Zolotoordynskoe Obozrenie (Sep 2016)
The “Kypchak” Heritage. On the New Publication of A.N. Garkavets »
Abstract
In 2015 in Almaty renowned researcher of the “Kypchak” written heritage A.N. Garkavets republished Charles Frazier’s Tatar translation of the book “Musanıŋ ilk kitabı” (“The First Book of Musa”). John Mitchell was first to publish this book in 1819 in Astrakhan. This reissue represents a continuation of a series of publications of his translations of Christian books in the Tatar language, under the auspices of the Scottish Missionary Society. Through painstaking work, A.N. Garkavets is for years known as authoritative scholar and active publisher of the “Kypchak” written monuments who still continues to seek out new sources. Tatar language was formed from ancient times, but the times of the Golden Horde were decisive. As is known, the central steppe territory of the Golden Horde previously belonged to the Kypchaks. So often the language of the Golden Horde Tatars traditionally continued to be called the Kypchak one. However, it was exactly the Tatar language that was understood under the Kypchak one. For example, the Cuman (Kypchak) language is named the Tatar one in the “Codex Cumanicus”. Since the 13th century, such dictionaries as “This is the Tatar language”, “Polovtsian language’s interpretation” had been compiled in Rus. In these dictionaries, it was clearly stated: “This is the Polovtsian language” = “This is the Tatar language”. Thus, not only the Turko-Tatars continued to use the Tatar language for a long time, but also other peoples who lived among the Turkic-Tatar population of the Golden Horde and the Tatar khanates.
