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Murad ADJI
THE KIPCHAKS and
THE OGUZ
A Medieval History of the Turkic People and
the Great Steppe
A Handbook for Schoolchildren and Their
Parents
Moscow
Ex oriente lux -
"Light comes from the East"…
...and transforms the world
Introduction
From the 4th century on, the Greeks and their Church
determined European policy. Church patriarchs set its
course. They would do anything, so long as they could
control the Mediterranean - so long as they could rise
in stature. But how?
How does a scholarly theologian gain renown?
How does one raise the stature of the Church?
Through their deeds and knowledge. However, the
Greeks lacked both of these. The Greek Church lived
under the patronage of the Imperial Court. It was part
of the state and a lever of power; no more. It had been
this way since the time of the Emperor Constantine,
and would continue to be forever.
Like Rome, the Greek Church demanded no
ideological questing. It did not have to worry about
itself, the health of society, or the nation's future. This
was done by the secular authorities. The Church was
merely another crown - a decoration for the Emperor.
The contented Greek patriarchs feared anything
new; neither did they want to hear about any Catholic
doctrine. They watched out for themselves - change of
any kind frightened them. However, the only real
constant in life is change. It is always unexpected.
Change, of course, did come to the Mediterranean.
It could not help but come, along with the Great
Migration of the Peoples.
Priests from Derbent were the first Kipchaks to
arrive. They were both horsemen and holy men. With
their help, the Caucasus became the spiritual well-
spring of Syria, Palestine, Egypt and North Africa.
Word of the omnipotent God of Heaven spread
swiftly. People began to hear a new word: Tengri.
Who were these priests - Turkis? Or were they
perhaps of some other nationality? We do not know.
However, it was they who brought the faith of the
God of Heaven to these lands. It was they who opened
the pagans' eyes, who spent many long hours winning
them over. Finally, it was they who buried their
leaders in ceremonial mounds, along with their horses
and weapons - just as was the custom in the Altai. The
royal burial mounds in North Africa have become
longed-for finds for modern archaeologists.
Are the geographic names in which the name of
Tengri can be discerned mere accidents? He was
called Dongar or Dangri in Abyssinia, the Sudan and
Egypt. From these flowed the Blue, or Heavenly,
Nile. Surprising, isn't it?
The burial mound finds confirm that the word
Kipchak was once synonymous with the word holy in
the Near East. The new culture of the Dark Ages was
not planted here with the sword, but through the Word
of God. It was brought by the priests from Derbent.
Islam
The Koran
Sultan Mahmud
The alien Oguz quickly got the upper hand over the
Caliphate's provinces, turning them into subjected
frogs.
Arabic soon displaced all other languages. It was a
peculiar blend of languages, very far from the
language of the Koran. In Egypt, it was not spoken
quite the same way that it was in Syria or on the
Arabian Peninsula. Although they all spoke Arabic,
people sometimes understood each other poorly.
Things did not stop there. The Moslems began to
invent for themselves an Arab genesis. The rulers
adopted such laws so that the different nations would
forever forget the past and become immersed in
ignorance - a kind of jahiliya. In the Near East, a
genuine tragedy was being played out: the Moslem
was, so to speak, being forced to be "born again". Out
of the throes of this process, a new people "came into
the world".
Everything happened exactly the way it had in
Europe. The same volcano in which other people's
cultures had melded was still bubbling. The Turkis
stood both here and at the wells of misfortune. In
assigning to them the role of creators, Heaven had
apparently decided that this should be so.
Dissent
The Crusades
Genghis Khan
The Inquisition
Did everything turn out all right for the Turkic world?
Hardly. The rays of hope flared up, then died out. Its
woes returned with Batu. There is even a saying:
"After a rise comes a fall; after a high place, one that
is low." This is how life is. Genghis Khan was a
genius; his descendants were not. They betrayed the
faith of their fathers and lost everything.
Batu dreamed of becoming Orthodox; his brother
Berke, of becoming a Moslem. Khubilai wanted to be
a Buddhist; Mamai, a Catholic. Their enemies
corrupted their souls. The great victories of Genghis
Khan ended up completely negated. Moreover, the
Turkis themselves forgot about them.
One cannot doubt God. Doubt is death.
Faith in the Golden Horde was shaken just a bit, and
its unity disappeared. It was at that moment that the
nation died, all by itself. No one actually defeated it,
no one pushed it over a precipice.
This is how the Horde fell in China:
Khubilai became a Buddhist in his old age, and took
the Chinese name Shu-tsu. In Chinese, his dynasty
was called the Yuan. Khubilai did not retain even the
spirit of the Turkis in China: he made Genghis Khan a
Chinese national hero.
The Chinese now revere their beloved Khubilai. They
remember how he sowed the backyard of his palace
with sage-brush from the steppe. And, pointing at a
tiny meadow that had appeared between two stone
walls, he told his children in Chinese, "This is the
grass of humility. As you look at it, remember your
ancestors."
In the Turkic world, the Dark Ages ended with
humility.
***
Pages 8 and 11
Michel Colombe, "St. George and the Dragon."
Marble relief. 1508-1509. Louvre, Paris. The theme of
St. George's battle with the dragon entered the art of
Western Europe only around the 13th century, when,
by will of the Church, St. George became the patron
saint of knighthood. Earlier, he was not portrayed as a
mounted dragon-slayer.
Page 9
Mounted archer. Decoration from a saddle. Bronze.
7th-8th centuries. Khakassia.
Page 10
Horseman. Detail from an altar. Bronze. 4th-2nd
centuries BC. Kazakhstan.
Pages 12-13
Portrait of a man. Vessel from Kafyr-Kaly. Ceramic.
6th century. Uzbekistan.
