ÿþ<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <meta name="Author" content="Vassil Karloukovski"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0"> <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document"> <title>Hudud al-'Alam - 52 - Commentary of V. Minorsky</title> </head> <body> <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <b><font size=+1>Hudud al-'Alam, The Regions of the World</font></b> <br><b>V. Minorsky</b> <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>462&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Commentary</i>&nbsp;&nbsp; §52 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><b>§ 52. Burdhs (?).</b> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Chwolson, <i>Izvestiya ... Ibn Dasta</i>, pp. 71-80; Bretschneider, <i>Mediaeval Researches</i>, i, 311 (on Mongol times); I. N. Smirnov, <i>Les Populations finnoises</i>, i/2: les Mordves, traduit par P. Boyer, Paris 1898; A. V. Markov, <i>Russo-Mordvan relations in history</i> (in Russian), Tiflis 1914 (in annex Toumansky&#39;s translation of our § 52); Barthold, <i>Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s</font></i><font face="Palatino Linotype"> in <i>EI</i>; <i>Finno-Ugorskiy sbornik</i>, ed. by the Academy of the U.S.S.R., 1926. See <b>Map xii.</b> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Although according to Persian phonetics&nbsp;<img SRC="462_1.jpg" height=19 width=14 align=ABSBOTTOM> in&nbsp;<img SRC="462_2.jpg" height=24 width=48 align=ABSBOTTOM> is consistent with an intervocalic position, the first&nbsp;<img SRC="462_3.jpg" height=20 width=11 align=ABSBOTTOM> appears superfluous in view of&nbsp;<img SRC="462_4a.jpg" height=25 width=44 align=ABSBOTTOM>, in I.R., 140, and Gard+z+, and&nbsp;<img SRC="462_4b.jpg" height=24 width=44 align=ABSBOTTOM> in Bakr+. All these spellings point to a special tradition to which also belongs the form&nbsp;<img SRC="462_5.jpg" height=25 width=43 align=ABSBOTTOM> (§ 51) instead of&nbsp;<img SRC="462_6.jpg" height=23 width=39 align=ABSBOTTOM>. The usual Arabic transcription of the name is&nbsp;<img SRC="462_7.jpg" height=23 width=47 align=ABSBOTTOM> which is found in Mas'kd+, <i>Murkj</i>, ii, 14, Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., I.H</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., as well as in our source (rightly [?] in the chapter on the rivers, § 6, 43., but wrongly in § 51). The form Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s is confirmed both by Russian chronicles (under A.D. 1380) and official documents (seventeenth century), as well as by the still extant names of places in the region to the south of the middle course of the Volga. Marquart, <i>Arktische Länder</i>, p. 277, explains Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s from old Iranian *<i>mrtsa</i> "man-eater". <a href="#462 1.">[1]</a> On the other hand A. V. Markov confronts the name with the Finnish word meaning bridge (<i>puurdas</i>, <i>pordas</i>, purte, &amp;c., which also is of Iranian origin, cf. Avestan <i>pYrYtu</i>, Kurdish <i>purd</i>) and Bakr+'s alternate spelling <i>Furds</i> would be in favour of the original form *<i>Purdas</i> if only we could believe in the independent character of Bakr+'s form which may be due to a mere misspelling, cf. <i>supra</i>, pp. 458-9. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">I. Rusta, 140, places the Burds between the Khazar and Bulkr at 15 days from the former and at 3 days from the latter and adds that their territory was 17 days by 17 days (<i>ibid</i>., 141). Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 227, reckons 20 days from the Khazar capital to the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s boundary, adding that the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s country was 15 days long. In the description of the Volga Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 222, says that after its bend to the east (read: <i>south-east</i>) it "flows past the Rks, then Bulghr, then Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s". <a href="#462 2.">[2]</a> Mas'kd+, Murkj, ii, 14, in a confused passage speaks of a Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s river which from the upper regions flows into the river on which the Khazar capital stands (<i>nahrun fauq al-mad+na yas</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">ibbu il nahri-h min a'l+-h yuqlu la-h Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s</i>). This river could be taken either for the upper course of the Volga itself, or the Don (supposing that it was considered as an affluent of the Volga, cf. § 3, 8.), or the Oka, but in the <i>Tanb+h</i>, 62, Mas'kd+ aggravates his statement by saying that "into the Khazar river . . . flows the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s river. The Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s are a great nation of Turks [?] living between the lands of Khuwrizm [?] and the Khazar king- <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="462 1."></a><font size=-1><b>1.</b> Already Tomaschek, <i> Kritik d. ältesten Nachrichten über d. skytischen Norden</i>, in <i>Sitzungsb. Wien. Akad.</i>, 1889, t. 107, pp. 7-16, suggested an identification of the Herodotian&nbsp;<img SRC="462_8.jpg" height=20 width=95 align=ABSBOTTOM> with the Mordva whose name he compared with the old Persian&nbsp;<img SRC="462_9.jpg" height=19 width=91 align=ABSBOTTOM> commented in Greek as&nbsp;<img SRC="462_10.jpg" height=19 width=90 align=ABSBOTTOM>.