О волынском происхождении рукописного перевода корана на польский язык по рукописям литовских татар XVII-XХ веков

Abstract

The author presents reasons in support of Ukrainian (Volhynian) origin of the translation of the Quran into Polish, written in Arabic script in the Tafsir created by Lithuanian Tatars and known in extant manuscript copies of the 17th-20th centuries, written in the Belarusian lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The translation was made into the local regional variant of the Polish written language (polszczyzna kresowa), which is full of East Slavic linguistic features. This makes it possible to use the textually most stable (lexical and derivational) linguistic markers of the translation to determine the place of its origin: the adverb č i m a l o (‘quite a lot’) can be considered a Ukrainian-Belarusian common feature (originated in Ukraine), while the adjective r a n’ u s e n’ k y i (‘very early’) and the noun v i r š o v n y k (‘poet’) are actually Ukrainian. This indicates the emergence of the handwritten Polish translation of the Quran within the Tatar communities of Ukraine, from where it spread further north to Belarusian lands. The historical context allows us to link this Muslim translation with Ostroh as the oldest and largest Tatar centre of Volhynia and approximately date it to the turn of the 16th/17th centuries: between the publication of the Old Church Slavonic Ostroh Bible (1581) and the end of the active phase of the local Ostroh Academy (1608).