Pages 14-15
Attacking Romans (tracing). Column of Marcus
Aurelius. Rome. Note the Romans' clothing and
weapons, their helmets, and their military tactics.
These were uniquely theirs.
Battle between steppe dwellers and the Romans.
Fragment from a relief on Trajan's Column. Rome.
Once again, the two armies could be distinguished by
their military garb, as the artist showed.
Pages 16-17
Defeated Britons. Relief from Antonine's Wall (built
during the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius in
Scotland. 2nd century. Here, too, the clothing of the
vanquished says a great deal.
Pages 18-19
Sculpture from the St. Nicholas Catholic Church in
Prague. The Christian Archbishop Cyril is slaying
Hypathia, the woman scholar, for her adherence to
ancient science and paganism.
Pages 20-21
Scenes from circus performance. Fragment from a
diptych. 5th century. Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
Pages 22-23
Ancient door-handle hammer from Italy. 15th century.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg. Such door-handles could
be found in virtually every Turkic home in the
Ancient Altai. They remain unchanged to the present
day.
Pages 24-25
Falcon-shaped clasp. 5th century. German National
Museum, Nuremburg. An example of the jewellery
produced in the Great Steppe. Such works have often
been found in the burial mounds of the Don and the
Dnieper, where the secrets of jewellery-making were
mastered. Such finds from Ukraine and Russia are
now kept in a special vault in the Hermitage; this
particular clasp was found in Italy.
Pages 26-27
Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, interior
view. 5th century.
Pages 28-29
"The Port in Ravenna." Mosaic from the Basilica of
Sant' Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna. 6th century.
This port was built by the Turkis for the Empire's new
capital. The city, surrounded by mountains and
marshes, had no access to dry land. Its road to the
outside world began just outside gates to the sea.
Pages 30-31
Baptistery in Ravenna, built by Turkic craftsmen in
the 5th century. This is where those local inhabitants
and Kipchaks who wanted to become Christians were
baptized. This was done according to Altaic tradition,
with each person being submerged three times.
Pages 32-33
Visored helmet. British Museum, London. Its owner
is now unknown. There are various opinions on this
point, except the Turkic. However, it is obviously the
helmet of a knight in the service of the Khan (a
gentile) - or, more likely, of the Khan himself.
Pages 34-35
Piero della Francesca. Fragment from a fresco inside
the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo. 15th century.
Pages 36-37
Baltea of Aosta. Detail. 2nd century.
Pages 38-39
Panorama of Hradcany Castle in Prague - a typical
example of Medieval Gothic.
Pages 40-41
Fragment from the Diptych of Areobind. Ivory. 506.
Judging by the symbolism, the descendants of the first
generation of Latin Turkis are depicted here. This is
the way they looked: not yet Europeans, but no longer
steppe dwellers.
Page 43
Detail from a medieval church, built in the Gothic
style. Turkic temple architecture was the basis for the
Christian style of building; many of Europe's
architectural masterpieces are executed in this mode.
These include Cologne Cathedral in Germany,
Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, the Houses of
Parliament in Brussels, and Westminster Abbey in
England.
Pages 44-45
Bas-relief. 5th century. Egypt. Two guardian spirits
with the wreath and cross of Tengri - which by this
time had already become a symbol of Near Eastern
culture.
Page 47
The world's oldest icon. 4th century. Egypt. It is
commonly thought that Christ and St. Mena are
depicted here; it is to the latter that the Ancient Turkic
word apa (priest) refers. However, the first depictions
of Christ appeared only in the 7th century, after the
Council in Trullo. Consequently, Bishop Mena
accepted Christianity not from the hand of Christ but
from that of Tengri, whose image graced all the
world's icons in the Dark Ages.
Sample of a Coptic letter. Fragment of a manuscript
from Nag Hammadi. Papyrus. 4th century. These
"characters" were written by an unskilled hand;
certain of them are reminiscent of runes. Obviously,
the Egyptians were at this time just beginning to
master the new way of writing, and the language of
the new faith.
Pages 48-49
Archbishop Cyril's Dispute with a Pagan. Passage
from an unknown work. Limestone fragment. 7th
century. Egyptian Collection and Papyruses, Berlin.
Yet another example of very expressive Coptic letters.
Pages 50-51
"SS. Anthony and Paul." Coptic icon. Fragment. 17th
century. The traditions of Coptic icon painting have
not changed for centuries. It is instructive that the
episode this icon depicts is one from the period of
Egypt's baptism. Nothing had changed in a thousand
years.
Pages 52-53
Mary with the Infant. Fragment of a sculpture in an
Austrian church. 16th century.
Pages 54-55
Pietro Perugino, "Madonna with the Infant." 16th
century. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. An
example of the "new" icon art: an Infant with neither a
halo nor the sign of Tengri, and a Madonna with other
facial features. Earlier, the sign of Tengri over the
Infant signified that he was the "God's gift".
Everything given by the Almighty was considered by
the Turkis to be "God's gift". The Infant in the arms of
Umai was also a symbol of giving. Knowing about
these changes, one can understand the sense of what,
at first glance, appears to be the senseless arguments
at the Ephesus and other church councils: when
talking about Umai, the Christians argued over what
she should be called, and how she should be related to
Christ.
Page 56
Hassock with Christian symbols. Wood. 587. Saint-
Benoit-sur-Loire. Saint Croix Abbey, near Poitiers.
Pages 58-59
St. Benedict of Nursia. Miniature from the
Martyrology at the Abbey of the Holy Sepulchre,
Cambrai. Cheekbones, the cast of one's eyes, the type
of one's face, and the proportions of one's body can
tell a great deal about a person. That Benedict of
Nursia came from Turkic stock is obvious. The Saint's
face and deeds make this clear.