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="462 2."></a><font size=-1><b>2.</b> A rigorous interpretation of this text would indicate that Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s lay downstream from Bulghr (both these names in Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 222, stand without article).</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>§ 52&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Buradhas</i>&nbsp;&nbsp; 463 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">dom and depending on the Khazar. This [?] river is navigated by large vessels (carrying) various merchandise from the Khuwrizm lands and other places. From the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s (country) are exported black foxes which are the best of furs, &amp;c." The passage must be full of confusion. No other authority mentions the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s in the direction of Khwrazm and such a position in the steppes would entirely contradict the possibility of export of furs. As regards the river the text seems to refer simply to the Volga. No waterway [except the Yay<img SRC="i_k.jpg" height=17 width=8 align=ABSBOTTOM>q?] could be utilized for trade from Khwrazm to the Khazar country and, judging by Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.'s indications, one would think that by some mistake Mas'kd+ has substituted <i>Khuwrizm</i> for *<i>Bulghr</i>. Of all the sources the&nbsp;H</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.-'. (§ 52) most positively locates the Burdhs to the west of the&nbsp;til river (§ 6, 43. which simply follows Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 222, is less clear). </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">The fact that the Pechenegs are mentioned as the northern neighbours of the Burdhs suggests that the Pechenegs occupied some territory on the right bank of the Volga between the Burdhs and Rks. I.R., 140, Bakr+, 44, and Gard+z+, 96, say only that struggles were going on between the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s and the Pechenegs and, moreover, speak of the Pechenegs as neighbours of the Slavs. <a href="#463 1.">[1]</a> On the western neighbours of the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s cf. notes to § 53 and diagram on p. 440. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Generally speaking our chapter on the Burdhs drastically abridges the source used by I. Rusta and Gard+z+ and omits many details. The item about the two kings seems to be a misunderstanding. I. Rusta says that the Burds have no chief (<i>ra'+s</i>) but "in every community of theirs (<i>mah</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">alla</i>) there is an elder (<i>shaykh</i>), or two (<i>shaykhayn</i>) to whom they have recourse in the matters which happen to them" (ditto in Gard+z+). The religion is described as in I.R. and Gard+z+, and the burning of the dead as in I.R. <a href="#463 2.">[2]</a> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Since Frähn&#39;s time the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s have been usually identified with the Finnish Mordva who, as long as we have known them, have lived between the Oka and Volga. Their remnants (since 20.xii.1934 organized into an autonomous republic with the centre at Saransk) are still found in the same region. Two tribes compose the Mordva people: the <i>Moksha</i> in the basin of the Moksha river which flows to the Oka from the east and of which the southernmost head-water is still called Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s, and the <i>Erz'a</i> in the basin of the Sura which flows to the Volga to the east of the Oka.<a href="#463 3."> [3]</a> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Rubruquis who travelled in A.D. 1253 writes, ed. Paris 1839, pp. 251-2: </font> <blockquote><font face="Palatino Linotype">"Ad aquilonem [from the Don region] sunt silve (<i>sic</i>) maxime quas habitant duo genera hominum: <i>Moxel</i>, scilicet qui sunt sine lege, puri pagani. Civitatem non habent. Habundant apud eos porci, mel et cera, pelles preciose et falcones. Post istos sunt alii qui dicuntur <i>Merdas</i> quos Latini vocant <i>Merdinis</i> et sunt Saraceni. Post istos est Etilia [Volga]."</font></blockquote> <font face="Palatino Linotype">The des- <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="463 1."></a><font size=-1><b>1.</b> This latter fact, as bearing on the location of the Pechenegs, already attracted Marquart's attention in <i>Komanen</i>, 98.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="463 2."></a><font size=-1><b>2.</b> Several tombs of the L'ada mound situated in the Mordva region (on the Saratov-Tambov railway) show traces of cremation of the dead, see I. X. Smirnov, <i>o.c.</i>, 249-50.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="463 3."></a><font size=-1><b>3.</b> Location rough. The emigration of the Mordva to the east of the Volga dates only from the 17th-18th century.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>464&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Commentary</i>&nbsp;&nbsp; § 52 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">cription proceeds west to east: <i>Moxel</i> stands for <i>Mokaa-ley</i> (many Mordvan names are composed with <i>ley</i> "river"). The <i>Merdini</i> (<i>Mordvini</i>) are evidently the eastern <i>Erz'a </i>but the difficult point is the name <i>Merdas</i> which Rubruquis applies to the latter. Is it a deformation of <i>Mordva</i>, or of <i>Burtas</i>? In the latter case the term <i>Merdas</i> ( &lt; <i>Burtas</i>?) would be applied to a region outside the basin to which the river presently called Burtas belongs. It is more probable that <i>Merdas</i> is meant to be a form of <i>Mordva</i>, which name down to the sixteenth century referred only to the Erz'a. Markov to whom we owe this latter remark says in conclusion, <i>o.c.