The ?abdan Baat?r Codex: Epic and the Writing of Northern Kirghiz History

by Musa Chagataev (Contribution by)

Overview

In The Šabdan Baatır Codex, Daniel Prior presents the first complete edition, translation, and interpretation of a unique manuscript of early twentieth-century Kirghiz poetry, which includes detailed accounts of nineteenth-century warfare. Dedicated to the chief Šabdan Baatır, the Codex occupies an illuminating position in a network of oral and written genres that encompassed epic poetry and genealogy, panegyric and steppe oral historiography; that echoed oral performance and aspired to print publishing. The Codex’s fresh articulation of concepts of Kirghiz self-identification was incipiently national, yet remained couched in traditional forms. The Codex thus bridges the interval, often glossed over in cultural histories, between a supposedly archaic state of oral epic tradition and the “afterlife” of epics in modern ethno-nationalist projects.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789004230408
Publisher:	Brill Academic Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/15/2012
Series:	Brill's Inner Asian Library , #28
Pages:	470
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 6.50(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Daniel Prior, Ph.D. (2002), Indiana University, is Assistant Professor of History at Miami University. His publications include The Semetey of Kenje Kara: A Kirghiz Epic Performance on Phonograph (Harrassowitz, 2006).

Musa Chagataev (fl. ca. 1910), was the main author of the Codex.
Belek Soltonoev, d. 1938 (scribe).
Shabdan Dzhantaev, ca. 1839 - 1912 (patron).

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgments ix

A Note on Spelling xiii

Introduction

General Introduction 3

The Raid on the Qalmaqs 55

The Story of Kenesari 71

The Inface and Postface 83

The Poem of Saint Sanci 87

The Manuscript and the Edition 91

Table of Equivalents in the Edition 99

Text and Translation

I The Raid on the Qalmaqs 104

II Inface 146

III The Story of Kenesari 148

IV Postface 156

V The Poem of Saint Sanci 158

Commentary

Notes on the Text 165

The Raid on the Qalmaqs 253

The Story of Kenesan 281

The Poem of Saint Sanci 291

General Commentary 307

Appendices

A Authorship, Date, Patronage, and Copying of the Codex 325

B Qahgul Q on Kenesan's Incursion of 1846 332

C Qahgul R on Kenesan's Incursion of 1846 344

D Bala Ayilci on Kenesari's Incursion of 1846 347

E Iakov Mikhailovskii on the Buddhist Monastery at Sümbe 348

F Nikolai Aristov on the Raid on the Qalmaqs in 1864 359

G Belek Soltonoyev on the Raid on the Qalmaqs in 1864 361

H Vsevolod Roborovskii on the Yulduz Valley 363

Maps 365

Genealogical Chart 370

Bibliography 373

Index 401

Facsimile 417

Editorial Reviews

'Dr Prior in fact deals with his subject with extreme thoroughness. Not only does this book include a complete facsimile of the manuscript, it also contains a transcription into Roman script of the full text in the original language, with a translation and extensive commentary. A quite lengthy introduction gives the background to its text and its contents, including very useful information about the complex history of eastern Central Asia during the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, (...) He has dealt very thoroughly with the ms and produced an impressive work of very high quality.'
Stephen G. Haw, independent Mongolist, The Central Asiatic Journal, 56 (2013)

From the Publisher