Page 60
"Pilgrims." Drawing from "The Life of St. Jadwiga."
19th-century lithograph.
Page 62
The chateau at Azay-le-Rideau on the Indre River,
France. Swans were the castle's guardian spirits.
Every home, every clan had its own protector keeping
watch over it. This was the origin of yet another
Kipchak name - the Kuman, or "Swan People", as
they were called in Europe.
Pages 64-65
Writing angel. 1210. In Ancient Greece and Rome,
poets were unacquainted with rhythm; their poems
were non-rhythmic. The tradition of rhyming lines
came to Europe from the Altai. From ancient times,
the Turkis were masters of the word; they knew how
to make lines rhyme at the beginning, the middle, or
the end of a poem. Their poems were simply
marvellous. A Kipchak who converted to Christianity,
Ambrosius (Ambrose) Mediolanensis (d. 397), has
been called Europe's first poet. He wrote hymns to
order for the Church.
Pages 66-67
Spears. 16th to 18th centuries. Germany.
Double stairway, executed in the Gothic style. 1499.
Austria.
Monastic scribe. Miniature. 16th century.
Pages 68-69
Feast of a count during the Carolingian Period (8th to
10th centuries). 19th-century reconstruction.
Page 71
Tombstone. Cathedral in Frankfurt-am-Main. Stone.
14th century. A mixed marriage is about to take place:
the groom is a Kipchak in European dress, but his
beard has been divided into two, in the Eastern
manner. His bride wears a brooch - an heirloom of his
clan.
Pages 72-73
Horsemen and archers on board a ship. Fragment of
embroidery from the Bayeux Tapestry. 11th century.
Bayeux Cathedral. The famous Bayeux Tapestry is
embroidered with many different threads. It contains
72 scenes from the Norman Conquest of England in
1066. The Tapestry was ordered by Queen Matilda,
the wife of William the Conqueror, to commemorate
the campaign. Under Napoleon, the Tapestry was
exhibited in Paris in 1803, as both a work of art and a
historical document. It is now kept in Bayeux.
Pages 74-75
Pair of lovers. From a medieval miniature. 13th
century. Paris.
Pages 76-77
Embarkation of troops. Fragment of embroidery from
the Bayeux Tapestry. 11th century. Bayeux Cathedral.
Pages 78-79
Snow leopard. Miniature from the "Bestiary".
Parchment. 12th century. Oxford. How could the
English have known about the Altai leopard? How
could they have made it their guardian spirit? This is
clearly one of the mysteries of History - or is it?
Pages 80-81
Hunting with a golden eagle in Kyrgyzstan.
Pages 82-83
Lustrous tiles from Kashan. Some of these have been
dated to 1267. Louvre, Paris.
Pages 84-85
Mausoleum at the Mameluk cemetery near Cairo.
15th-16th centuries. Turkic architecture acquired a
new face in the East, too. There were the same domes
and the same octagons, but the details were already
different from those in Europe and in the Great
Steppe. The symbolism was also different.
Page 87
Mohammed's ascension into Heaven. Miniature from
Jami's manuscript Yusuf and Zulaikha. 16th century.
Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences Institute of Oriental
Studies, Tashkent.
Pages 88-89
Map of the Maverannakhr ("that which lies beyond
the river", that is, beyond the Amu-Darya) area.
Compiled in the 10th century by the geographer Ibn
Khaukal. The Turkis had begun to study geography
while still in the Altai; there are rock paintings there
that contain geographical information. Also well-
known are the star charts of the Altai's ancient
inhabitants. Unfortunately, they remain almost
completely unstudied. No one so far has made the
effort.
Pages 90 and 93
Prayer hall of the Sidi-Okba Mosque in Kayruan. 9th
century.
Pages 94-95
The Prophet kneeling. Wood. 1520. Collection of
West European Sculpture, Berlin. No one now
remembers that inhabitants of Spain, southern France,
and parts of Italy practised Islam in the Dark and
Middle Ages; they called themselves allies and co-
religionists of the Catholics. This is how European
Moslems saw the Prophet Mohammed - in Turkic
dress.
Statue of King Gagik Bagratuni from Ani. 11th
century. Armenia. During the Dark and Middle Ages,
Turkic clothing was fashionable not only in European
countries, but in the Near East as well. Even in
Armenia, kings wore the turban and the caftan in the
Turkic manner.
Pages 96-97
Church of John the Baptist in the village of Dyakovo,
near Moscow. 16th century. Once again, the octagon -
a Turkic architectural tradition. No further words are
needed. This is real History, without any falsification.
Pages 98-99
Holiday procession. Miniature from al-Hariri's
manuscript "Maqamat" (published in English as "The
Assemblies of al-Hariri"). 1237. National Library,
Paris.
Pages 100-101
Frieze from the facade of Mshatta Castle. Fragment.
Carved stone. 743. Museum of Islamic Nations' Art,
Berlin.
Pages 102-103
Graphic reconstruction of the temple in the village of
Lekit. 5th to 6th centuries. Azerbaijan.
Pages 104-105
Medieval tower in Baku.
Pages 106-107
Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech (also spelled
Marrakesh). Built in the 12th century.
Page 109
Phases of the Moon. Drawing from al-Biruni's work
on astronomy. Al-Biruni was not just a great
astronomer, but an expert on different nations as well.
In his tract "On the Stations of the Moon", he wrote:
"The Arabs are an illiterate people; they cannot write
or count. They accept only that which they see with
their own eyes, since they know no other way of
study." The great Turki's mathematical calculations
were incomprehensible to them. This observation of
his referred to the inhabitants of Arabia, who - five
centuries after the adoption of Islam - remained as
uneducated as before.
