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Orientalistic trend, which was closely linked to the research of Hungarian origins and seen as a patriotic endeavor, had wide-ranging consequences, including the wide-spread support of Oriental research. Hungarian Oriental Studies fused with nationalist ideas
The paper offers additions to Michael Knüppel’s bibliography from 2017 on the Hungarian Orientalist Ármin Vámbéry (1832–1913). Following Knüppel’s guidelines, the bibliographical entries are given in three sections: publications by Vámbéry himself, works about him, and finally reviews of his works.
Since the publication of Hammer-Purgstall’s path-breaking monograph (1840) on the history of the Golden Horde much has been written on this westernmost Tatar state, but some basic problems have remained unsolved ever since. One of the most obscure periods in the history of the Golden Horde is the twenty years’ anarchy (called bulqaq in Turkic) after Berdibek Khan’s death in 1359/60 (AH 761), lasting until 1380, the date of the establishment of Tokhtamish’s rule. With Berdibek’s death Batu’s line extinguished, and a cruel fight began among the Jochid families for the throne. Originally the western part of the Golden Horde (alias Right Wing or White Horde) was held by Batu’s house seated in Saray, and their jurisdiction nominally extended also to the eastern part of the Golden Horde (alias Left Wing or Blue Horde) where Batu’s elder brother Orda and his own successors sat on the khanal throne in Sığnaq. Practically they enjoyed total independence in matters of inner affairs, but had no coinage of their own. For long it was thought that the first eastern khan to mint coin in 770 AH (1369/70 AD) was Urus Khan, ancestor and predecessor of Girey and Jānibek, founders of the Kazak khanates in 875 AH (1470/1 AD).But some contradictory statements also appeared time and again as if a certain Mubārak-ḫoja was the first khan to mint coin in the east. Savel’ev and Markov published a few coins of Mubārak-ḫoja that were allegedly dated to 728 and 729 (perchance to 738 and 739). These dates contradicted our historical knowledge derived mainly from the Persian historian Naṇanzī’s narrative. But Jakubovskij, Safargaliev, and Ağat, bothered by the contradiction of the data, tried to reconcile the numismatic evidence with that of the written sources with no avail.The solution of the question lies in the exact date on Mubārak-ḫoja’s coins. The present paper refutes the former dates 728, 729 (or 738, 739), suggested by Savel’ev and others, as misinterpretations, and endeavours to prove that the correct dates are 768 and 769. This indisputable numismatic evidence of Mubārak-ḫoja’s coins enables us to reinterpret a whole chain of events and eradicate a number of inveterate misbeliefs. Above all, Mubārak-ḫoja minted his coins in 768 and 769 AH (07.09.1366–15.08.1368), i.e. forty years later than supposed hitherto by the majority of researchers. Now it becomes clear that Mubārak-ḫoja was the first khan to mint coins in the Blue Horde, as a sign of declaring independence in Sığnaq, capital of the Blue Horde. All this happened already during the period of the bulqaq , the great upheaval subsequent to Berdibek Khan’s death in 1259/60. Urus Khan then took over power in Sığnaq in 770 AH (1368/69), and from that time onwards the khanal mint in Sığnaq began to issue coins with a regular flow.
Through the analysis of two examples from the collection of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts (FHMEA), Budapest, this short paper proposes a possible background for what might be regarded as the most common type of Southern Iranian brassware of the 8th/14th century. The article argues that certain religious institutions, especially the shrine of Sheikh Abū Ishāq Kāzerūnī might have had a role in its evolution.
Summary
The subject of my paper concerns the iconography of the mysterious relief at Modena (Galleria Museo e Medagliere Estense, inv. 2676) showing a young god in a cosmic egg. The paper is to review the state of research in modern scholarship since 1863, to discuss various attempts at its interpretation, and to propose my own working hypothesis, which links the Modena relief to the Orphic Rhapsodies and the Middle-Platonic passage transmitted by Porphyry of Tyre in his The Cave of the Nymphs 21–29.
The article deals with the word koreš ‘close friend’ used in Russian cant. It comes from the Russian verb koreševat’sja ‘to greet each other friendly, to establish friendship and close relations’ that, in turn, has its origin in the Turkic verb körüš- ‘to see each other, to have an audience’. The diplomatic ceremony of koreševan’e ‘a kind of very close embrace’ was common in the Golden Horde and its successor states — the Khanates of the Crimea, Kazan and Astrakhan, the Noghay Horde and Muscovy, at least up to the end of the 16th century. Soon the word koreš (literally:’ a man participating in the ceremony of koreševan’e’) with the meaning ‘true and close friend’ was ejected to the sphere of Russian slang and acquired a secondary, alleged link with the Russian word koren’ ‘root’ as if it were its pseudo-diminutive form.
The “Genealogy of the Tatar Sovereigns” ( Rodoslovnaia tatarskikh tsarei ) preserved in various (official and private) genealogical books of the 16th–17th centuries is a unique and precious monument of both Tatar and Russian history. This text owes its existence to the lively interest of the Russian state in the inner relations of the declining Tatar states towards the middle of the 16th century. Its genesis cannot be disconnected from the Russian conquests of Kazan and Astrakhan. The bulk of the genealogies was compiled in the 1550s and based on Tatar sources. A critical analysis of these genealogies, comparing every piece of data with other contemporary (Russian and Oriental) sources, is a task yet to be accomplished, but the significance of these texts is beyond doubt. What I tried to do in this paper was to emphasise and analyse a few noteworthy aspects of this group of monuments.
