Description of nomadic turkic tribes of eastern Desht-i Qipcha-q in Muslim Writings of the First Half of the 13th century: on the Problem of Historiographical Continuity

Abstract

The historical work of the first half of the 13th century “Jawāmi‘ ul-Hikāyāt wa Lawāmi‘ ul-Riwāyāt” (“A Collection of Anekdotes and Brilliant Stories”), written by Sayyīd al-Dīn Muḥammad ‘Awfī, includes a significant section on the history of the nomadic Turkic tribes of Desht-i Qipchāq. Despite the fact that this monument is well known to researchers, this section from “Jawāmi‘ ul-Hikāyāt...” has never been fully translated into Russian. It was published in the first volume of “Turkestan in the Era of the Mongol invasion” by V.V. Barthold on the basis of several handwritten lists. The purpose of this study is, on the one hand, to acquaint researchers with the content of this section from the work of Muḥammad ‘Awfī, and on the other hand, to highlight its historiographical connection with earlier monuments of Muslim historiography. The conducted research once again demonstrated the fact that the basis for the section “Jawāmi‘ ul-Hikāyāt...”, dedicated to the nomadic Turkic tribes of Desht-i Qipchāq, was the work of the first half of the XII century. “Kitāb Ṭabā’i‘ al-Ḥayawān” (“On the Nature of Animals”) by an outstanding Muslim scientist - Sharaf al-Zamān Ṭāhir al-Marwazī. For his part, Muḥammad ‘Awfī did not fully cite the story of an earlier author: the part of the text “Ṭabā’i‘ al-Ḥayawān”, where it was about the tribal union of the Qïrqïz, attracted his greatest attention. Other nomadic Turkic tribes in “Jawāmi‘ ul-Hikāyāt...” are described in much less detail, sometimes with obvious mistakes and distortions, which were made either by Muḥammad ‘Awfī himself, or by the copyist of his work, when transmitting toponyms and ethnonyms borrowed from the text of “Ṭabā’i‘ al-Ḥayawān”. Thus, the evolution of the narrative about the nomadic Turkic tribes of Desht-i Qipchāq in Muslim historiography of the 12th - early 13th centuries is quite clearly traced when comparing these two sections from “Ṭabā’i‘ alḤayawān” by al-Marwazī and “Jawāmi‘ ul-Hikāyāt...” by Muḥammad ‘Awfī.

Keywords

• muḥammad ‘awfī
• nomadic turkic tribes
• al-marwazī
• jawāmi‘ ul-hikāyāt
• historiographical continuity