Abstract

The article deals with the “Chapter on Idiki” (“Faṣl-ı İdiki”) from the manuscript miscellany titled “Abu-l-Ghazy. Genealogy of the Turks” (F. V, No. 3780) from the collection of Institute of Manuscripts of V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, in Kyiv (Fund V “Odessa Society of History and Antiquities”, No. 3780). It is located at the beginning of the part of the handwritten manuscript miscellany, which we conditionally called “Nogai” part. It was found out that the “Chapter on Idiki” is directly connected with the “Chapter that tells the dastan of Idige-bek” from “Daftar-i Chingiz-name”. The difference between the text of the Edigey’s genealogy in the Kyiv manuscript and the corresponding chapter from “Daftar-i Chingiz-name” lies in the exclusion of a part of the text before the final words “And Allah knows the truth” (“Ve Allahü aʻlem”), which is not directly related to the list of Edigey’s descendants, in the reduction of separate words and phrases in a number of sentences, as well as in the absence of three episodes in it, the nature of which suggests that they were omitted by the copyist. Another difference is the discrepancy between some names of places and people. Two variants of the prayer formula that refers to the name of Edigey in the “Chapter on Idiki” and in its source show the degree of sacralization of his personality in the environment in which they were created. In the Kyiv manuscript, it was erased and the name Edig Sary (“fair-haired”, “blond”) was added over this place. This indicates a lack of reverence for Edigey in the person who did this (probably the owner of the Kyiv manuscript, Muhammad-efendi b. Khota). The main difference of the “Chapter on Idiki” is connected with the changing in it the Chagatai-based language of the source to the Ottoman-Turkish, which was carried out due to phonetic and lexical changes in the text. At the same time, it contains certain elements that may be associated with the original text or with the Turkic languages of the North Caucasus. Taking into account the regular replacement of Chagatai elements in the text with Ottoman-Turkish ones, it can be assumed that this is due to the influence of the Turkic languages of the North Caucasus. In particular, the use of the word kişi (“junior”), which reflects the phonetic features of the Nogai language (the transition from /ch/ to /sh/ at the root of the word), suggests that such a language could be Nogai and that the author of the abbreviation or copyist who copied the text into the Kyiv manuscript, was a Nogai. The exact time of the appearance of the “Ottoman-Turkish” version of the genealogy of Edigey from “Daftar-i Chingiz-name” is not known. Its appearance is apparently associated with the strengthening of the Ottoman cultural influence in the Northern Black Sea region and the North Caucasus and the transformation of the Ottoman-Turkish language in the 17th – 18th centuries in the language of literacy and diplomacy in these regions. The need to create an “Ottoman-Turkish” version of the “Chapter” could be caused by the need to substantiate any claims of the Nogai elite in the new historical conditions that developed in the North Caucasus or in the Northern Black Sea region.

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