Medieval Kazakh History in Arab and Persian Sources

The relevance of this topic lies in the analysis of the study of medieval Kazakh history. After gaining independence, the processes of the revival of national identity, reinstatement of primitive spiritual and moral values and human mentality, which were sharply suppressed during the period of the Soviet totalitarian system, became widespread. Therewith, the widely discussed national-historical structure of the population, the knowledge of ethnic roots, the restoration of traditions and customs, which served as a connecting link, as well as the specificity and originality of the approach are of particular importance. Currently, the problem of objective reading, coverage, and popularisation of the ancient and medieval Kazakh history and culture is acute. By rejecting one-sided interpretations of historical events, established clichés require impartial, academic analysis based on evidence drawn from a wide range of sources. The purpose of this study is to identify the problems of the history of Kazakhstan in the 13th-14th centuries, the general laws of world historical development and the features of the historical process, folk traditions by using a scientific and systematic approach. Based on the systematisation and classification of data from the geographical and Arab historical records of the 13th-14th centuries, the analysis of written monuments is performed, their interdependence is established, and the degree of completeness and reliability of the data in the works of the narrative is determined in an integral system. Due to the scientific expeditions and research trips to Mongolia, China, and Germany, Kazakh orientalists analysed and performed the first systematic processing of archival materials and historical evidence of the early history of resettlement based on the ancient Turkic manuscript, ancient Indian, and Chinese sources that formed a picture of the proto and ancient history. For example, the features of stone figures give an idea of the military hierarchy, military operations, the settlement of ethnic groups (ethnogeography), the worldview of the Turks, etc.

О сочинении дорампа Игнен-Чоймпела «Почитание величественного Хан-Бархана: „Драгоценность-чинтамани, быстро исполняющая желания“»

Introduction. The article deals with the xylograph Tegüs čoγtu qan gbar-mkan-u takilγ-a küsel türgen qangγaγči čindamani erdeni kemegdekü orusiba (Worship of the majestic Khan-Barkhan: „Chintamani-treasure, quickly fulfilling desires“) by dorampa Ignen-Choimpel; the treatise is part of the collection kept in the Center of Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs of Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the RAS (Ulan-Ude). It aims to analyze the source along the following lines: i) to identify the author of the manuscript, ii) to transliterate the text and check the accuracy of its reading with a focus on its specific lexical features, iii) to identify the time and place of its compilation and publication, iv) to research similar works related to the cult of Mount Khan-Barkhan, and v) to examine the structure of the text and give a short description of its content. Methods and materials. The methodology of source studies, as well as the textological analysis used by the present researchers helped establish dorampa Ignen-Choimpel’s exceptional knowledge of Buddhist philosophy and of the Mongolian language. Comparative-historical, typological, and descriptive methods were instrumental in examining the transformation of the mountain worship ritual in the process of its historical development. Granted the role of mountains as an essential element in the worldview of many cultures, as well as the significance of the text for practices of Buryats of Barguzin region today, the present research is of much relevance. The article may be used as a source for studies of the factors influencing the current revival of the mountain cult and the present religious practices of the population in the region. Results. The text under study contains new data concerning the veneration of ezhins — host-spirits of local features such as mountains, the Barkhan mountain of Kurumkan region in Buryatia, in particular. Also, this is a piece of important historical evidence shedding light on the cultural and religious processes that took place among the Buryats in the 19th century. Conclusions. The research indicated the presence of syncretic elements in the text of the treatise, including borrowings of some shamanic traditional rituals associated with the mountain worship, as well as the presence of specific lexical elements such as archaic words and expressions. Importantly, Buddhist borrowings of shamanic deities and rituals familiar to the local Buryat people contributed to the promotion of Buddhism among the local population.

And the Rest is History: Measuring the Scope and Recall of Wikipedia’s Coverage of Three Women’s Movement Subgroups

Narrating history is perpetually contested, shaping and reshaping how nations and people understand both their pasts and the current moment. Measuring and evaluating the scope of histories is methodologically challenging. In this paper we provide a general approach and a specific method to measure historical recall. Operationalizing historical information as one or more word phrases, we use the phrase-mining RAKE algorithm on a collection of primary historical documents to extract first-person historical evidence, and then measure recall via phrases present on contemporary Wikipedia, taken to represent a publicly-accessible summary of existing knowledge on virtually any historical topic. We demonstrate this method using women's movements in the United States as a case study of a debated historical field. We found that issues important to working-class elements of the movement were less likely to be covered on Wikipedia compared to other subsections of the movement. Combining this method with a qualitative analysis of select articles, we identified a typology of mechanisms leading to historical omissions: paucity, restrictive paradigms, and categorical narrowness. Our approach, we conclude, can be used to both evaluate the recall of a body of history and to actively intervene in enlarging the scope of our histories and historical knowledge.

