Historical Plots in Siberian-Tatar Dastan “Ildan and Goldan”

Abstract

The dastan “Ildan and Goldan”, the plot of which, according to the author of the article, was not widespread in the Siberian-Tatar folklore is considered in the article. It is noted that, unlike other das-tans, it is not present in the well-known col-lection of Siberian-Tatar folklore by V. V. Radlov. In this connection, the author assumes that this may be a literary work created by a specific author in the dastan genre, such as, for example, “Kalevala”, “Ural Batyr”, etc. The author proves that the plot of the work, based on historical events that took place on the territory of Western Siberia, the geographical names present in the dastan, a large number of words and speech turns characteristic of the Siberian-Tatar language, indicate that the dastan was recorded among the Siberian Tatars or by the author of the work is a native of the Siberian-Tatar environment. It is shown that the key place in the dastan, which tells about the events that took place in the Middle Ages, is given to the history of the Ishim Khanate. Parallels are revealed between the plots described in the dastan and in the Siberian chronicles. It is concluded that the authors of these works could use the same sources.