Turkology

Geographically, the sphere of interests of Turkologists extends from Yakutia in the far north to Cyprus in the southwest, from China in the east to the countries of the Middle East in the south.

The total number of Turkic peoples, ethnic groups and minorities in the world today reaches, according to various estimates, about 165 million people. About 20 million people speak one of the Turkic languages ​​as a second or third. However, such knowledge should not be confused with ethnicity. The earliest Turkic texts date from 600-800. n e.

The religion of the ancient Türks was Tengrism . Currently, different Turkic peoples practice different religions. The main religions are Islam , Christianity , Buddhism and indigenous religions. Most modern Turks are Sunni Muslims . The followers of Buddhism today remained only among the yellow Uyghurs and Tuvans . The Chuvash and Gagauz are mostly Orthodox Christians . Karaites profess Judaism .

25 Turkic peoples live in Russia (in total about 12 million people): Tatars (5 million 554 thousand), Bashkirs (1 million 673 thousand), Chuvashs (1 million 637 thousand), Kazakhs (653 thousand ), Azerbaijanis (621 thousand), Yakuts (443 thousand), Kumyks (422 thousand), Tuvans (243 thousand), Karachais (192 thousand), Uzbeks (122 thousand), Balkars (108 thousand) , Turks (92 thousand), Nogais (90 thousand), Khakasses (75 thousand), Altai (67 thousand), Turkmens (33 thousand), Kyrgyz (31 thousand), Shors (13 thousand), Gagauz (12 thousand), Dolgans (7261), Crimean Tatars (4131) , Uigurs (2867), Karakalpaks (1609), Tofalars (837), Karaites (366) ^[2] .

The number of Turkic languages is determined in different ways. Thus, in a collective monograph published by the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1966, 23 living languages ​​are indicated; in the manual of A. A. Reformed, 25 living and 7 dead languages; in the monograph of N. A. Baskakov, there are 27 living and 12 dead languages. In the latest collective monograph “Turkic Languages”, published by the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the series “World Languages” in 1997, 39 living and 15 dead Turkic languages ​​are noted. ^[3]

Due to its prevalence, cultural and practical significance, Turkish is often the first language to be studied by Turkic students.

In Russia, the training of student-Turkologists is conducted at MGIMO , ISAA , St. Petersburg State University , Moscow State Linguistic University , Russian State University for the Humanities , Iv RAS , Kazan State University , Chelyabinsk State University , Siberian Federal University and many other higher educational institutions. ^{[4] The} knowledge of expert Turkologists is in demand both in linguistics and culture, and in political science, journalism, sociology, statistics, anthropology, etc.

The most important sources for Turkology were the ancient Türkic runic inscriptions (the so-called Orkhon-Yenisei inscriptions ) of the 8th - 10th centuries and monuments written by the Old Uigur runes in the 8th- 16th centuries.

The first serious work on the Turkic languages ​​was the “ Collection of Turkic dialects ” ( Kitâbü divân-i lûgat it-Türk - Dictionary-reference book for various Turkic languages), compiled in the 11th century by a Kashgar Turkic scholar Mahmoud al-Kashgari .

In the XV - XVII centuries, the main direction of Turkology was the study of the Ottoman Empire and the Ottoman (Turkish) language .

In 1795, the first higher school in the Western world dedicated to the study of Turkic languages , the , ( L'école des langues Orienteles vivantes ) was opened in Paris .

The origin of Turkology in Russia is dated to the second half of the 18th century . Until that time, descriptions of Turks and Turks are found in Russian chronicles (for example, in The Tale of Bygone Years ) and in separate works (The Tale of Constantinople by Nestor Iskander ; treatises on the Turks of Ivan Peresvetov submitted to Ivan the Terrible ; Scythian History by Andrey Lyzlov ; two-volume History of Turkey Dmitry Kantemir and others.).