Pages 110-111
Representation of the constellation Ophiuchus, the
Serpent-holder. Drawing from the star catalogue of
Abdarrakhman as-Sufi. 10th century.
Page 112
Part of a destroyed Coptic church. Egypt.
Pages 114-115
Zebu-shaped water vessel, the so-called Shirvan water
vessel. Bronze. 1206. Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
Page 116
Iskandar visits a hermit. Detail of a miniature from the
Nizami manuscript "Khamseh" ("The Quintuplet").
1543. Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of
Oriental Studies Manuscript Collection, St.
Petersburg.
Pages 120-121
Greek fire. Detail of a miniature. 14th century.
Pages 122-123
Belvedere Courtyard in the Vatican. Overall view.
Begun in 1505.
Pages 124-125
Members of a monastic order. Miniature from a
French book. 14th century. National Library, Paris.
On the chest of each monk is an order - the Turkic
mark of distinction which became a part of European
culture.
Pages 128-129
Pillaging. Miniature from "A French Chronicle". 15th
century. National Library, Paris.
Pages 130-131
Middleton Cross. Stonecarving. 10th century.
Yorkshire, England.
Pages 132-133
Scenes from the life of Sigurd. Woodcarving. 12th
century.
Pages 134-135
Baleen plate, topped with two horses' heads. Found in
Norway. 9th century. British Museum, London.
Page 136
Map with a route to America (Vinland) and runic
inscriptions. c. 16th century. This is not the actual
map, but a copy. Found by chance at the archbishop's
estate in Esztergom, on the banks of the Danube, it
was in the private collection of Guzsa Sepesi, the
director of the city's museum. The original map
vanished mysteriously in the archives of the Vatican.
Pages 138-139
Letter "P" from a medieval manuscript. 12th century.
Animals devouring one another was a favourite motif
of the Altai. This has long been a point of dispute for
European archaeologists. It is curious indeed that this
motif is encountered only where the descendants of
the Kipchaks lived.
Page 140
Pilgrims. Detail from a portal in Autun Cathedral,
Burgundy. Stone. 12th century. In the Middle Ages,
pilgrims from different countries understood one
another quite well: they essentially spoke one
language. This was sometimes called "Barbaric" or
"Vulgate"; more often, it was known as "the Divine
Tongue". This was Turkic speech. It was introduced
into European culture at the end of the 4th century by
Hieronymus, a Kipchak - one of the first to settle in
the Western Roman Empire. It was he who created the
script that was to take the place of runes. Today, this
script is known as the Glagolitic alphabet.
Hieronymus translated the Holy Book of the
Christians - the Bible - into the "national language".
Pages 142-143
Knights board ship to embark on the Crusade.
Miniature from the manuscript "Statute of the Naples
Order of the Holy Ghost". 14th century.
Pages 144-145
Taking of Antioch. The First Crusade. Miniature from
a medieval manuscript.
Pages 146-147
The ceremonial of dubbing. Miniature from the
Oxford Codex.
Pages 148-149
Crusaders battling Moslems. Stained-glass window
from the Abbey of St. Denis. 12th century.
Pages 150-151
Charles the Great. From a mozaic portait. 9th century.
Pages 152-153
St. George and the Dragon. Detail of a fresco from a
church in Staraya Ladoga. This is a very rare
monument of the Middle Ages: it shows the changes
to the biography of St. George. It is as though two
motifs have been blended into one on the icon: the old
and the new. The priest has become a warrior; he is on
horseback, but, as before, he is not killing the dragon.
That which is new always takes some time to crowd
the old out of people's memory.
Pages 154-155
The dombra, queen of musical instruments, in a
Kazakh yurt.
Pages 156-157
Knights' tournament. From Duke Wilhelm IV's "A
Book of Tournaments". 16th century. State Library,
Munich.
Pages 158-159
"Electing the Emperor". Drawing from the manuscript
"The Codex of Baldwin of Trier". Provincial
Archives, Koblenz. A coronation would seem to be a
common scene in art. Before the arrival of the Turkis,
however, the monarchs of Europe did not wear
crowns. Diadems were worn on the heads of the
Roman emperors (see the bust of Julian on p. 25); this
was something altogether different.
Page 160
Crusaders battling Egyptian forces. From a stained-
glass window at the Abbey of St. Denis. 12th century.
Pages 162-163
Taking of Antioch by the Crusaders. Stained-glass
window in the Abbey of St. Denis. 12th century.
Pages 164-165
Fortress in Khertvisi. 10th-14th centuries. Georgia.
Pages 166-167
Monarch at a hunt. Detail from an engraved cup from
Mosul. Bronze. c. 1300. Museum of Islamic Nations'
Art, Berlin.
Pages 168-169
Travellers in the mountains. Landscape in the Li
Chao-tao style. Fragment of a scroll. Paint on paper.
7th-8th centuries. At one time in the Gugong Museum
Collection, Beijing.
Page 170
Statuette of a woman. Figure from a Chinese tomb.
Terracotta. 7th-10th centuries. British Museum,
London.
Page 173
Sample of a Uighur letter. Fragment from the
manuscript "A Biography of Hsuan-tsang". 11th
century. Manuscript Collection, Russian Academy of
Sciences' Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg.
Pages 174-175
Siege of a Chinese fortress by the warriors of Genghis
Khan. Detail of a miniature.
The taking of Samarkand by the warriors of Genghis
Khan. Miniature from a Chagatai manuscript. 16th
century.
Pages 176-177
Pisanello (?). "Portrait of Sigismund of Luxembourg".
