A KAZAKH BOOK OF HOURS
A Kazakh Old Believers Chasovnik [Book of Hours], printed by Andrey Vasilievich Simakov at Uralsk [Oral], in northwestern Kazakhstan in 1907.
A remarkable survival, in its original decorated reddish-brown morocco over bevelled boards, with clasps. 1/
A Kazakh Old Believers Chasovnik [Book of Hours], printed by Andrey Vasilievich Simakov at Uralsk [Oral], in northwestern Kazakhstan in 1907.
A remarkable survival, in its original decorated reddish-brown morocco over bevelled boards, with clasps. 1/
![A KAZAKH BOOK OF HOURS
A Kazakh Old Believers Chasovnik [Book of Hours], printed by Andrey Vasiliev...](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FEYyx11WYAU9-GX.jpg)
![A KAZAKH BOOK OF HOURS
A Kazakh Old Believers Chasovnik [Book of Hours], printed by Andrey Vasiliev...](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FEYyx13XwAANtQz.jpg)
Following Nicholas II's ukase "On Tolerance Development" in 1905, which lifted some of the restrictions on Old Believers, the merchant Andrey Vasillievich Simakov established the first publishing house & printing press legally producing Old Believer texts in Uralsk in 1906. 2/
This printing house was opened on the initiative of Bishop Arsenius of the Urals and Orenburg, known in the world as Anisim [Onisim] Vasilyevich Shvetsov, canonized in 2008 by the Old Believer Church [Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy]. 3/
A number of years before that, Bishop Arsenius had occupied a chair in Uralsk. The area had long been a centre for StarovΓ©ry communities and by 1910 Andrey Simakov's publishing enterprise had expanded to a workforce of 70, manning 6 steam presses. 4/
To be clear, by "Kazakh" I mean this was printed in the territory of modern-day Kazakhstan - the text is of course in Russian. Uralsk was founded by Cossacks in the 16th century. It flourished under the Kazakh khans of the Bukei Horde (1801-1845), vassals to the Russian crown. 5/
The binding is reddish-brown morocco, bevelled boards, bands with repeated zigzag roll in gilt, elaborate concentric panelling in gilt and blind to both boards, metal bosses, brass hook-clasps cast with the publisher's name, leather straps, all edges gilt and gauffered. 6/
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