The lexicon of academician P. S. Pallas “Comparative dictionaries of all languages ​​and dialects” ( 1787 ), published in St. Petersburg , contains lexical material from the Tatar , Mishar , Nogai , Bashkir and other Turkic languages .

Until the mid- 19th century, Turkology developed as a complex discipline that studied Turkic languages , literary and historical monuments, partly numismatics , ethnography, and folklore of Turkic-speaking peoples.

In 1863, the Department of Oriental History was created at the Faculty of Oriental Languages ​​of St. Petersburg University , where the study of the history of Turkic peoples receives independent development.

In Russia, Turkology as an independent discipline formed in the second half of the 19th century. The studies of M. A. Kazembek (“Grammar of the Turkish-Tatar language ”, 1839), O. N. Betlingka (“Grammar of the Yakut language ”, 1851), P. M. Melioransky (“ Arabic philology ”) played a large role in its formation and development. about the Turkish language ”, 1900), A. N. Samoilovich (“ The experience of a brief Crimean Tatar grammar ”, 1916).

Russian scientists made a great contribution to the development of Turkology in the pre-October period: V.V. Radlov , I. Khalfin , K. Nasyri, Ch. C. Valikhanov , N.F. Katanov , H.-G. Gababy during the Soviet period - Turkologists who made a significant contribution to the development of world Turkology: V. A. Bogoroditsky , S. E. Malov , G. Kh. Akhatov , N. I. Ashmarin , N. A. Baskakov , N. K. Dmitriev , A.N. Kononov , E.R. Tenishev , L.Z. Zalyay , J. G. Kiekbaev , A.M. Shcherbak , M. Sh. Shiraliev and others. Considerable work was done to study dialects and dialects of Turkic languages , a grammatical system was developed, scientific grammars, phraseological dictionaries were published. Turkic lexicography was greatly developed: national-Russian and Russian-national multi-volume explanatory, as well as terminological, dialectological dictionaries were compiled and published. The achievement of Soviet Turkologists was also the creation of comparative phonetics and morphology and syntax of Turkic languages .

Problems of Turkology are also being developed in Bulgaria (G. Galybov, N. Todorov), Hungary (D. Nemeth, D. Hazam, A. Rona-Tash), Poland ( A. Zayonchkovsky , E. Tryyarsky), Turkey (R. Arat, B. Atalay , A. Dilachar), Germany (A. von Gaben, G. Dorfer), Sweden (G. Jarring, L. Johansson), USA ( C. G. Menges , P. B. Golden ) and other countries.

In the 30s and 40s of the 20th century, many prominent Turkic scientists in the USSR were repressed ^{[5] [6] [7]} . So, on false charges of espionage, Professor Chobanzade (1937) ^{[8] [9]} , Professor Polivanov (1938) ^{[10] [11]} , academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Samoilovich (1938) ^{[12] [13]} and many ^[14] others.

• Oriental Studies
• Ottoman studies
• Turki
• Turkic languages
• Pan-Turkism
• Altai languages

• Kononov A.N. History of the study of Turkic languages ​​in Russia: Pre-October period. - 2nd ed. - L .: Nauka, 1982.
• Kononov A.N. Biobibliographic Dictionary of Russian Turkologists: Pre-October Period. - 2nd ed., Revised. - M., 1989.
• Ashnin F. D. , Alpatov V. M. , Nasilov D. M. Repressed Turkology. - M .: "Eastern Literature" RAS, 2002. - 296, [8] p. - ISBN 5-02-018338-5 .
• Miliband S. D. Orientalists of Russia, XX - beginning of XXI century: Bibliographic dictionary: In 2 books. - M.: Eastern literature, 2008 .-- 968 p. + 1004 s. + 70 s. (add. and decree., 2009).

• Bibliography and references on Turkology
• Links to sites about Turkology
• Turkology on the site of the Tatar electronic library
• Kononov A. N. Turkology // Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary, M., 1990