The publication consists of two parts that take the reader on a journey through the history of ideas, literature, and Islamic studies, exploring the complex cultural landscape of the Muslim world at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Given the significant attention contemporary russian scholars have devoted to the figure of Ismail Gasprinsky, the author engages in a critical dialogue with them, challenging certain canonical narratives of the «colonial biography» through the lens of postcolonial theory.

The first part — a study by Svitlana Kaiuk — is dedicated to the works and ideas of the prominent Crimean Tatar intellectual Ismail Gasprinsky. By analyzing his novel «French Letters» within the context of the «lost world» literary genre and Orientalism, the author highlights key themes of Muslim culture, colonialism, and cultural dialogue between East and West. The «Alhambras» of Al-Andalus and Crimea are presented as symbols of layered cultural heritage and the fluidity of ideas.

The second part includes the novels «French Letters» and «African Letters». Svitlana Kayuk classifies «French Letters» as an adventure novel that opens a world of travel and encounters with the Other, while also reflecting the complex identity of a Muslim intellectual amid the pressures of modernization and colonial trends. Paired with the scholarly analysis in the first part, the novel gains new resonance, becoming a valuable source for researchers of the Muslim world, Crimea, and intellectual history.

This book is intended for historians, cultural studies scholars, Islamic studies specialists, literary scholars, and anyone interested in cultural interaction, decolonization, and the history of ideas.