Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie=Golden Horde Review

25-49

Authors: Hautala R.

This article contains the Latin text, its translation into Russian, and commentaries to the so-called “History of the Deeds of David, King of the Indies” contained in the seventh letter of the Catholic Archbishop of Acre, Jacques de Vitry, sent to the West 18th April, 1221. The “History of David” represents the most comprehensive version of the reports, which began to circulate in the Egyptian camp of the V Crusade’s participants starting from January–February 1221. These reports contained mixed description of the military campaigns of Khwarezmshah Ala ad-Din Muhammad II, Naiman khan Kuchlug, and Genghis Khan. Military operations of the last two historical figures were presented as victorious military campaign of the Christian “king David” and, therefore, of a potential ally of the Crusaders.According to Jacques de Vitry, the “History of David” was translated into Latin from the Arabic language after it had been delivered to the Prince of Antioch Bohemond IV by his spies in Muslim countries. Anticipating the text of “History”, Jacques de Vitry reports that the Sultan of al-Jazira, al-Malik al-Ashraf, was unable to send his troops against the Crusaders in connection with the appearance of an unexpected military threat on the eastern borders of his possessions. It is obvious that under this threat the Archbishop of Acre had in mind the emergence of the Mongol troops in Iraq at the end of 1220. According to Jacques de Vitry, the appearance of these reports in the Crusader camp of Damietta had a direct influence on the course of the Fifth Crusade. Crusaders in Damietta noticeably heartened after had learning of the advance of “king David” in the Middle East along with encouraging news about the impending arrival in Egypt of the Emperor Frederick II. Under the influence of these reports and after the arrival of reinforcements of the Bavarian Duke Ludwig I, the papal legate Pelagius made ​​the fateful decision to march on Cairo, which led both to the complete defeat of the Crusaders in August 1221 and the end of the Fifth Crusade.

57-68

Authors: Fazlioğlu I.

The author of this article represents the first example of the scientific activity in the Golden Horde, which began before Janibeg khan and during the reign of his father, Uzbek khan. The composition entitled “Masterpieces in Computational Science” (“et-Tuhfe fî ilmi’l-hisâb”), written in the Golden Horde on a mathematical topic, occupies a special place because of the information contained therein. This treatise, the contents of which will be described below, shows us the following: scientific activity in the Golden Horde, which began with the adoption of Islam, brought results in a short time and laid the foundations for the “breakthrough” during the reign of Janibeg khan. In the future, the author plans to explore and learn the value of the text for the mathematical sciences from a historical point of view: the computational book “et-Tuhfe fî ilmi’l-hisâb”, whose author is unknown, was handed to the Crimean Governor and right hand’s bey, Ebul-Muzaffer Giyaseddin Tuluktemir bey, during the reign of Uzbek khan (1313–1342). After mentioning the distinguishing features of the work, the author will focus on the definition of numbers, which is attributed to Muhammad b. Musa Al-Khwarizmi, and which, at the moment, is not recorded in any other sources. The author will test ability to understand the evidence used in the calculation, surveying, and algebra, and will consider definitions regarding the theory of numbers. Subsequently, the author will analyze the formula of approximate values of square and cube roots of irrational numbers, proposed by Mohammed al-Khwarizmi, Abdulkadir al-Baghdadi, and a teacher of the author, Saduruddin al-Farazi. In the first chapter, “Scientific and Philosophical Life in the Golden Horde State” (discussed in detail in this article), the author presents a brief description of the political, economic, and social life in the ulus of Jochi, to proceed to the consideration of the progress of scientific life developed in close connection with Islamic culture since the time of the formation of the Golden Horde. The author presents the writing under consideration in the context of this broad topic, briefly describing its contents. The purpose of this paper is to define scientific environment, which made possible the writing of the “et-Tuhfe fî ilmi’l-hisâb”.

77-95

Authors: Pochekaev R.Yu.

The paper deals with the Turkic-Mongol taxation institute of tamgha widely used in the Mongol Empire since the first half of the 13th century. Author characterizes the etymology of this term, its meanings, legal regulation of levy and rates, evolution of the tax in different states – successors of the Mongol Empire (the Golden Horde, Ilkhanate, etc.) as well as in these states even after fall of Chinggisid dynasties (such as Iran under Safavids, Central Asia under Timurids). As the author supposes, the long-term use of tamgha allows us to talk about the vitality and effectiveness of Chinggisid legal tradition, which survived after the end of “Chinggisid age”. Even the rulers and dynasties, which positioned themselves as rivals of Chinggisids, used tamgha in their taxation system. This tax was also borrowed by the Russians and was used for a long time becoming a base for custom system in Russia. Other subjects of the research are the struggle of Islamic theologians and jurists against tamgha in different countries of Inner Asia and reasons for this struggle. The author attempts to clarify reasons of this struggle, strict position of clergy against tamgha and measures of rulers who did not want to be in trouble with clergy, but at the same time tried to save tamgha as effective and profitable tax.

113-133

Authors: Russev N.D.

