Migration of guzz in the second half of the 12th century according to muslim sources

The migration of the nomadic Turkic tribes of eastern Desht-i Qipchak to the borders of Transoxiana and Khorasan has its reflection in numerous monuments of Muslim historiography both of the pre-Mongol period and as part of later writings. Researchers are relatively well aware of certain Turkic tribes or tribal associations that had different forms of interaction with representatives of settled cultures. However, at the same time, there are numerous examples of incorporation of people from a nomadic environment into the administrative or military system of the state formations of Transoxiana and Khorasan, and their biographies were described quite in detail by the authors of Muslim historical and geographical writings. At the same time, such plots have significantly less historiography, since the attention of specialists was focused mainly on the migration processes themselves, rather than on such frequent examples of the presence of nomads or on the people from a nomadic environment in the service of the rulers of Transoxiana and Khorasan. In this article, we would like to analyze two cases when a representative of the nomadic Turkic tribes of eastern Desht-i Qipchak became the governor of Khorezm, namely, we will talk about Ikinchi ibn Kochkar and Anush-Tegin Garcha. We will be interested not in the biographies of both Khorezmshahs only, but also how they managed to achieve this title, how their governorship in this region took place and whether they managed to transfer power in Khorezm to their descendants. Both of these examples are also important for understanding of what place Khorezm occupied as part of the Seljukid state of Khorasan and what was the peculiarity of the administration of this region. Finally, the biographies of both of these Khorezmshahs are also interesting for consideration of what common mechanisms natives of the Turkic nomadic environment used as part of the administrative or military system of the state formations of Transoxiana and Khorasan.

In this article, the author analyzes the formation in Muslim literature of the twelfth — thirteenth centuries of the eponym of the dynasty of Khorezm rulers, whose power in this region begins in 1097 and ends in the era of the Mongol invasion. We are discussing the Anushteginid dynasty and the father of the first Khorezmshah, Qutb ad-Din Muhammad, after whom this dynasty was named by researchers. According to medieval Muslim historians, Anush-tegin or Nush-tegin Garcha/Garja himself never ruled Khorezm, but his descendants not only managed to gain a foothold in these lands, but also created one of the most powerful Muslim states of the Middle East, which was destroyed only by the Mongol conquerors. Despite the close attention to the power of the Khorezmshahs in the research environment, which has been reflected in numerous special works, to this day we do not see in Russian and foreign literature a single study devoted to the ancestor of the Anushteginid dynasty, or rather, the analysis of the description of his biography in Muslim sources. Researchers, relying mainly on reports on this subject by the historian of the first half of the thirteenth century, Ibn al-Asir, broadcast his story about Anush-tegin, often not taking into account the nature and volume of information about this eponym as part of earlier sources. We will also attempt to understand what Muslim authors of the twelfth century write about Anush-tegin, how fully his biography is reflected in these texts in comparison with ‘al-Kamil fi-t-Tarikh’ by Ibn al-Asir, and what is the specificity of their description of the biography of the ancestor of the Khorezm rulers. In addition, we will try to consider what pre-Mongol texts Ibn al-Asir and subsequent historians could rely on in their reconstructions of the history of Anush-tegin’s life and work, as well as what contradictions in this case could arise between individual authors. We hope that this work will be useful to specialists in the history of the Middle East in the pre–Mongol period, as well as to researchers of Muslim historical literature of the twelfth-thirteenth centuries.

Research objectives: To consider the problem of the Eastern Kipchak presence in the pre-Mongol period in Southern Siberia, Altai, and adjacent territories, including the identification of traces of specific Kipchak clan formations in this area. Research materials: Data from the Tatar dastan “Ak Kubek”, Arabic chronicles, and Russian chronicles containing information of an epic and historical nature were used. Previously published works, which in one way or another affect this issue but need a critical approach and addition, were also employed. Results and novelty of the research: This study of the content of the dastan “Ak Kubek” and the Arab chronicles of an-Nuwayri and Ibn Khaldun, in which epic information has been transmitted through the Mamluks from the Kipchaks, allows us to conclude that the Siberian-Tatar dastan recorded by V.V. Radlov contains important historical content dating back to the pre-Mongol period and related to the Durut (tert, durt) and Toksoba clans which had different ethnic origins and occupied different territories. It was possible to connect some epic heroes (Khan Kotyan / Kidana) with the leaders of specific Western Polovtsian groups, such as the Terterovichi Khan Kotyan who sought refuge in Hungary during the Mongol conquest. The second group, Toksoba (Toksobichi), which in the analyzed dastan is personified by its main character, the princely son Ak Kubek biy, belonged to the Eastern Kipchak clan formations that participated in the ethnogenesis of the Siberian Tatars, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, and Altaians. The time and reasons for the connection of the dastan “Ak Kubek” to the Altaians cannot be unambiguously resolved due to the migrations of Siberian Tatars to the region of the Northern Altai during the fall of the Siberian Khanate. However, the hypothesis of the pre-Mongol presence of eastern Kipchaks in Southern Siberia and Altai seems probable.