Further to the Pre-Muḥammadan Allāh

This article is concerned with the divinity of Allāh before Muḥammad. It is focussed on narrow and broad issues of method, and particularly on inferential evidence for the incidence and nature of this divinity on the evidence of Arabic poetry. It casts a critical look on retrojection Islamic theological concepts to the interpretation of earlier Arabic poetry, and proposes that the now common notion of “pagan monotheism” refers to no actually existing form of religious practice among pre-Muḥammadan Arabs. It reaffirms the salience of polytheism among the Arabs, and the pertinence of concrete historical evidence and of an anthropological sensibility in this domain. La présente étude porte sur une divinité nommée Allāh avant Muḥammad. Elle se concentre sur la question méthodologique des témoignages poétiques, sur l’envergure et la nature de cette divinité, et sur le contexte plus général des questions de méthode. Elle jette un regard critique sur la projection a posteriori des notions théologiques islamiques dans le cadre des analyses déductives fondées sur la matière poétique. Elle propose que l’idée, bien répandue dans des milieux universitaires, des « monothéistes païens » parmi les Arabes ne fait pas référence à la réalité historique des pratiques religieuses des Arabes avant Muḥammad. Elle souligne l’importance du polythéisme chez les Arabes et la pertinence décisive des données historiques concrètes et d’une sensibilité anthropologique dans ce domaine.

In Persona Christi Capitis: Agency Problems When God is the Principal

The in persona Christi Capitis doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church guarantees the validity of its sacraments, irrespective of the personal morality of the priest who performs them. While this protects their value as metacredence goods, it seemingly opens the door to opportunistic behaviour by the clergy. To balance out its institutional incentives, the Roman Catholic Church must rigorously screen its candidates for the priesthood. Historical evidence supports our hypothesis that the development of the in persona Christi Capitis doctrine was accompanied by marginal increases in the screening of seminarians, which may have been an optimal response to changing historical circumstances. Also consistent with our hypothesis, a cross section of contemporary Christian denominations shows a correlation between a group’s stance on sacramental theology and the strictness of its screening of candidates to religious ministry.

The Historian

This chapter focuses on the historian of philosophy. There is a certain amount of historical evidence in the case of philosophy, mainly in the form of texts, or rather copies thereof, but also of inscriptions or even of archaeological remains. The historian has to collect this evidence, evaluate it, and reconstruct, on its basis, a history which is sufficiently supported by it to make it difficult, if not impossible, to think of an equally plausible, or even more plausible, account that fits the evidence as well. The difficulty is not only that it has become a matter of considerable controversy whether there actually is one characteristic way in which historians ought to go about their business and which way this may be. It also should give one pause for thought that, in fact, general historians do not write history of philosophy. This suggests that the historiography of philosophy is not just a matter of applying the historical method to a particular history. Clearly, the most important point here is that it takes some special competence to write the history of a discipline. Having the competence of a contemporary philosopher allows one to tell which arguments are acceptable and which are not.

The Account and the Explanation of the Historical Development

This chapter explores the account and the explanation of the historical development of philosophy. It was only at the end of the eighteenth century that this development itself became the focus of attention, and thus the phrase ‘history of philosophy’ came to take on the now familiar meaning of an account of the historical development of philosophy from its beginning to the present day. What characterizes the historian’s approach to the historical development of philosophy is that they refuse to resort to such philosophical assumptions about philosophy, about history, and about the history of philosophy to understand and to explain this historical development. The historian tries to understand and to explain it, as well as it can be explained, purely in terms of historical facts, facts which can be ascertained on the basis of the available historical evidence. Meanwhile, if one is concerned with the factual development of philosophy, one should focus on the fact that sometimes, when a philosopher does something, this affects other philosophers, who take notice of what he or she is doing in such a way that, as a result of their taking note of what the philosopher is doing, they modify their way of thinking about things philosophically, which, in turn, might make some difference to the further course of the history of philosophy. In this way, later philosophical activity is shaped or influenced by earlier activity.