Parchment on wood, tempera. 1430. Art History
Museum, Vienna. The art of the Middle Ages is up to
this time a mystery, one that is distinguished by an
expressive artistic language. Scholars do not know
what kind of style this is - a style that was followed all
over Europe. Where did it come from? It has been
dubbed International Gothic. It is said that it had no
native land, and belonged to no one in particular. Is
this really true? Is it by accident that identical art,
sometimes separated by great distances, has been
found in Turkic lands - Flanders, Lombardy,
Burgundy, Tuscany, Catalonia, England, the banks of
the Rhine, and the lands of present-day Austria,
Hungary, Germany, Bohemia and Moravia? This is
not even a complete geographical listing. Where were
the fountainheads of such especially soft and elegant
painting? In the Altai, of course, among the Turkis.
Pages 178-179
Ruins of the ancient city of Bulgar. 10th-14th
centuries. Tatarstan.
Pages 180-181
St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. Detail. 11th century.
The cathedral's architecture does not merely remind
one of the exteriors of the temples of ancient Bulgar;
it duplicates them exactly. They were obviously
created by artisans from one school of building - the
school of the Great Steppe.
Pages 182-183
Black Palace in the ancient city of Bulgar. 10th-14th
centuries. Tatarstan.
Pages 184-185
People of Galitsko-Volynskaya Rus fleeing to the
Mongols. Miniature from a Hungarian chronicle.
1488. Two centuries after these events, a new
"history" of Rus would start to be written: legends
would appear about the horrors of tribute; then about
the "Tatar-Mongol yoke".
Page 187
Our Lady of Vladimir. Detail of the icon . Tretyakov
Gallery, Moscow.
Pages 188-189
Fragment from the sculptured decoration of the
Cathedral of St. Dmitry. Vladimir. 1194. This
cathedral is one of the oldest in Russia. It is a subject
of dispute among architects. In their opinion, the
building duplicates the churches of Dark Ages
Lombardy, which were identical to temples built by
Turkic artisans in both the Transcaucasus and Europe.
The resemblance is beyond question. They do not,
however, recognise Turkic architecture in Russia.
They continue to argue without knowing that in the
19th century, the Frenchman Viollet-le-Duc
"travelled" all the way to the Altai in his research, and
told the world about Turkic temple architecture.
Another scholar, the Austrian Jozef Strzygowski,
wrote a unique work on the history of iconography,
which also, as it turns out, began in the Altai.
Pages 190-191
"Massacre on the Ice in 1242." Detail of a miniature
from "An Illuminated Chronicle of the Codex". 16th
century.
Page 192
Gothic arch of an interior staircase for horsemen,
leading into the Vladislav Hall. Detail. Sobeslav
Palace, Prague.
Pages 194-195
Horrors of the Inquisition. Drawing from Samuel
Clark's book "A Martyrology".
Pages 196-197
Street in Vienna.
Pages 198-199
Burning heretics in Paris. Miniature. 13th century.
Pages 200-201
University of Salamanca. Facade. 1515. Spain.
Pages 202-203
Fortress tower in Beijing. It has been rebuilt many
times. 15th-17th centuries.
Pages 204-205
Hans Baldung. "Wild Horses." 1534.
Page 206
Hans Baldung. "The Enchanted Groom." 1544.
Page 215
Hunting with hawks. Detail of a French casket. Bone.
14th century. Metropolitan Museum, New York.
Cover:
Crusader in a hauberk. Miniature from a book. 13th
century. British Museum, London.
Back fly-leaf:
Mahmoud Pakhlavan's Complex in Khiva. Majolica.
14th century.
Horsemen:
like the designs of the Altai,
they have become a symbol
of medieval Europe as well.
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Murad ADJI
THE KIPCHAKS and
THE OGUZ
A Medieval History of the Turkic People and
the Great Steppe
A Handbook for Schoolchildren and Their
Parents
Moscow
Introduction
Europe and the Turkis
Customs of Ancient Rome
Katylik Means Ally
The New Romans
Europe after Attila
The Near East and the Turkis
The Robber Synod and Other Assemblies
Pope Gregory the Great
The Catholic Turkis
The Anglo-Saxon Campaigns
The English Kipchaks
Islam
The Koran
The Signs of Islam
Sultan Mahmud
The Turkic Caliphate
On the Eve of Great Changes
Dissent
The New Europeans
The Crusades
Gentiles and Knights
The Seljuk Turkis
Genghis Khan
The Sulde of Genghis Khan
The Yoke That Never Was
The Inquisition
The Descendants of Genghis Khan
List of Illustrations and Commentary
Ex oriente lux -
"Light comes from the East"…
...and transforms the world
Introduction
From the 4th century on, the Greeks and their Church
determined European policy. Church patriarchs set its
course. They would do anything, so long as they could
control the Mediterranean - so long as they could rise
in stature. But how?
How does a scholarly theologian gain renown?
How does one raise the stature of the Church?
Through their deeds and knowledge. However, the
Greeks lacked both of these. The Greek Church lived
under the patronage of the Imperial Court. It was part
of the state and a lever of power; no more. It had been
this way since the time of the Emperor Constantine,
and would continue to be forever.
Like Rome, the Greek Church demanded no
ideological questing. It did not have to worry about
itself, the health of society, or the nation's future. This
was done by the secular authorities. The Church was
merely another crown - a decoration for the Emperor.
The contented Greek patriarchs feared anything
new; neither did they want to hear about any Catholic
doctrine. They watched out for themselves - change of
any kind frightened them. However, the only real
constant in life is change. It is always unexpected.
Change, of course, did come to the Mediterranean.
It could not help but come, along with the Great
Migration of the Peoples.
Priests from Derbent were the first Kipchaks to
arrive. They were both horsemen and holy men. With
their help, the Caucasus became the spiritual well-
spring of Syria, Palestine, Egypt and North Africa.
