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The Turkic Etymology of the Word "Qazaq" 'Cossack' Author(S): Omeljan Pritsak Source: Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol

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The Turkic Etymology of the Word The President and Fellows of Harvard College The Turkic Etymology of the Word "Qazaq" 'Cossack' Author(s): Omeljan Pritsak Source: Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 28, No. 1/4, RUS' WRIT LARGE: LANGUAGES, HISTORIES, CULTURES: Essays Presented in Honor of Michael S. Flier on His Sixty-Fifth Birthday (2006), pp. 237-243 Published by: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41036956 . Accessed: 19/10/2014 07:22 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and The President and Fellows of Harvard College are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Harvard Ukrainian Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 75.151.216.237 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:22:31 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Harvard UkrainianStudies 28, no. 1-4 (2006): 237-43. The TurkicEtymology of the Word Qazaq 'Cossack' Omeljan Pritsak v>oncerning the Turkic etymology of the word Qazaq, thereis no consensusamong scholars. While the historians(Hrusevs'kyj 1909, 76; Stökl i953>31) and the etymologistsof the Slavic languages(Berneker 1924, 496; Bruckner1957, 262; Vasmer and Trubacev1967, 495; as wellas Mel'nycuk1985, 495-96) acceptwithout any reservation- but also withoutproof- theTurkic etymologyof this word, some leading Turkologists have their doubts. Räsänen (1969,243), in his etymologicaldictionary of the Turkiclanguages, gives no etymologyin his entryqazaq, and Doerfer(1967, 462-68) statesflatly: "eine sichereEtymologie für das Wort [qazaq] existiertnicht." The same opinion was expressedby Menges (1979,196, nos. 11,12). Fromthe formal point of view the word qazaq can be easilyexplained. It is a déverbalnoun in /-AK/ from the verb qaz-, as are käsäk'piece' fromkäs- 'to cut!jatak 'bed' fromjat- 'to lie down',qonaq 'palace;guest' from qon- 'to pass a night',and süräk'runner' from sür- 'to run'(Zaj^czkowski 1932, 61-63). As we can see, the suffix/-AK/ forms nouns expressingthe resultof the action,instruments and theactor. The problemis thatthe verb qaz-, whichis also attestedin theolder Turkic literary languages, has themeaning 'to dig,to dig out! Also the noun qaz-aq theoreticallymust have had the meaning'the digger'(Clauson 1972,680). And in factsuch meaningis attestedto in 1395 (Sreznevskij1893, cols. 1173-74;cf. Doerfer 1967, 468). It means thatthere existedsome Turkiclanguages where the said meaningwas the basic one. It appearsespecially in EasternEurope. But I shallnot dwellon it heresince LarysaPritsak dealt with it in a recentpaper (2006). But I wouldlike to proposethe following hypothesis concerning the word qazaq. Thegiven meaning of the word qazaq enteredthe given Turkic language at thetime when it commonlyused thatparticular meaning. It became "exis- tent"when the literary language of the time included it in itsvocabulary. Hence one Turkiclinguistic group preserved the words qazaq and qaz- in the meaning'the digger', 'to dig out; and thismeaning of qaz- has been pre- servedin themajority of the old and new Turkicliterary languages. This content downloaded from 75.151.216.237 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:22:31 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 238 PRITSAK Annemarievon Gabain (i960) has convincinglyproven that the verb qaz~ had in the Old Turkiclanguage of the Orkhoninscriptions (8th century) the same meaningas the verb qazyan- 'to gather,conquer! This meaninghad remainedin theEurasian steppe, but since it was connectedwith the nomads, whowere replaced as rulersby the sedentary dynasties of the Ujyurs (740-840) and thereafterwith the sedentary Karakhanids (840-1220), it was notincluded intothe Turkic literary language ofthat time. We havean excellentcomparative dictionaryof the Turkic languages from 1077, but it neglectsthe languages of the nomads.It was compiledby the Karakhanidprince Mahmûd al-Kãsyarí (1985,135). Hence themeaning oiqaz- and qazaq- fromthe nomadic era was notincluded into his Dlvãn luyãtat-Turk. In theMuslim world there were two types of slaves. The first type was called abd (pl. Hbãd),'slave, son of the slaves',1who were usuallyblack and were customarilyused forheavy work and as domesticservants. The second were mamlüks('purchased slaves'), purchased from the slave market. They were chil- drenof free white people who originatedfrom the Polovcian (Qipcaq) steppe. Ethnicallythey were Polovcians, Cherkes, or theancestors of the Ukrainians. Theywere purchased at a youngage and keptin specialbarracks where they wereinstructed in militaryarts. The Muslim rulers who employed the mamlüks werethe dynastiesof the Fãtimids(907-1171) and Ayyubids(1169-1250). In 1250the mamlüks dethroned the last Ayyübid and theircommander took for himselfthe ruler's title 'sultan1 and ruledover Syria and Egypt.The ruleof the mamlükslasted until1517, when the Ottomansultan Selïm conqueredboth Syriaand Egypt. In orderto communicatewith the mamlüks, the Arabs of Egypt and Syria compiledseveral Arabic-Polovcian glossaries. One ofthe oldest such glossaries, writtenin ah 643/AD1245, was publishedby Martin Houtsma in 1894.There is one lexemeqazaq whichis translatedinto Arabic as al-mujarrad,i.e. 