Researchers are well aware that a part of the Moldovan lands belonged to the Golden Horde. But this period is still not sufficiently studied due to the lack of information, especially in written sources. The author of this article has attempted to expand the source base of the investigated issue by compiling information about the “Tatars” from the medieval charters of Moldova. The author demonstrates that the systematic study of the contents of hundreds of surviving diplomatic monuments enables a more complete reconstruction of local realities during the Golden Horde era. In particular, we can localize individual uluses of the Jochid leaders and find out the direction of the main trends of migration and social transformation of the “Tatars” in the socio-political conditions of the Moldovan statehood. An analysis of the place names such as “Kishinev”, mentioned in charters, sheds light on the nature of the adaptation of the surviving population at the right-bank of the Dniester region under the authority of the Moldavian rulers at the end of the 14th–15th centuries.

148-165

Authors: Trepavlov V.V.

In August 1834, the mullah of the cathedral mosque in the town of Kasimov addressed to parishioners with a solemn speech on the occasion of majority of the successor of a throne. In this speech he made short digression to the history of Kasimov Tsardom focusing on the listing of its rulers with short characteristic of some of them. At that time, there were no professional studies on the Kasimov Tsardom, while it was almost completely ignored in general works on Russian history (of Karamzin, Polevoy, Tatishchev, Shcherbatov). Some Tatar families kept genealogies-shedzheres, but in the absolute majority, they did not record the ancestors and especially events before the 18th century. An indirect evidence about the life in Kasimov during the 15th–18th centuries contained in the eastern books (for the most part, of an apparent religious and didactic content) do not give grounds for the claim that there existed a written fixation of the local history events. Tombstone inscriptions were illustrative but hardly informative evidence of the events of the 16th–17th centuries. They provide minimal information about past rulers. The writing of a Kasimov Tatar chronicler Qadyr Ali-bek of the 1830s obviously was not yet known. Researches of local ethnographers (I. Gagin, I. Krasnov) could serve as a source of knowledge of the Tatars interested in history. These studies rarely appeared on the pages of periodicals including the journal “Otechestvennye zapiski” (Domestic Notes). Comparison of these publications with the speech of Abdulwahid Smailev discovers their interrelation or the use of a common source. An analysis of the mullah’s speech shows that the fragmentary information from some Russian sources published at that time and the deaf echoes of the long-standing history in Tatar oral and written tradition of the first half of the 19th century developed, in the end, in a fairly consistent picture. In general, this picture was chronologically correct, but it was not full of details and abounded in factual error.

198-207

Authors: Ismagilova M.R., Shagaviev D.A.

The presented fragment is the next part of the translation of the medieval poetic text “Qalandar-name” written by Abu Bakr Qalandar, the Sufi scholar from the Crimea. This Chapter is devoted to praises to Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (The Truthful), the Successor of the Prophet Muhammad, the first of the four Righteous Caliphs (al-Khulafa al-Rashidun). Within the nine rows the author mentions the virtues of Abu Bakr making the main emphasis on truthfulness, loyalty and sincerity of this Prophet’s companion. The Persian text is translated by Milyausha Ismagilova, the postgraduate student. The translation’s edition and comments are supplied by Damir Shagaviev, Head of the Department of History of Social Thought and Islamic Studies at the Sh.Marjani Institute of History of AS RT (Kazan.

216-218

Authors: Sayfetdinova E.G.

13th May 2014, a round table “The Horde-Bazar: Nomadic Horde or Nomadic City?” has been held as part of the series “The Phenomenon of the Golden Horde”. The round table was attended by I.M. Mirgaleev, D.M. Iskhakov, I.L. Izmaylov, R.M. Valeev, E.G. Sayfetdinova, A.I. Bugarchev, as well as graduate students and applicants of the Usmanov Center for Research of the Golden Horde History. Head of the Center, I.M. Mirgaleev, opened the event by proposing to discuss such questions as: whether the Horde-Bazar was a city? Or a nomadic horde of khan? How researchers should treat information of the sources? M.S. Gatin noted the need to more clearly define the concept of “nomadic city” and “nomadic horde”. Maybe, it was the mere Horde’s mention in Russian chronicles? In turn, I.L. Izmaylov suggested that Russian sources do not necessarily understand Sarai under the term of “Horde”. The Horde might be the common name of the travel scope of Russian rulers. D.M. Iskhakov noted with regards to the concepts and definitions, that the terms “Horde-Bazaar” and “Horde””did not necessarily mean the same concept. Moreover, we see in the sources that there was a post of “the prince of bazar” who ran this institution (bazar) within the Horde. E.G. Sayfetdinova noted that Ötemish Hajji mentions in his “Chingiz-name” the term of the Horde-bazar. He says on the election of Timur Malik as new khan that when he came to the throne, there was delivered a sermon in the Horde-bazar. R.M. Valeev stressed that it is important to pay attention to the minting of coins for the determination of the Horde-bazar. If in the 13th century the name of the “Horde-bazar” is absent, then in the 14th century it is mentioned as a center of coinage. A.I. Bugarchev added that in the 13th century there was one concept of “Horde” and in the 14th century the “Horde” appears on coins. We still do not know whether it was one or more mints. So, when we talk about the Horde-bazar, it is necessary to clarify what period we mean. In the final part of the event there was defined range of problems that can be offered to debate aimed at holding such meetings regularly. Thus, the roundtable participants noted the need for close mutual cooperation of scholars to solve the problematic issues concerning the history of the Golden Horde.