Word of the omnipotent God of Heaven spread
swiftly. People began to hear a new word: Tengri.
Who were these priests - Turkis? Or were they
perhaps of some other nationality? We do not know.
However, it was they who brought the faith of the
God of Heaven to these lands. It was they who opened
the pagans' eyes, who spent many long hours winning
them over. Finally, it was they who buried their
leaders in ceremonial mounds, along with their horses
and weapons - just as was the custom in the Altai. The
royal burial mounds in North Africa have become
longed-for finds for modern archaeologists.
Are the geographic names in which the name of
Tengri can be discerned mere accidents? He was
called Dongar or Dangri in Abyssinia, the Sudan and
Egypt. From these flowed the Blue, or Heavenly,
Nile. Surprising, isn't it?
The burial mound finds confirm that the word
Kipchak was once synonymous with the word holy in
the Near East. The new culture of the Dark Ages was
not planted here with the sword, but through the Word
of God. It was brought by the priests from Derbent.
Islam
The Koran
Sultan Mahmud
The alien Oguz quickly got the upper hand over the
Caliphate's provinces, turning them into subjected
frogs.
Arabic soon displaced all other languages. It was a
peculiar blend of languages, very far from the
language of the Koran. In Egypt, it was not spoken
quite the same way that it was in Syria or on the
Arabian Peninsula. Although they all spoke Arabic,
people sometimes understood each other poorly.
Things did not stop there. The Moslems began to
invent for themselves an Arab genesis. The rulers
adopted such laws so that the different nations would
forever forget the past and become immersed in
ignorance - a kind of jahiliya. In the Near East, a
genuine tragedy was being played out: the Moslem
was, so to speak, being forced to be "born again". Out
of the throes of this process, a new people "came into
the world".
Everything happened exactly the way it had in
Europe. The same volcano in which other people's
cultures had melded was still bubbling. The Turkis
stood both here and at the wells of misfortune. In
assigning to them the role of creators, Heaven had
apparently decided that this should be so.
The Caliphate's rulers tossed their own into the mouth
of the volcano first - the Turkis. They understood that
they were creating a country not for Turkis, but for all
the peoples of the East. They saw their own wisdom
reflected in this.
In breaking down their identity, they were readying
themselves for victory over the Byzantines. They
needed a strong state. It still did not exist, since there
was no unity among the people. The rulers, therefore,
laid themselves out.
The old dynasty that had been overthrown never
risked making this great sacrifice, and were, therefore,
unable to hang onto the Caliphate. Under it, the power
of the Moslems was slipping away, like water into
sand. They began fighting one another for leadership
of the Moslem world. Revolts, wars, sects, arguments
- people could see that these were not strengthening
the country. Just the opposite: they were destroying it.
The Oguz immediately brought peace for all.
However, the new rulers forgot the ancient wisdom of
the Altai: "Rearing a stranger won't give you a son."
Despite enormous sacrifices, they still did not create a
new people. The Arab world would forever remain
one of disputes and struggles for leadership. The
Moslems would not be unified even a thousand years
later.
Dissent
The Crusades
Genghis Khan
The Inquisition
Did everything turn out all right for the Turkic world?
Hardly. The rays of hope flared up, then died out. Its
woes returned with Batu. There is even a saying:
"After a rise comes a fall; after a high place, one that
is low." This is how life is. Genghis Khan was a
genius; his descendants were not. They betrayed the
faith of their fathers and lost everything.
Batu dreamed of becoming Orthodox; his brother
Berke, of becoming a Moslem. Khubilai wanted to be
a Buddhist; Mamai, a Catholic. Their enemies
corrupted their souls. The great victories of Genghis
Khan ended up completely negated. Moreover, the
Turkis themselves forgot about them.
One cannot doubt God. Doubt is death.
Faith in the Golden Horde was shaken just a bit, and
its unity disappeared. It was at that moment that the
nation died, all by itself. No one actually defeated it,
no one pushed it over a precipice.
This is how the Horde fell in China:
Khubilai became a Buddhist in his old age, and took
the Chinese name Shu-tsu. In Chinese, his dynasty
was called the Yuan. Khubilai did not retain even the
spirit of the Turkis in China: he made Genghis Khan a
Chinese national hero.
The Chinese now revere their beloved Khubilai. They
remember how he sowed the backyard of his palace
with sage-brush from the steppe. And, pointing at a
tiny meadow that had appeared between two stone
walls, he told his children in Chinese, "This is the
grass of humility. As you look at it, remember your
ancestors."
In the Turkic world, the Dark Ages ended with
humility.
***
Pages 8 and 11
Michel Colombe, "St. George and the Dragon."
Marble relief. 1508-1509. Louvre, Paris. The theme of
St. George's battle with the dragon entered the art of
Western Europe only around the 13th century, when,
by will of the Church, St. George became the patron
saint of knighthood. Earlier, he was not portrayed as a
mounted dragon-slayer.
Page 9
Mounted archer. Decoration from a saddle. Bronze.
7th-8th centuries. Khakassia.
Page 10
Horseman. Detail from an altar. Bronze. 4th-2nd
centuries BC. Kazakhstan.
Pages 12-13
Portrait of a man. Vessel from Kafyr-Kaly. Ceramic.
6th century. Uzbekistan.
Pages 14-15
Attacking Romans (tracing). Column of Marcus
Aurelius. Rome. Note the Romans' clothing and
weapons, their helmets, and their military tactics.
These were uniquely theirs.
Pages 16-17
Defeated Britons. Relief from Antonine's Wall (built
during the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius in
Scotland. 2nd century. Here, too, the clothing of the
vanquished says a great deal.
