Доклады Международного конгресса ИИСАА. Т. 1

II. Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia / Ближний Восток, Кавказ и Центральная Азия Доклады Международного конгресса по источниковедению и историографии стран Азии и Африки. Т. 1. 2020 301 in late December 1741 for the new Empress, Elizabeth: ‘On Sunday in the afternoon Her Imperial Majesty watched the play fight between several elephants organized on the square behind the Imperial house’. 1 By 22 December 1741 the keepers who had arrived in Russia with the embassy amounted to thirty-eight people, among them fourteen elephant keepers and twenty- four lower-grade animal keepers. Four of them had wives and children. In accordance with the oral order of Elizabeth Petrovna of 13 November 1741, the keepers were bestowed with warm winter clothes. The cost of a complete set received by fourteen senior elephant keepers amounted to 11 roubles 96 kopecks. Commissioned for the rest twenty-four keepers were similar sets of clothes, each costing 11 roubles 51 kopecks. The only difference between these two types of sets was the fabric of the kaftans and trousers. In the second set green droguet 2 was replaced by broadcloth of the same colour. 3 In the beginning of the next year, not long before the embassy set off to Moscow, Stepan Apraksin and M ūḥammad Ḥusayn K hān who was appointed the head of Iranian diplomatic mission after the death of Sardār Khān opened negotiations on the possibility of leaving all or at least half of them to stay in Russia and continue taking care of the elephants. 4 In the course of negotiations the Iranian diplomat expressed his willingness to leave only a minor number of keepers. 5 Later, at the request of Russian officials, Nādir Shāh agreed to leave part of the elephant keepers in Russia for another year and a half and sent his decree to M uḥammad Ḥ usayn Khān. 6 In 1742 half of the keepers joined by the former elephant keeper Āghā Ṣ adīq returned to Iran together with the embassy, while nineteen keepers stayed in Russia assigned to the Ober-Jägermeister Chancellery. The annual salary of the chief elephant keeper named Dini 7 amounted to 100 roubles. The other keepers earned 1 Санкт-Петербургские ведомости . 22 декабря 1741 г. № 102 / Sankt-Peterburgskie vedomosti . [ St Petersburg News ]. 22 December 1741. No. 102. (In Russian). 2 Here: coarse wool or part-wool fabric. 3 AVPRI. Fond 77. Snosheniya Rossii s Persiei. Opis’ 77/1. 1743 g. Delo 17. Fols. 148r–148v, 153v. The description of these sets appears with minor changes in Vnutrenniy byt russkogo gosudarstva. Book 1. Р. 338. 4 AVPRI. Fond 77. Snosheniya Rossii s Persiei. Opis’ 77/1. 1742 g. Delo 14. Tom 1. Fols. 147r–147v. 5 Архив князя Воронцова. М.: Типография А. И. Мамонтова и К, 1870. Кн. 1: Бумаги графа Михаила Ларионовича Воронцова / Arkhiv knyazya Vorontsova [Archives of Prince Vorontsov]. Moscow: TipografiyaA. I. Mamontova i K, 1870. Book 1: Bumagi grafa Mikhaila Larionovicha Vorontsova [Papers of Count Mikhail Vorontsov]. (In Russian). P. 186; AVPRI. Fond 77. Snosheniya Rossii s Persiei. Opis’ 77/1. 1743 g. Delo 17. Fol. 145. 6 Arkhiv knyazya Vorontsova. Book 1. P. 163; AVPRI. Fond 77. Snosheniya Rossii s Persiei. Opis’ 77/1. 1741 g. Delo 33. Fol. 9. See also AVPRI. Fond 77. Snosheniya Rossii s Persiei. Opis’ 77/1. 1742 g. Delo 4. Fols. 209–210. 7 Also variously mentioned in archival documents as Dinya, Diniya or Dina.