'free.'2 Unfortunatelyboth Hrusevslcyi(1909) and Stöckl(1953) had no knowledge aboutthe existence of the Arabic-Polovcian dictionary, published in 1894,and even contemporaryhistorians repeat that the lexeme qazaq firstoccurred in the Codex Cumanicusof 1303. Concerningthe date of the Codex Cumanicus,one has to mentionthe specialstudy of the Hungarian Turkologist György Györfly (1942), which also remainsunknown to historians.Györffy established that the Codex Cumanicus was a collectionof severaltexts, all fromthe 13thand 14thcenturies (ibid., 1-30). Thefirst of them (where the word Cosac appears)was writtenin 1294/95. It is a Middle-Age Latin,Persian, Polovcian glossary. It was probablywritten in Solchatin theCrimea.3 In 1303a copyof it was made,probably in themon- asteryof St. Johnin Sarai,the capital of the Golden Horde. Between 1300 and 1340 a new copyof it was made thatwas ultimatelyowned bythe compilers of the Codex Cumanicus,who includedit in the collectionat the beginning. This content downloaded from 75.151.216.237 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:22:31 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TURKIC ETYMOLOGY OF QAZAQ 239 Thus on fol.50V, 1. 5 the Medieval Latingloss guayta 'guard'has the Persian correspondencenaobat 'guard'and the Polovciancorrespondence Ghasal Cosac. The firstword (an attribute?)has notyet been deciphered;the second is 'Cossack.'4 In New Persianliterature of the period of the Golden Horde (ca. 1240-1500) therecan be founda Turkicloanword qazaq. I shouldquote herejust one case of its usage. I am quotingfrom the workof the Persianwriter Natanzï (the "Anonymousof Iskander"), written ca. 1412.5He wrote:darãn navãhidarsurãti qãzãqi me-gardad,'in thisregion he roamedin themanner of a qãzãql These threeexamples clearly testify that the Polovcians (Qipcaqs) had and used the institutionoí qazaq. Butsince the Polovcian literary language never developed, thePolovcian lexeme qazaq was notincluded into the vocabulary of the Turkic literarylanguages, and did not "exist"until the sixteenth century. Butthe word qazaq and itsoriginal meaning came downto us in thenota- tionsof foreigners: Arabs in 1245,in theLatin of the Genoese 1294-1295,and in theNew Persianliterary language which, on par withthe Chinese, was the officiallanguage of the Mongolian empire (1206-1500). Bãbur (d. 1526)the greatCossack, an excellentstatesman, the conqueror ofIndia as well as a beautifulman ofletters who wrotehis memoirs(Bãbur- nãmé) even duringa battlebecame theleading classic of the Turkic Chayataj literarylanguage.6 This literarylanguage often used the lexemeqazaq in its meaningas 'freebooter,one who takespossession! I quote herethree passages fromhis Bãbur-nàme: "Tulun xvãja moyõlnieki üc jüz qazaq jigitlärbilä ilyar ajirdük[We sentthe Mongol Tulunwith two-three hundred of young qazaq on theraid]" (1:59, 11. 9-10); "mäninbilä qazaqliqlardavä mihnätlärdäbolyan kisilerbilä jaman ma'âs qila kiristi [we have undertakenCossack raidswith thepeople who werewith me sufferingand in wantof means of sustenance]" (1:110,11. 19-20); and "özümbilä qazaqliqlardabilä bolup kälgänbäglärgä vä jigitlärgäa'zïsïya kent vä jatal dék bërildi[To thoseprinces and warriorswho werewith me on the Cossack raidswere given cities as well as possessions]" (1:223,11. 10-11). The analytical method in theetymologization of Turkic words was elaboratedin the firstthird of the 20th centuryin Berlinby two Ger- man Turkologists,Prof. Willy Bang and his student(and myteacher) Prof. Annemarievon Gabain. In i960 Prof.Gabain publisheda veryimportant study dealing with the Cossacks. I shall not discuss the sociological part of her theory,since this has alreadybeen done byLarysa Pritsak (2006), but I willlimit myself to the philologicaltheory. According to Gabainthe word qazaq alreadyexisted in the languageof the Old Turkicinscriptions of the eighthcentury. But it suffered a changeafter the denominalverbal suffix lai was added and its voicelessq
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