Pages 18-19
Sculpture from the St. Nicholas Catholic Church in
Prague. The Christian Archbishop Cyril is slaying
Hypathia, the woman scholar, for her adherence to
ancient science and paganism.
Pages 20-21
Scenes from circus performance. Fragment from a
diptych. 5th century. Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
Pages 22-23
Ancient door-handle hammer from Italy. 15th century.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg. Such door-handles could
be found in virtually every Turkic home in the
Ancient Altai. They remain unchanged to the present
day.
Pages 24-25
Falcon-shaped clasp. 5th century. German National
Museum, Nuremburg. An example of the jewellery
produced in the Great Steppe. Such works have often
been found in the burial mounds of the Don and the
Dnieper, where the secrets of jewellery-making were
mastered. Such finds from Ukraine and Russia are
now kept in a special vault in the Hermitage; this
particular clasp was found in Italy.
Pages 28-29
"The Port in Ravenna." Mosaic from the Basilica of
Sant' Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna. 6th century.
This port was built by the Turkis for the Empire's new
capital. The city, surrounded by mountains and
marshes, had no access to dry land. Its road to the
outside world began just outside gates to the sea.
Pages 30-31
Baptistery in Ravenna, built by Turkic craftsmen in
the 5th century. This is where those local inhabitants
and Kipchaks who wanted to become Christians were
baptized. This was done according to Altaic tradition,
with each person being submerged three times.
Pages 32-33
Visored helmet. British Museum, London. Its owner
is now unknown. There are various opinions on this
point, except the Turkic. However, it is obviously the
helmet of a knight in the service of the Khan (a
gentile) - or, more likely, of the Khan himself.
Pages 34-35
Piero della Francesca. Fragment from a fresco inside
the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo. 15th century.
Pages 36-37
Baltea of Aosta. Detail. 2nd century.
Pages 38-39
Panorama of Hradcany Castle in Prague - a typical
example of Medieval Gothic.
Pages 40-41
Fragment from the Diptych of Areobind. Ivory. 506.
Judging by the symbolism, the descendants of the first
generation of Latin Turkis are depicted here. This is
the way they looked: not yet Europeans, but no longer
steppe dwellers.
Page 43
Detail from a medieval church, built in the Gothic
style. Turkic temple architecture was the basis for the
Christian style of building; many of Europe's
architectural masterpieces are executed in this mode.
These include Cologne Cathedral in Germany,
Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, the Houses of
Parliament in Brussels, and Westminster Abbey in
England.
Pages 44-45
Bas-relief. 5th century. Egypt. Two guardian spirits
with the wreath and cross of Tengri - which by this
time had already become a symbol of Near Eastern
culture.
Page 47
The world's oldest icon. 4th century. Egypt. It is
commonly thought that Christ and St. Mena are
depicted here; it is to the latter that the Ancient Turkic
word apa (priest) refers. However, the first depictions
of Christ appeared only in the 7th century, after the
Council in Trullo. Consequently, Bishop Mena
accepted Christianity not from the hand of Christ but
from that of Tengri, whose image graced all the
world's icons in the Dark Ages.
Pages 48-49
Archbishop Cyril's Dispute with a Pagan. Passage
from an unknown work. Limestone fragment. 7th
century. Egyptian Collection and Papyruses, Berlin.
Yet another example of very expressive Coptic letters.
Pages 50-51
"SS. Anthony and Paul." Coptic icon. Fragment. 17th
century. The traditions of Coptic icon painting have
not changed for centuries. It is instructive that the
episode this icon depicts is one from the period of
Egypt's baptism. Nothing had changed in a thousand
years.
Pages 52-53
Mary with the Infant. Fragment of a sculpture in an
Austrian church. 16th century.
Pages 54-55
Pietro Perugino, "Madonna with the Infant." 16th
century. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. An
example of the "new" icon art: an Infant with neither a
halo nor the sign of Tengri, and a Madonna with other
facial features. Earlier, the sign of Tengri over the
Infant signified that he was the "God's gift".
Everything given by the Almighty was considered by
the Turkis to be "God's gift". The Infant in the arms of
Umai was also a symbol of giving. Knowing about
these changes, one can understand the sense of what,
at first glance, appears to be the senseless arguments
at the Ephesus and other church councils: when
talking about Umai, the Christians argued over what
she should be called, and how she should be related to
Christ.
Page 56
Hassock with Christian symbols. Wood. 587. Saint-
Benoit-sur-Loire. Saint Croix Abbey, near Poitiers.
Pages 58-59
St. Benedict of Nursia. Miniature from the
Martyrology at the Abbey of the Holy Sepulchre,
Cambrai. Cheekbones, the cast of one's eyes, the type
of one's face, and the proportions of one's body can
tell a great deal about a person. That Benedict of
Nursia came from Turkic stock is obvious. The Saint's
face and deeds make this clear.
Page 62
The chateau at Azay-le-Rideau on the Indre River,
France. Swans were the castle's guardian spirits.
Every home, every clan had its own protector keeping
watch over it. This was the origin of yet another
Kipchak name - the Kuman, or "Swan People", as
they were called in Europe.
Pages 64-65
Writing angel. 1210. In Ancient Greece and Rome,
poets were unacquainted with rhythm; their poems
were non-rhythmic. The tradition of rhyming lines
came to Europe from the Altai. From ancient times,
the Turkis were masters of the word; they knew how
to make lines rhyme at the beginning, the middle, or
the end of a poem. Their poems were simply
marvellous. A Kipchak who converted to Christianity,
Ambrosius (Ambrose) Mediolanensis (d. 397), has
been called Europe's first poet. He wrote hymns to
order for the Church.
Pages 66-67
Spears. 16th to 18th centuries. Germany.
Double stairway, executed in the Gothic style. 1499.