The paper aimed to conduct a comprehensive analysis of all available sources (including herbarium vouchers, publications, and datasets) on exact distribution of Aconitum moldavicum in the Ukrainian Carpathians to build the maps modeling the species distribution in this region and adjacent territories. Aconitum moldavicum is a Pancarpathian subendemic distributed widely along Carpathian Mountain range and scattered out to some of adjacent lowland territories. Surprisingly, A. moldavicum was found to be quite rare for Transcarpathian Lowland, where it is represented only by A. moldavicum subsp. hosteanum. Just near the border with Slovakia, A. moldavicum subsp. moldavicum occurs in Vygorlat Mts., while along with all other parts of Vygorlat-Gutyn Carpathians it does not appear. However both taxa, A. moldavicum subsp. moldavicum and A. moldavicum subsp. hosteanum, are quite frequently appear in Ciscarpathia and Volhynia-Podilia Highland together with their hybrid A. moldavicum nothosubsp. confusum. Aconitum moldavicum nothosubsp. porcii and nothosubsp. simonkaianum occur exclusively in Marmarosh region of the Ukrainian Carpathians, and probably A. moldavicum nothosubsp. porcii can be also re-find in Chornohora. Presence of A. moldavicum nothosubsp. simonkaianum in Volhynia-Podilia Highland seems to be doubtful, because there are no any other evidences despite the only voucher hosted at GJO herbarium. Moreover, other vouchers collected by B. Błocki from the same region were identified as belonging to A. moldavicum nothosubsp. hosteanum. We used different algorithms of SDM (MaXent, BioClim, GARP, EnvDist, TIN and IDW) to check the most sufficient and most closely representing a real distribution of A. moldavicum in the area studied. BioClim properly pointed to the geographic centers of the species in the Carpathians, Volhynia-Podilia Highland, and in Polish Uplands. Traditionally applied algorithm MaxEnt underestimates the probability of occurrence of species in the area of confirmed presence and, at the same time, overestimates it in the area beyond the known extent of species occurrence. IDW algorithm showed similar results with MaxEnt and confirmed its potential suitability for SDM purposes.

This study is devoted to the analysis of information from Muslim sources regarding the political and economic relations of Khorezm with the Volga region and the nomadic Turkic tribes of the eastern Desht-i Qipchak in the 12th century. The author paid attention to the message of the Persian historian Juzjani in his work “Tabakat-i Nasiri” (“Nasir Tables”) that Khorezmshah Qutb ad-Din Muhammad (1097-1127) kept the borders of his state “from the infidel Saksins, Bulgars and Qipchaks”. Despite the fact that at first glance this message does not correlate well with the historical realities known to researchers and information from other Muslim monuments, the author of the article tried to find out what could be hidden behind this statement of Juzjani. This medieval author confused Qutb ad-Din Muhammad and his son, 'Ala' ad-Din Atsyz (1127-1256), who not only made several military campaigns within Desht-i Qipchak, but, from the point of view, the author may be the same ruler of Khorezm, about whom another Muslim historian, al-Garnati, gives a historical anecdote, which refers to the siege of the city of Saksin by Khorezmian troops, which allegedly continued for forty years. The aggressive political and economic expansion of Khorezm during the years of Atsiz's reign could well become a prototype not only for al-Garnati's report, but also become the basis for the quoted quotation from Tabakat-i Nasiri. The mention of "Bulgars" in it can also be explained through the work of al-Garnati, who mentions that a large Bulgarian community was present in Saksin.

The article is dedicated to the peculiarities of settlement structure in Toropetsky Uyezd of the XVI century. In the XIV – XV centuries Toropets land was the eastern outskirts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in 1503 joined the Moscow state. The cadastre of 1540 describes the structure of Toropetsky Uyezd as the clusters of settlements, characterized by commonness of names and detected both in state (58 clusters) and local (79 clusters) lands. They differ in size, i.e. the number of settlements and court indicators. Mapping of the clusters of settlements reveals their location in the territory of uyezd, land area, and population density. Geographical reconstruction is carried out via geoinformation technologies. It is demonstrated that most developed part of the uyezd is Toropets Volost and the adjacent territories, such as eastern districts of the uyezd in the basin of the Western Dvina River, developed in the pre-Mongol period, and the basin of tributaries of the Kunya River. The model of settlement structure in Toropetsky Uyezd most likely corresponds to the type of land relations inherent to Syabry community, in which peasants jointly owned land, agricultural and fishery areas. Such settlement structure retained due to the peripheral position of Toropets and its relative autonomy. Common names served as a means for identification of the object of taxation. This settlement model gradually diminishes after Toropets has joined the Moscow State, first and foremost it pertains to the local lands. Common names are preserved as the geographical landmarks; while the individual names are widely used within such clusters, as the court indicators increase.

