A BOW AS A TRADITIONAL WEAPON IN THE HEROIC EPICS OF THE KAZAKHS

Abstract

The article introducesinformation about heroic epics of the Kazakhs, containing facts about a ranged weapon – a bow of the nomads of the Great Steppe of the Middle Ages and New Age. Before this information was not an aim of special scientific research and was not translated into other languages. Based on a comprehensive analysis of folklore, artefacts and written sources, there was an attempt to find out the original names of the bows of the Turkic warriors of the Middle Ages and New Age as well as their construction features. The basic terms used in the heroic epics of the Kazakhs were identified and attributed to denote a ranged weapon of the nomads of the abovementioned period on the basis of the research of collected, systematized and analyzed facts. In addition, in particular, it was found out that in the Middle Ages and New Age, a ranged weapon of nomadic warriors of Kazakhstan and adjacent lands was differently named: jaq, jai, saadaq, sarja, buharja, adyrna. Here, we see, a name of a ranged weapon – a bow (jaq, jai) of the Turkic warriors known in the ancient times and early Middle Ages, changed and a few various names became applicable, largely as a result of metonymic transition, that is, a name of a separate part of the structure of the bow was applied to the whole item, which then entered the military vocabulary of the Kazakhs. Thus, for instance, the name limb – adyrnaand baіenek made of bone, horns, and wood, featuring the basic functional structure of the bow, was applied to the history common name of a traditional bow of the nomads. And known as a bow case of a bow – saadaq entered later military vocabulary of the Kazakhs to denote the bow. When comparing the description of a ranged weapon in the heroic epics of the Kazakhs with its genuine samples from archaeological monuments and traits of written sources, a high level of correlation between folklore and artefacts is noticeable.