Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie=Golden Horde Review

6-22

Authors: Hautala R.

The author of this article tried to trace the evolution of the Mongols’ perception in Latin sources based on information about their military expansion in the Middle East. The first mention of the Mongols appear in Latin sources in 1221. According to these sources, the Mongol army, which accomplished a number of conquests in Central Asia, Persia, and Transcaucasia, consisted of baptized nomads. Latin authors asserted that at the head of this army stood a certain David, “king of the Indies”, which sought to help the Middle Eastern Christians and “liberate” Jerusalem from Muslim rule. Undoubtedly, the Latin sources meant by the “deeds of king David” the first western campaign of the Mongols led by Genghis Khan, which began in 1219 and was directed against the Central Asian sultanate of Khwarezm. These Latin sources were written at the time, when the troops of Genghis Khan had already conquered Khwarezmian territory in Central Asia and began military actions in Khorasan, while the separate divisions of the Mongols led by Jebe and Subedei invaded Transcaucasia and inflicted the first serious defeat to the Christian kingdom of Georgia. Later, however, a positive Mongols’ perception in the West began to gradually change. First of all, this change was affected by reports of the Georgian rulers expressing obvious doubts about former confidence that the Mongol army was entirely composed of Christians. Even greater impact had information about beginning of the Mongol re-conquest of Transcaucasia. An early report of the Patriarch of Jerusalem about the Mongol units’ appearance in Transcaucasia headed by Chormaqan noyan still reflected the hope for the Mongols’ adherence to the Christian faith. However, subsequent reports on the beginning of the Mongol conquest of Great Armenia radically changed European perceptions of the Mongols. Starting from 1236, Latin sources began to represent the Mongols as fiends trying to interpret their appearance in accordance with apocalyptic scenarios of popular eschatological writings.

34-42

Authors: Güray K.

The article examines the views of European historians on the relations between Emir Timur (Tamerlane) and Europe before and after the Battle of Ankara (1402). The author pays particular attention to the diplomatic correspondence, papal relations with European monarchies, recordings made during the hostilities, and diplomatic missions. The article also highlights the changing image of Emir Timur among Europeans. The most significant changes that took place after the Battle of Ankara are reflected in the official correspondence of the European kings, the Papacy, and the Byzantine emperors. On the one hand, the battle itself was provoked by European and Byzantine rulers. On the other hand, it was a direct consequence of the growth of contradictions between the rulers of Anatolia and Central Asia. At the same time, the author considers that Europe and Byzantium, belonged to a completely different cultures, striving to achieve various political goals, while the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I and Emir Timur, being exclusively Turkic rulers, sought to achieve the same goals using similar methods of political struggle.

54-61

Authors: Iskhakov D.M.

The article analyzes an insufficiently investigated problem of the formation of seyyids’ institute within the Turkic-Tatar States of the 15th–16th centuries, which were the historical heirs of the ulus of Jochi (Golden Horde). The author found that this institution was characteristic for all, without exception, Turkic-Tatar state formations that emerged after the collapse of the Golden Horde. A number of features of this institution (existence of family relationship between the seyyids’ “houses” of different Tatar yurts, seyyids’ participation not only in the diplomatic and administrative affairs but also in military actions) indicates that it appeared in the period of the ulus of Jochi, more precisely, during the reign of khan Uzbek who had completed Islamization of this State. As a result of the study of the complex issues related to the seyyids who lived in the Turko-Tatar khanates and hordes, the author concluded that there was a link between them and the lineages of the Golden Horde seyyids affiliated with the Yasaviyya tariqa. Overall, the author both emphasizes the apparent Golden Horde origin of this very important social institution functioned in all the Turkic-Tatar state formations and indicates the presence of real contacts (including gentilitial ones) between the seyyids’ branches located in different States.

77-90

Authors: Tataurov S.F.