</i>, 19, that the names <i>Burtas</i> (tenth century), <i>Mea era</i> (eleventh century), and <i>Moxel</i> (thirteenth century) equally refer to the eastern-Finnish ancestors <a href="#464 1.">[1]</a> of the present-day Moksha occupying the Moksha basin (inclusive of the rivers Tsna and Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s). [The mention of the Mea era is doubtful.] </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">The identification <i>Burtas</i> = <i>Mordva</i> (or better <i>Moksha</i>) still meets with some opposition. I. N. Smirnov, <i>o.c.</i>, 271, gave expression to the following views: &quot;i. que les Burtas sont un peuple différent des Mordves; 2. que jusqu&#39;au X<sup>e</sup> siècle au moins ils ont occupé la rive gauche de la Volga; 3. qu&#39;au XVI<sup>e</sup> siècle ils occupent la rive droite de ce même fleuve, tout près des Mordves.&quot; He thinks then, <i>ibid</i>., 270, that "les Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s seraient des Tchouvaches ou du moins de très proches parents des Tchouvaches&quot;. This theory, so far as Arabic sources go, attaches too much importance to the passage from the <i>Tanb+h</i> (<i>v.s.</i>), and on the other hand forgets that according to Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 225, the language of the Bulghr (of which Chuvash is at present considered to be a survival) was different from that of the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s. However, even lately Prof. M. Vasmer kindly wrote to me (Berlin, 7.xi.32) that the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s must be distinguished from the Mordva, and that, judging by the toponymy of the Volga region, they formerly lived to the north of the Mordva. He finally adds that such was also the view of the late Prof. A. A. Shakhmatov ("ich hatte den Eindruck, dass auch er bereit war, die Burtas von den Mordven zu trennen"). I must confess that I do not quite see the point of the argument about the toponymy, for the Burtas river flowing into the Tsna is the southernmost source of the Moksha river; of the other names quoted in Smirnov, <i>o.c.</i>, 266-70, the <i>Burtas</i> of Kadom and the village of <i>Burtas<img SRC="i_k.jpg" height=17 width=8 align=ABSBOTTOM></i> of Krasnoslobodsk both belong to the Moksha basin. Therefore, as regards the tenth-century Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s, <a href="#464 2.">[2]</a> I think that their identity with the Moksha is to be retained. The Arab sources may reflect a temporary supremacy of that particular clan, or it may be that the latter first came under the notice of Muslim travellers. It is only natural that the numerous and sturdy Mordva people (even now, after long series of invasions and struggles, counting over 1 million representatives) could not fail to be mentioned by the Arabs. The details on the forests (I.R., 140; <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="464 1."></a><font size=-1><b>1.</b> And as a corollary the identification of Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.'s&nbsp;<img SRC="464_1.jpg" height=20 width=23 align=ABSBOTTOM> (<i>v.s.</i>, §44, 3.) with <i>Erz'a</i> would become impossible.</font></font><font face="Palatino Linotype"> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="464 2."></a><font size=-1><b>2.</b> In later times (after the 13th century) there may have been some movements of the population obscuring the situation. In the seventeenth century some "Burtas" are called "Tatar", <i>i.e. Muslims</i> (?), cf. Smirnov, <i>o.c.</i>, 266.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>§§ 52-3&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Buradhas</i>&nbsp;&nbsp; 465 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><i>wa hum f+ mashjir</i>), <a href="#465 1.">[1]</a> the honey, and the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s+ furs suit the Mordva quite well. The travellers like Rubruquis and Herberstein quite particularly insist on these details. <a href="#465 2.">[2]</a> The freedom enjoyed by the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s women (I.R. and Gard+z+) in the choice of their lovers can be traced down to recent times in the habits of the Mordva, cf. Smirnov, <i>o.c.</i>, 337, who speaks of the &quot;liberté des moeurs des garçons et des filles&quot;. <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="465 1."></a><font size=-1><b>1.</b> The <i>kh.l.nj</i> (<i>kh.l.ng</i>) trees abounding in the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s forests, I.R., 141, have been compared by Chwolson with Mordvan <i>kileng</i> "birch" (the Chuvash form for "birch" <i>khorin</i> does not resemble the Arabic word).</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="465 2."></a><font size=-1><b>2.</b> The only puzzling detail is that according to I.R. the Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s possessed camels and cows.</font> <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">[<a href="hud_52.html">Previous</a>] [<a href="hud_53.html">Next</a>] <br>[<a href="index.html">Back to Index</a>] </font> </body> </html>