The issue of copying and distribution of Arabic manuscripts in the Southern Urals during the XIXth century is considered in the article. At the same time, the role of copyists of these sources in this process is revealed. The research work is based on the materials of two collections of Arabic manuscripts of Ufa: the Department of manuscripts and rare editions of the National library. Ahmet-Zaki Validi and the Department of rare books of scientific library, Ufa, Federal research center Russian

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... cademy of Sciences. As a result of the study, the circle of persons whose names were most often found among the scribes of arabographic sources stored in the funds was determined, as well as the themes and names of the works they copied were established. It is established that the distribution of Arabic manuscripts in the southern Urals is associated with the adoption of the Muslim religion by the Turkic-speaking peoples of the region. The process of creation and dissemination of these sources can be described as spontaneous until the end of the XVIII century, and later there is a tendency to systematize them in connection with the development of the Institute regulating the activities of the Muslim spiritual elite -the Orenburg Mohammedan spiritual Assembly. In this process, an important role was played by the religious policy of tsarist Russia of the XVIII century, which led to the emergence of a number of spiritual ranks of Islam, which were necessary for the improvement of this religious policy. The Muslim spiritual elite functioning in these conditions acted, as well as earlier, as the main customer of manuscripts. Analysis of the sources gives grounds to assert that the executors of orders for copying Arabic manuscripts were, as a rule, mullahs and shakirds of madrassas, as well as professional scribes. This once again confirms the idea that these works were a fundamental basis in the process of education and spiritual enlightenment of the Turkic peoples of the southern Urals.