Revisiting Some Religious Terms, Hadiths and Ayahs in Bashkir Munajats

Abstract

Introduction. In the oral popular art and written literary monuments of the Bashkir people, there is a special musical-poetic genre of the lyric-epic and religious character, which is called munajat. This article aims to analyze some of the ayats, hadiths, and religious terms used in the Bashkir munajats. Materials and methods. Samples of religious poetry borrowed from a thematic volume of the Bashkir folk art compendium were used as the main source of the research data. Over 1,500 examples have been identified, some of which are used in this article. A systematic and comparative analysis and a historical-typological research method were employed for the analysis of the material. Results. Many Bashkir scholars were among the students of the munajats. In their works, they often focused on the main features of the genre, such as religious motifs, plots, and appeals to Allah that they contain. Since early 1990s, the munajats have been experiencing a rebirth: old versions have returned to become popular again; also, new types, composed by our contemporaries, have emerged, and spread in various regions. The study resulted in identifying over one and a half thousand examples containing Muslim terms, ayats, and hadiths; some of them have been included in this article. Conclusions. The present study shows the peculiarities of the use of religious subjects, terms, and motifs in the Bashkir munajats. Some words and phrases were changed to adapt to the popular usage, while preserving the Arabic cliché. In its turn, the use of religious vocabulary enriched the Bashkir language and literature.

Keywords

• munajat
• performance
• spirituality
• bashkir folklore
• bashkir poetry
• muslim poetry
• early printed books
• oriental manuscripts
• written sources