Written Manuscripts in Ancient Kipchak Language of 13-15th Centuries and their Research Problems in Kazakhstan

Abstract

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