Suchergebnisse

The purpose of the study is to determine the status of the Kypchak language in the political, social and intellectual history of Egypt during the period of Mamluks' rule.To clarify the situation, we have made an overview of the few primary and secondary sources that deal with the functioning of the Turks' language and the analysis of its role and place in the Egyptian medieval society from the historical, religious and cultural positions. Metaphorically, the Kypchak language was the barrier language separating the social group of former slaves from the local population of Egypt and providing the right to a special position, up to the possibility of occupying the highest office of power. It also helped not to dissolve in a much larger society of Egyptians and to maintain the identity, the main component of which it was. However, the dominance of the military caste of the Mamluks did not engender language conflicts in medieval Egypt. Despite the cultural differences between the social groups - the Turkic military elite and the bulk of the Egyptian population, the devaluation of local dialects and languages has not occurred. Moreover, the Mamluk rulers have even strengthened the status of the Classical Arabic by their strong support of the material and spiritual Islamic culture and infrastructure. However, the Kypchak language did not lose its positions remaining the language of communication not only of the Turks but also of the Türkicized Caucasian and Mongolian ethnic groups.We believe that the study of the language of the medieval Turkic world can be more productive if we include an interdisciplinary approach to the methodology of its study and not only Eastern but European sources as well. ; The purpose of the study is to determine the status of the Kypchak language in the political, social and intellectual history of Egypt during the period of Mamluks' rule.To clarify the situation, we have made an overview of the few primary and secondary sources that deal with the functioning of the Turks' language and the analysis of its role and place in the Egyptian medieval society from the historical, religious and cultural positions. Metaphorically, the Kypchak language was the barrier language separating the social group of former slaves from the local population of Egypt and providing the right to a special position, up to the possibility of occupying the highest office of power. It also helped not to dissolve in a much larger society of Egyptians and to maintain the identity, the main component of which it was. However, the dominance of the military caste of the Mamluks did not engender language conflicts in medieval Egypt. Despite the cultural differences between the social groups - the Turkic military elite and the bulk of the Egyptian population, the devaluation of local dialects and languages has not occurred. Moreover, the Mamluk rulers have even strengthened the status of the Classical Arabic by their strong support of the material and spiritual Islamic culture and infrastructure. However, the Kypchak language did not lose its positions remaining the language of communication not only of the Turks but also of the Türkicized Caucasian and Mongolian ethnic groups.We believe that the study of the language of the medieval Turkic world can be more productive if we include an interdisciplinary approach to the methodology of its study and not only Eastern but European sources as well.

To date there are many different hypotheses about the socio-ethnic background of Egyptian Mamluks. Lately, research has been taking place that only connects the ethnic origin of Mamluks who ruled the lands of Egypt and Syria during XIII-XV centuries and sultans of that era such as Baybars, Qalauin, Qaitabai to only a single present-day nation's history and that only connects the language of written medieval manuscripts of XIII–XV centuries, when Mamluks were in power, with only one present-day nation's language. In order to understand who were the Egyptian Mamluks and to clarify the ethnic composition of Kipchak and Circassian Mamluks attention should be paid to their language which is a component of the ethnic conception. And to figure out the language of the Mamluks who ruled Egypt and Syria during XIII-XV centuries a comprehensive study of the language of the manuscripts must be carried out. In our opinion, the ancient medieval manuscripts written in Kipchak language should be considered as a common heritage of all Turkic people. Taking into account, that language materials in ancient Kipchak language had been preserved in present day Kipchak language, we can say, that the written manuscripts in Mamluk-Kipchak language have a great role in research of social, ethnic, political-social, literary-cultural, total civilizational and linguistic histories of the modern Turkic people, particularly Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, Nogais, Tatars, Bashkirs, Qarays, Karachay-balkars, Kumyks, Crimean Tatars, Crimeans, Kyrgyz and people of the Altai of Kipchak group. DOI:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s1p575