persian history at the University of Cambridge. The com- ment on the photograph was: ‘Why did you have Pierce Brosnan representing Russian Oriental studies?’. I am sure if Brosnan knew that he was confused with Professor Dyakov, he would have been exceptionally honoured. 1 My thanks go to Alexander Matveyev for inviting me to contribute to this volume and to the publishers of this volume for patience accommodating my amendments to this paper. 2 Second edition first was published in English (edited by H. A. R. Gibb) in 1928, second edition (with corrections and additions by V. F. Minorsky) in 1958. Charles Melville presented the fourth edition of 1977, reprinted in 2007 with updated map.