Zolotoordynskoe Obozrenie (Jan 2015)
The Tatar Literature of the Late Middle Ages »
Abstract
The Tatar verbal art of the 15th–18th centuries developed over more than three centuries and reflected, reflects very complicated, contradictory, and tragic periods in the history of the Tatar people. This is a time of the Golden Horde disintegration and formation on its vast territory of the Crimean, Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian, Nogai, and Kasimov khanates. This is a time of establishing, rise, and conquest of the Tatar States. This is a time of severe colonial oppression, loss of a significant part of the spiritual and material values accumulated over the centuries. Moreover, at this stage of history, and especially after the elimination of Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, the population living in the Crimean khanate gradually begins to separate from the relatively uniform linguistic, cultural, and ethnic Tatar space due to the tangible Ottoman influence. Therefore, we should consider the verbal art of this era in three aspects and under three items: 1) Tatar literature of the Kazan khanate period (middle of the 15th – middle of the 17th centuries), including not only the Kazan khanate’s literature, but also of other Tatar States and, in particular, of the Astrakhan, Siberian, Nogai, Crimean, Kasimov khanates, as well as of the Great Horde; 2) Crimean Tatar verbal art of the 15th–18th centuries, that is, of the Crimean State including not only the Crimean peninsula, but also large areas of the Western Ciscaucasia, Northern Black Sea coast, as well as areas of the Azov region. Of course, this division of more than three centuries’ literary development is, to some extent, arbitrary. At the same time, it contributes to the formation of a certain idea about the Tatar verbal art’s development during the mentioned centuries.