Importance. The main source of information about demographic processes that took place in the Middle Ages on the territory of modern Tambov region and adjacent territories is archaeological research. Almost to the present time, the Upper Don region and the Oka-Don plain remained a white spot on the medieval archaeological map. Only in recent decades has the source base been significantly expanded. Monuments of the first half of the first millennium of the new era belonging to the circle of Early Slavic antiquities were identified; studies of the monuments of the Don Slavs, the Old Russian time, the nomadic circle were carried out. The purpose of the study was to identify the directions of settlement of the Oka-Don plain in the Middle Ages, its dynamics, ethnic composition, contacts of the new population with the autochthonous. Materials and methods. The principle of historicism, the comparative typological method and the principle of objectivity. Both general and special methods of historical cognition were used. The dating of archaeological materials and their belonging to a certain ethnic group was determined by studying ceramics and a few individual finds. Results and Discussion. The territory of modern Tambov region, as part of the Oka-Don plain, has always been attractive due to its natural and climatic features not only for nomadic peoples, but also for settled tribes. Due to various factors, such as the Great Migration of peoples, periodic invasions of nomads, the disintegration of individual archaeological cultures, the demographic situation in the Middle Ages was extremely unstable. Residents of many settlements were forced to change their place of residence, or try to coexist with nomads. Conclusion. Conclusions are drawn about the diversity of ethnic groups in the Tambov region due to the presence of cultural finds, remnants of dwellings, burials in places of existence of various cultures. The novelty of the conducted research lies in the chronological systematization of the stages of life and activity of the peoples who lived in the first millennium on the territory of the modern Tambov region. Their ancestral and cultural ties, lifestyle and territorial movements for various reasons have become objects of study using archaeological methods, which has allowed us to expand our knowledge of the ancient history of the region. Further attention to the famous monuments and the discovery of new ones on the territory of the Oka-Don plain will allow us to study in more detail the demographic situation in the Middle Ages in this territory.

We describe artificial openings in crania of the Early Iron Age nomads of the Lower Volga region, owned by the Moscow State University’s Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology. Such openings were found in two male specimens of the Sauromato-Sarmatian age from Bykovo (burial 4, kurgan 13) and Baranovka (burial 2, kurgan 21). Using macroscopic and X-ray examination, we attempt to identify the surgical techniques and the reasons behind the operations. The cranial vault of the Bykovo individual was trepanned by scraping and cutting, for medical purposes. The man survived the surgery, as evidenced by healing. In the case of Baranovka, the operation was performed postmortem or peri-mortem by drilling and cutting, possibly for ritual purposes. Collating these cases with others relating to the Early Iron Age nomadic (Sauromato-Sarmatian) culture of the Lower Volga region and adjacent territories and with written and archaeological sources suggests that the closest parallels come from Central Asia, and Southern and Western Siberia, where the custom of post-mortem ritual trepanations was very common. The surgical techniques practiced in the Lower Volga region were likely due to the penetration of Greek and Roman medical traditions in the mid-first millennium BC.

This chapter summarizes the work on early Muslim and Eastern Christian sources concerning the Jewish calendar. This work has focused on six authors writing over a period of about 200 years, from the first quarter of the ninth century to the first third of the eleventh century. In the long §1 the Muslim author gives, so to speak, a theological justification of the Jewish calendar, which he sees as part of God's authentic revelation to the prophet Moses and as a necessary tool for the correct observation of the Passover. Elias' description of the Jewish calendar occupies three chapters, of which only the second is complete in the unique manuscript, the other two having lost one or more folios at the end. By the beginning of the eleventh century, with al-Bayrūnī and his contemporary Elias, all the elements of the Rabbinic calendar are in place. Keywords: al-Bayrūnī; Eastern Christian sources; Elias; Jewish calendar; Muslim source

Растительность меловых обнажений Подуральского плато и сопредельных территорий

Northern Europe and the Islamic world, although separated by the wide belt of the steppe, were in contact throughout the pre-Mongol period. The intensity of these contacts varied over time and so did their geography: objects of Islamic provenance were imported to the basin of the Kama in the 7th–10th centuries, to the lands settled by the Scandinavians and those Slavs who were under their political or cultural influence in the 9th and 10th centuries, and to the northern edge of the steppe in the two centuries before the Mongol invasion. This chapter surveys the finds of Islamic objects associated with these interactions—mostly silver coins and silverware—and investigates the mechanisms that account for their importation to the North.