Working Under the Myth of the Black Rapist

Chapter 5 posits that the journey for Black boys adopting anti-violent perspectives is substantially different than that of their White peers because they must operate under negative tropes about their propensity for aggression: There is a belief that Black men have a special propensity for forcefully acting out their sexual desires on women. “The myth of the Black rapist” is identified as a term, and the author provides contemporary and historical evidence of its existence. Examples can be found in the criminal justice system and pornography. Chapter 5 reminds readers that caution in initiating sexual activity is an appropriate standard and closes with a challenge that Black men overcome historical stereotypes by becoming recognized advocates for anti-violence.

Old Burmese weights were not opium weights. They were weights. What else do we know about them? | ရှေးဟောင်းမြန်မာ့အလေးများသည် ဘိန်းချိန်သည့်အလေးများမဟုတ်ပါ၊ အချနိ ်အတွယ်အလေးများသာ ဖြစ်သည်။ ယင်းတို့အကြောင်း ဘာတွေများ သိရပါသနည်း။

Bronze weights from Myanmar (old Burma) are popularly but incorrectly identified as “opium weights”. This paper examines the historical evidence for a system of weights and measures in old Burma going back to the 11th to 14th century Bagan period. It also examines the challenge to Southeast Asian archaeology, history and museology posed by the popular “Angel Weights” website and Facebook pages, which claim that a hoard of bronzes and associated documentation kept in a so-far undisclosed location represents a hitherto unknown collection of weights that date back to the Bagan and 14th to 16th century First Ava periods. This (so far) private curatorship of alleged historical data presents a dilemma: how does an academic deal with data that is available only on the internet, presented only from the viewpoint of its owners? မြန်မာပြည် (ယခင်ဗမာပြည်)မှ ကြေးရုပ်အလေးများကို လူသိများလှသော်လည်း ဘိန်းချိန် အလေးများဟူ၍ လွဲမှားစွာ ဖွင့်ဆိုလေ့ရှိသည်။ ယခုစာတမ်းမှာ အေဒီ(၁၁)ရာစုမှ (၁၄)ရာစု ရှေးခေတ် မြန်မာပြည် ပုဂံခေတ်ကာလတွင် သုံးစွဲခဲ့သော အလေးချိန်စနစ်တစ်ခုအတွက် သမိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ အထောက်အထားများကို လေ့လာရှာဖွေရန်ဖြစ်သည်။ အလားတူပင် အရှေ့တောင်အာရှ ရှေးဟောင်း သုတေသန၊ သမိုင်းနှင့် ပြတိုက်ဆိုင်ရာ ကြေးထည်ပစ္စည်းများနှင့် ဆက်စပ်အထောက်အထားများကို ယင်းတို့၏ မူရင်းနေရာ အတိအကျ မသိရှိဘဲ ပုဂံခေတ်မှ အေဒီ(၁၄_၁၆) ရာစု အင်းဝခေတ်တို့နှင့် သက်ဆိုင်သည့် ကြေးထည်ပစ္စည်းနှင့် အလေးများဟူ၍ “နတ်ရုပ်အလေးများ” ကွန်ယက်နှင့် ဖေ့စ်ဘုတ် လူမှုကွန်ယက်စာမျက်နှာများတွင် လူသိထင်ရှားဖော်ပြ ထားခြင်းတို့အပေါ် စောဒကတက်စရာရှိသည် များကို စစ်ဆေးလေ့လာသွားရန်လည်းဖြစ်သည်။ ဤသို့ (ဖော်ပြထားသည့်) ကိုယ်ပိုင်ပြသမှု များမှ သမိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ အချက်အလက် များကို လိုသလို သုံးစွဲနေမှုများသည်-“ပစ္စည်းပိုင်ရှင်တို့၏ အထင် အမြင်ဖြင့်သာ ဖော်ပြထားသည့် အင်တာနက် တွင်သာရနိုင်သော အချက်အလက်များနှင့် ပညာရပ်ဆိုင်ရာ လေ့လာမှုတို့မည်ကဲ့သို့ ဆက်စပ်နိုင်ကြ မည်နည်း”ဟူသော အကြပ်အတည်းတစ်ခုကိုလည်း ဖော်ပြ လျက်ရှိသည်။

THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD AND THE QURAN

Based on an independent analysis of artifacts, ancestral tree and astronomical phenomena related to the deeds, life and death of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as historical evidence of the first appearance and legal use of the Quran in the life of Muslims, the author drew conclusions about the integration of several historical figures of the VII and XII centuries into the personality of the Prophet Muhammad. They became Khagan Kubrat, aka Emperor Heraclius, the Arabian Prophet or Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphs and the true Prophet Muhammad, who lived in 1090–1052. The Quran was created in 1130–1152. The proposed interpretation does not undermine the canons of the faith of Islam, but establishes the truth.