View a Copy of This Licence, Visit
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Ibrayeva et al. Herit Sci (2021) 9:90 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-021-00564-7 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Interdisciplinary approach to studying written nomadic sources in the context of modern historiology Akmaral Ibrayeva1* , Assemgul Temirkhanova2, Zaure Kartova1, Tlegen Sadykov2, Nurbolat Abuov1 and Anatoliy Pleshakov1 Abstract This article uses an interdisciplinary approach to analyze textual sources from nomadic civilization. Linguistic analysis has been increasingly used due to the emergence of a huge array of autochthonous and authentic written sources. It is impossible to extract the necessary historical information from those sources without using a new research method. This study aims to apply discourse analysis to medieval textual sources called edicts published in 1400–1635 by the leaders of the Central Asian states. This approach is expected to enable a detailed study of the structure of edicts, as well as speech patterns and terms used in the text. The results of the study revealed the structure of the examined edicts, as well as socio-cultural, economic, and communicative features of the nomadic society. First, the discourse repertoire of Edicts from Sygnak is rather unique, as evidenced by comparative analysis of patents from the cities of Sygnak, Sayram and Turkestan located in the Syr Darya basin. Second, edicts in this study refect the result of the mutual infuence of sedentary and mobile lifeways. Third, the arguments behind certain speech patterns used in the examined edicts emerged under the infuence of Turkic traditions. Keywords: Discourse analysis, Document structure, Edicts, Nomadic civilization, Oral historiology Introduction documents with the content and legal form characteristic One of the major challenges of nomadic research is the to contracts. Consequently, having a legal force, they dif- insufcient number of textual sources, which hinders fered from other documents of that time and thus con- historical criticism. Tere are two possible solutions to stituted a separate type of sources. Edicts were issued to this problem. Scholars can either improve their research grant a person with special privileges: provide with land, approach or intensify eforts in the study of autochtho- exempt from taxes, appoint to positions, as well as ofer nous texts. In the past, the Nomads developed a system other social and legal benefts. Te right to issue edicts of edicts, a formal written command from the ruler, belonged to the authorities; however, given that their fre- which historians can now address in their research. Te quent replacement was the norm, the practice of edicts’ inscriptions, issued by local authorities, were determined reconfrmation was also quite a usual matter. Initially, by the ethnic ways of life. Tus, they varied between nomadic research was focused on the ancient Turkic the ethnic groups. By their nature, these edicts were the rune stones, ancient Turkic literature, and genealogical records, also known as the shezhire. Te edicts, however, are more suitable for determining historical timeline and *Correspondence: [email protected] reasons behind certain events than the above sources, 1 Department of History of Kazakhstan and Socio‑Humanitarian yet these autochthonous and authentic texts are poorly Disciplines, M. Kozybaev North Kazakhstan University, Pushkin Street, 86, Petropavlovsk 1500000, Kazakhstan studied. It is difcult to overestimate the importance of Full list of author information is available at the end of the article edicts as primary sources of facts about the studied era © The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativeco mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Ibrayeva et al. Herit Sci (2021) 9:90 Page 2 of 9 and information about certain events that took place at Te historical research often makes use of the meth- the time. Today, edicts rarely became the focus of histori- ods of multiple disciplines, such as paleography, diplo- cal research. macy, sphragistics, and archeography. As scholars are Te present paper attempts to apply discourse analy- currently shifting their attention to the quantitative sis to the Khan’s edicts issued by Central Asian rulers to and qualitative analyses of historical sources, the inter- the cities of Sygnak, Sayram and Turkestan in the period disciplinary approach is becoming more popular than from 1400 to 1635. Te research subject is represented ever. Given the efort to discover new types of histori- precisely by the edicts of the Golden Horde (yarlyks) cal sources, there is a need to fnd appropriate methods written according to specifc canons [1]. for their analysis and interpretation. One of the most Research historiography. Te problem of edict trans- popular interdisciplinary felds of inquiry is discourse lation into Kazakh language was addressed in a large analysis. number of previous studies. Ibatov [1], who explored In modern historiology, a discursive approach previ- the written culture and clerical traditions of the Golden ously described by Hayden White is becoming increas- Horde, contributed eight translations, among them dip- ingly popular. Hayden White sought to conceptualize lomatic texts or bitiks, edicts, and texts of several seals. the linguistic dimension of historical writing. For this, he Turkish scientist A.N. Kurat was fruitfully engaged in drew his attention to fxed speech patterns and stylistic act research. He studied edicts and bitiks that Turk- nuances. According to him, an object of research gradu- ish khans received from the Khans of the Golden Horde ally becomes a subject of discourse [8]. Consequently, and the Crimea. Tese documents are now maintained speech patterns found in similar texts can be an object in the Topkapı Palace Museum [2]. A signifcant portion of discourse analysis. Trubina notes that the adjective of edict translations was from A. M. Özyetgin [3], who “poetic” used by Hayden White to describe the nature of focused on edicts of the Golden Horde, Crimean and historian’s work should be understood through the prism Kazan khanates. of the word “poiesis”, which means the process of making, Scientists from Tatarstan, Russia, and Uzbekistan production, and creation [9]. In White’s view, there is an were much more successful in exploring the world of element of poetry in every historical unit out there, and edicts. Aksanov [4], for example, provided comprehen- his Metahistory presents the analysis of rhetorical and sive insights into the patents of privileges of the Juchi narrative structures of historical writing [9]. Ulus, later known as the Golden Horde, dated back to Michel Foucault [10] defnes discourse analysis as a the XIV-XVI centuries. After many years of research that method of investigation through which various discur- he spent in archives, manuscript repositories and muse- sive formations can be explored, such as notions, objects, ums in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Kyiv, Odessa, and strategies, etc. Tis technique can help researchers iden- Simferopol, he found a huge array of edicts. Te author tify a connectedness between historical sources based analyzed 61 authentic nobility patents in Turkic language on specifc characters found within texts and trace the and introduced 53 references for other researchers to change of those characters over time. Te founder of this examine. Grigoryev [5] presented the structure analysis research feld, Émile Benveniste, drew a line between lan- of edicts from Mongolia, China, Central Asia and Iran, guage and speech (discourse) [11], which enables iden- which survived till now. Tese documents date back to tifcation of patterns of connectedness between phrases the XIII-XV centuries and are written in Mongolian, Chi- found within the same discourse. Te presence of the nese, Turkic, Persian and Arabic languages. Pochukayev same speech patterns, borrowed words, and expressions is a researcher notable for applying novel approaches to in historical text indicates the existence of certain events the study of edicts. He saw edicts enclosing the law of the or public institutions that lead to their appearance. In Golden Horde. Comparing edicts with similar legislative this connection, changes over time in the structure of the acts of other nations, such as institutions and proclama- edict should be considered systematically. tions of Roman emperors and capitularies, decrees, and Te past decade saw a growing interest in discourse bulls of European monarchs, the author distinguished investigation among researchers in various humanities certain trends in the national