Previous articleNext article No AccessNew Biological BooksThe Mollusca of the Niagara Frontier Region and Adjacent Territory. Imogene C. Strickler Robertson, Clifford L. Blakeslee A Zoogeographic Study of the Land Snails of Ontario. John Oughton Joshua L. Baily, Jr.Joshua L. Baily, Jr. Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Quarterly Review of Biology Volume 24, Number 1Mar., 1949 Published in association with Stony Brook University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/396841 Views: 1Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Information on All-Russian scientific conference with international participation “Vegetation of the Baikal region and adjacent territories” is presented. The conference was held on October 26–27, 2023 in Ulan-Ude, at the Dorzhi Banzarov Buryat State University.

Among the Muslim texts of the first half of the XIII century, one should highlight the narrative known to researchers as «Shajarai-e ansab-e Mobarakshah-i» («The Tree of the genealogies of Mubarak Shah») or «Bahr al-ansab» («The Sea of genealogies»). This work belongs to the pen of a Persian historian of the late XII - first half of the XIII century. Muhammad ibn Mansur ibn Sa'id or Fakhr-i Moddabir (Mubarak Shah). After the publication of the Persian text of this source, carried out in the first half of the XX century. By Edward Denison Ross, scientists have paid close attention to this work itself, as well as to the biography of its author. However, the most significant attention was focused on those sections of «Bahr al-ansab», where the author described the nomadic Turkic tribes of Desht-i Qipchak, as well as those where Fakhr-i Moddabir outlined the history of the Muslim dynasties that ruled in northern India. Much less attention was paid by specialists to the initial section of the introduction to "Bahr al-Ansab", in which the author proposed cosmography or a description of the world known to people at that time around them. For our part, I would like to understand first of all how, in the author's opinion, this world was arranged, into which regions it was divided, and what place the Caucasus and adjacent lands occupied in it. Here I would like to draw attention to what toponyms associated with the Caucasus Fakhr-i Moddabir mentions and what he reports about them. An equally important task of this study will be to identify the connections of this part of the text «Bahr al-Ansab» with earlier monuments of Muslim geographical and historical literature, which will make it possible to identify borrowings, but also independent reports of Fakhr-i Moddabir regarding the structure of the world known to mankind at that time. We hope that this work will be of interest to specialists in the history of Muslim geographical literature, as well as to researchers of the history of the Caucasus and adjacent regions in the pre-Mongol period.

Among the Muslim texts of the first half of the XIII century, one should highlight the narrative known to researchers as «Shajarai-e ansab-e Mobarakshah-i» («The Tree of the genealogies of Mubarak Shah») or «Bahr al-ansab» («The Sea of genealogies»). This work belongs to the pen of a Persian historian of the late XII - first half of the XIII century. Muhammad ibn Mansur ibn Sa'id or Fakhr-i Moddabir (Mubarak Shah). After the publication of the Persian text of this source, carried out in the first half of the XX century. By Edward Denison Ross, scientists have paid close attention to this work itself, as well as to the biography of its author. However, the most significant attention was focused on those sections of «Bahr al-ansab», where the author described the nomadic Turkic tribes of Desht-i Qipchak, as well as those where Fakhr-i Moddabir outlined the history of the Muslim dynasties that ruled in northern India. Much less attention was paid by specialists to the initial section of the introduction to "Bahr al-Ansab", in which the author proposed cosmography or a description of the world known to people at that time around them. For our part, I would like to understand first of all how, in the author's opinion, this world was arranged, into which regions it was divided, and what place the Caucasus and adjacent lands occupied in it. Here I would like to draw attention to what toponyms associated with the Caucasus Fakhr-i Moddabir mentions and what he reports about them. An equally important task of this study will be to identify the connections of this part of the text «Bahr al-Ansab» with earlier monuments of Muslim geographical and historical literature, which will make it possible to identify borrowings, but also independent reports of Fakhr-i Moddabir regarding the structure of the world known to mankind at that time. We hope that this work will be of interest to specialists in the history of Muslim geographical literature, as well as to researchers of the history of the Caucasus and adjacent regions in the pre-Mongol period.