The article shows the importance of archaeological materials, particularly of funerary complexes, for both analyzing the process of formation of the Siberian Tatars in the 16th–17th centuries and studying the features of the development of Islam in Siberia. The author examines the problem of consolidation of the Turkic-speaking population of the forest-steppe zone of Western Siberia in the second millennium AD, which was expressed in the formation of a common cultural, linguistic, and religious space. The author considers the reasons for duration of this process, analyzes the factors that impeded or facilitated the convergence of certain ethnic groups, the level of socio-economic relations, political developments in these regions. The article shows the importance of the Siberian Khanate as a state and ideological unification of the Turkic-speaking population of Western Siberia, as the main unifying factor in the formation of this ethnic group. The author emphasizes the role of the Russian administration, its action for the creation of new Siberian administrative-territorial system, for the spread of Orthodox Christianity, etc. Particular attention is paid to the process of Islamization of the population already living in the framework of the Russian State after the arrival of Russians, to role in this process of the patrimonial Tatar nobility. As a result, we can construct the situation as follows. Influenced primarily by political (but not economic) developments, the Turkic-speaking population of Western Siberia was sufficient organized to the last third of the 16th century that is ready to the further rapprochement and transformation into single ethnic group. The weakness of social and economic relations did not allow to develop this convergence. Process of consolidation already began to develop in other conditions – after annexation of Western Siberia by the Russian State – in the 17th–19th centuries. The Tatar nobility and Muslim population migrated from Central Asia and the Lower Volga region, played a key role in this process and Islamization of the entire Turkic-speaking population became a crucial factor. This article only underlines major factors of this process. The whole complex of historical, ethnographic, archaeological, and genetic research is needed to fully explore the history of the formation of the Siberian Tatars and defining its basic chronological stages and driving forces.

102-112

Authors: Abduzhemilev R.R.

The article is devoted to the creative work of Mehmed Senai – the Crimean chronicler at the serai of the khan Islam Geray III, as well as his chronicle “Tarihi Islam Geray khan” (“History of the khan Islam Geray III”, 1651). The researcher gives biographical information about the author and a brief description of the source. The identity of the writer is defined and based on the text of the Preface to the Chronicle: background, education, position, religious status. The meaning of the pseudonym of Senai is under the study, the text of the chronogram in which it occurs is reproduced. Especially noted thing is the originality of the artistic structure of the Chronicle “Tarih-i Islam Geray khan”. The Chronicle “Tarih-i Islam Geray khan” is the panegyric to the Crimean khan Islam Geray whose reign represents the brilliant epoch in the history of the Crimean Khanate. The writing consists of the ceremonies of public appointments, episodes of military campaigns and making treaties, the text of khan Islam Geray’s pedigree (shejere), construction and repair of buildings. There is the brief information about the Chronicle and about M. Senai in “Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the British Museum” (1888). The primary work on writing was conducted by Polish orientalists who prepared the edition of the original text, its translation and processing, backed with comments. At the time of writing the Chronicle, Mehmed Senai was in his old age, he served as the kadi (religious judge). In his youth he worked as munshi (decorator of papers) in the khan’s office. He got education in the Ottoman Empire, and was engaged in the implementation of diplomatic correspondence. The prospect of identification of the author on the basis of other sources is important to clarify the hypothesis of identifying M. Senai with such Crimean Tatar author as Dzhanmuhammed. The Chronıcle’s plot consists of the diary notes on the military expeditions, eyewitness accounts (including those of the author). The author of the work focuses the historical events of 1648–1651 covering the Crimean Tatar-Ukrainian-Polish relations. The bulk of the official documents used by Senai was narrow. Details and brevity in the coverage of events indicates that certain materials were available to the author, while others were unavailable. The aesthetic peculiarities of the Chronicle are also notable as well as historical. The author created the vivid images of the central characters in the writing – Islam Geray, Sefer Gazi aga and Tugay bey. The work is characterized by the use of various expressive means for the purpose of idealization of the images and emotional perception of characters and events.

143-150

Authors: Useinov M.A.