Austria.
Monastic scribe. Miniature. 16th century.
Pages 68-69
Feast of a count during the Carolingian Period (8th to
10th centuries). 19th-century reconstruction.
Page 71
Tombstone. Cathedral in Frankfurt-am-Main. Stone.
14th century. A mixed marriage is about to take place:
the groom is a Kipchak in European dress, but his
beard has been divided into two, in the Eastern
manner. His bride wears a brooch - an heirloom of his
clan.
Pages 72-73
Horsemen and archers on board a ship. Fragment of
embroidery from the Bayeux Tapestry. 11th century.
Bayeux Cathedral. The famous Bayeux Tapestry is
embroidered with many different threads. It contains
72 scenes from the Norman Conquest of England in
1066. The Tapestry was ordered by Queen Matilda,
the wife of William the Conqueror, to commemorate
the campaign. Under Napoleon, the Tapestry was
exhibited in Paris in 1803, as both a work of art and a
historical document. It is now kept in Bayeux.
Pages 74-75
Pair of lovers. From a medieval miniature. 13th
century. Paris.
Pages 76-77
Embarkation of troops. Fragment of embroidery from
the Bayeux Tapestry. 11th century. Bayeux Cathedral.
Pages 78-79
Snow leopard. Miniature from the "Bestiary".
Parchment. 12th century. Oxford. How could the
English have known about the Altai leopard? How
could they have made it their guardian spirit? This is
clearly one of the mysteries of History - or is it?
Pages 80-81
Hunting with a golden eagle in Kyrgyzstan.
Pages 84-85
Mausoleum at the Mameluk cemetery near Cairo.
15th-16th centuries. Turkic architecture acquired a
new face in the East, too. There were the same domes
and the same octagons, but the details were already
different from those in Europe and in the Great
Steppe. The symbolism was also different.
Page 87
Mohammed's ascension into Heaven. Miniature from
Jami's manuscript Yusuf and Zulaikha. 16th century.
Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences Institute of Oriental
Studies, Tashkent.
Pages 88-89
Map of the Maverannakhr ("that which lies beyond
the river", that is, beyond the Amu-Darya) area.
Compiled in the 10th century by the geographer Ibn
Khaukal. The Turkis had begun to study geography
while still in the Altai; there are rock paintings there
that contain geographical information. Also well-
known are the star charts of the Altai's ancient
inhabitants. Unfortunately, they remain almost
completely unstudied. No one so far has made the
effort.
Mausoleum of the Sultan Tekesh, founder of the
Khorezmshakh Dynasty, in Kunya-Urench. 13th
century.
Pages 90 and 93
Prayer hall of the Sidi-Okba Mosque in Kayruan. 9th
century.
Pages 94-95
The Prophet kneeling. Wood. 1520. Collection of
West European Sculpture, Berlin. No one now
remembers that inhabitants of Spain, southern France,
and parts of Italy practised Islam in the Dark and
Middle Ages; they called themselves allies and co-
religionists of the Catholics. This is how European
Moslems saw the Prophet Mohammed - in Turkic
dress.
Pages 96-97
Church of John the Baptist in the village of Dyakovo,
near Moscow. 16th century. Once again, the octagon -
a Turkic architectural tradition. No further words are
needed. This is real History, without any falsification.
Pages 98-99
Holiday procession. Miniature from al-Hariri's
manuscript "Maqamat" (published in English as "The
Assemblies of al-Hariri"). 1237. National Library,
Paris.
Pages 100-101
Frieze from the facade of Mshatta Castle. Fragment.
Carved stone. 743. Museum of Islamic Nations' Art,
Berlin.
Pages 102-103
Graphic reconstruction of the temple in the village of
Lekit. 5th to 6th centuries. Azerbaijan.
Pages 104-105
Medieval tower in Baku.
Pages 106-107
Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech (also spelled
Marrakesh). Built in the 12th century.
Page 109
Phases of the Moon. Drawing from al-Biruni's work
on astronomy. Al-Biruni was not just a great
astronomer, but an expert on different nations as well.
In his tract "On the Stations of the Moon", he wrote:
"The Arabs are an illiterate people; they cannot write
or count. They accept only that which they see with
their own eyes, since they know no other way of
study." The great Turki's mathematical calculations
were incomprehensible to them. This observation of
his referred to the inhabitants of Arabia, who - five
centuries after the adoption of Islam - remained as
uneducated as before.
Lute player. Relief from Asia Minor. Marble. c. 1230.
Museum of Islamic Nations' Art, Berlin. It is thought
that Western Europe learned about the lute from the
Arabs, since the name is derived from the Arabic al-
ud, or "wood". This, however, is incorrect, since the
lute has always been known in Eastern Europe, where
it was called a kobza, and one who played it was a
kobzar. It was an ancient Turkic instrument; the word
meant "plays on a komuz". The so-called Arabic
expression is actually Turkic: al ot - "take it and sing
('let sound come forth')".
Pages 110-111
Representation of the constellation Ophiuchus, the
Serpent-holder. Drawing from the star catalogue of
Abdarrakhman as-Sufi. 10th century.
Page 112
Part of a destroyed Coptic church. Egypt.
Pages 114-115
Zebu-shaped water vessel, the so-called Shirvan water
vessel. Bronze. 1206. Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
Fragment of a mosaic from the Church of St. Michael
Africisco, near Ravenna. Glass, smalt, natural
pebbles. 544. Early Christian and Byzantine
Collection, Berlin. Just as it should, this panorama of
heavenly life crowns the vault of the church. On his
throne, Almighty Tengri bestows his blessing on the
Catholic priest. It is possible that this blessing
contains the origin of the Catholic idea - the idea of a
union between East and West. