Turkisms and Mongolisms in the work of Emir Rukn ad-din Baybars al-Mansuri al-Dawadar "Zubdat al-fikra fi tarih al-hijra"

Research Article

Abstract

The article attempts to present borrowed words in the work of a prominent representative of the Mamluk era - Emir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Mansuri al-Dauadar (died 1325) "Zubdat al-fikra fi tarih al-hijra" ("Cream of thoughts on the reckoning of the hijra"), an important historical chronicle XIV c. for Early Mamluk period. The value of the composition lies in the fact that the author himself is an eyewitness to many events. Occupying high posts in the Mamluk state, he owned the emerging situation in the internal and external arena, had direct access to information. The work "Zubdat al-fikra fi tarih al-hijra" was first published in full in the original in Arabic in 1998 by D. Richardz. At the moment, it has not been practically translated into other languages ​ ​ of the world. Some of its fragments were translated into Russian. However, the composition is widely used among Mamluk scholars of various countries and serves as one of the main sources for the Mamluk era. As the name suggests, the information presented is arranged in chronological order and is based on the Muslim calendar - hijra. They include news of the death of famous personalities of the Muslim world, key events that took place in the described period in the region of North Africa, the Middle East, and also briefly cover the history of the Hulaguids, the Golden Horde, etc. In addition to its historical significance, the work in question is also of interest in terms of language and presentation style. During the complete translation of D. Richards' publication into Russian, we identified borrowings from various languages ​ ​ in the Arabic text. They are for the most part Persians, Turkisms and Mongolisms by virtue of the subject matter of the composition itself. As for the Persians, they act as an organic part of the vocabulary of the Arabic language of the Mamluk era. The purpose of this study is to show the presence of Turkisms in the text of "Teeth" and to justify their use. At the same time, according to our observations, here their number seems to be large, in comparison with other sources on the history of the Mamluks and the Mamluk-Mongol interactions (Abul-Fida, etc.). We believe that this circumstance is primarily explained by the Turkic origin of the author, who intersperses individual words and terms into the text of the story without translating them into Arabic. And if some of them are understandable to multilingual readers and researchers due to their awareness of historical terms in the field of mamluk studies (such as, for example, sanjak, khan, kagan, etc.), then the meaning of others in the context of the sentence can only be understood by a Turkic-speaking person (for example, "syyyk" - liquid, "spread" - a rug for prayer, etc.). Given this fact, it seems important to compile a complete glossary of such Turkisms in the work of Rukn al-Din Baibars al-Mansuri al-Dawadar "Zubdat al-fikra fi tarih al-hijra." Similar attempts have previously been made by individual researchers, in particular from Arab countries. But often, due to their lack of possession of one of the modern Turkic languages, they reveal only the basic terms relating to the Mamluk era. While in the text of medieval chronicles you can find ordinary words of Turkic origin. We believe that the raised issues are of a pronounced interdisciplinary nature and can become the subject of discussion among historians, orientalists-Arabists, linguists, Turkologists and Kazakh scholars. The goal set in the study was implemented by directly referring to the original work in Arabic and a text sample of Turkisms and Mongolisms, as well as identifying the context of their use. The identification of Turkisms in this work is important not only for characterizing its language and style, but also for determining the place and influence of the Turks in Islamic civilization using the example of the Mamluks.