In this article an attempt is made to open up and make the analysis of the creative work of one of the outstanding scholar-mathematician in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th centuries whose origin was from the Crimean Khanate – Hussein Ryfky Tamani ibn Muhammad ibn Kyrym Ghazi. At the beginning of the 19th century, during 11 years, the scholar was a leader (bashkhoja) of the Ground forces military-engineering school (Muhendishane-i berry-i Humayun) in Istanbul. The article provides a review of translations made by Hussein Ryfky into the Ottoman language of European scientists’ works, as well as of his own research works on Geometry, Engineering and Military science, Astronomy, Geography, and other disciplines. The author also presents the textbooks having for centuries become the basic textbooks in the Ottoman Empire for learning exact sciences in the military educational institutions. The author provides the analysis of the pedagogical and public activity of the scientist during the period of reforms Nizam-i-Jedid, as well as the short description of his activities during the student years. Hussein Ryfky Tamani made a synthesis of Western and Ottoman approaches to the science. His works became the corner-stone in the foundation of Ottoman Mathematical science at the beginning of the 19th century.

169-201

Authors: Beisembiev T.K.

The article continues a series of Beisembiev’s publications on “Jawāmi ul-Hikāyāt wa Lawāmi' ul-Riwāyāt” by Sadid al-Din Muhammad al-'Awfi (completed in the second quarter of the 13th century), the largest literary and historical prosaic work in Persian classical literature of pre-Mongol and Mongol periods. It contains a collection of over 2,100 stories (very poorly studied) on diverse subjects. Up to the present, a complete scholarly edition of this greatest historical source is not available. On the basis of all available publications and a MS copy of the early 14th century, Supplément Persan 95 (La Bibliothèque nationale, France), the author presents for the first time his Russian commented translation of 52 Awfi’s stories (hikayat) on Ghaznavids, Samanids, Karakhanids, Seljukids and Khwarizmshahs and gives their interpretation. The titles of the stories, absent in the original, are invented by the translator. Each title is indicated by those number in parentheses, which is specified in the fundamental study on ‘Awfi by Muhammad Nizam ud-Din. At the end of each story there is indicated, in square brackets, a bibliographical reference to the source, from which its translation was made. The “Repertoire” of ‘Awfi containing stories about the Samanids, Karakhanids, Seljukids and Khwarizmshahs is followed by a summarized table of all stories by ‘Awfi pertaining to these dynasties (totally 78 stories, from which 27 translated previously, with bibliographical notes to their publication). Analysis of the works on the dynasties in question by the famous academics (V.V. Bartold, V.A. Gordlevsky, C.E. Bosworth, S.G. Aghajanov, Z.M. Buniyatov, N.N. Negmatov and B.D. Kochnev) shows that, unfortunately, none of them pay due attention to the valuable information of ‘Awfi. The author hopes that his publication will provide a deeper understanding in study of Central Asian history as well as that of other regions in pre-Mongol period.

214-219

Authors: Sayfetdinova E.G.

Usmanov Center for Research on the Golden Horde and Tatar Khanates (Sh.Marjani Institute of History of Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan) has once again become the organizer of a major international academic event aimed at illuminating source studies on the history of the Golden Horde and Turko-Tatar khanates. March 17–18, 2015, Kazan hosted the fourth international Golden Horde forum, which was attended by representatives from 11 countries: Russia, Great Britain, Netherlands, USA, Poland, Ukraine, Turkey, Finland, Kazakhstan, Serbia, and Bulgaria. Three international conferences and round table were held within the forum. The first research conference – “Source Study of the Golden Horde History: Traditions and Innovations” – was devoted to the important issues of source study of the history of the Golden Horde and the Turko-Tatar khanates. The second research conference was dedicated to the “Minting and Circulation of Money in the Golden Horde and Turko-Tatar Khanates in the Light of Source Studies”. The third conference was devoted to the theme: “The Crimean Khanate in International Diplomacy”. The theme of the round table of the fourth international Golden Horde forum was: “The Gene Pool of the Turkish Populations as a Historical Source”.