May 15, 2019 to Eurasian national University. L. N. Dr. Imants Lavins (Alberta College, Latvia, Riga) came to the Department of history of Kazakhstan at the invitation of Dr. Gumilyov on the program of international exchange Erasmus Plus to lecture Imants Lavins. The foreign Professor is a specialist in the history of the middle ages, in particular, Arabic cartography and the history of the Great silk road. 

     Within a few days for students and undergraduates, teachers of the Department of history of Kazakhstan Dr. Imants Lavins Held fascinating lectures on the development of methods of production of maps by Arab historians, which by their characteristics can be assessed as a combination of strict scientific thinking and art.  Muslim maps, according to the Professor, reflected not only the knowledge of space in medieval times, but the cultural mentality of Muslim intellectuals of the time, which are reflected in mnemonic symbols in the form of geometric shapes, and in the form of animals and birds.

    No less interesting for us were the results of the study of the scientist in the field of Arabic texts, from the content of which it can be seen that the silk road to a certain extent was "amber" due to the fact that a large amount of amber was transported from the Baltic through many countries to China by trade routes.

     The lectures aroused great interest among the audience. Dr. Imants Lavins gladly answered the questions he received. All participants noted the importance of international scientific cooperation and outlined plans for further cooperation.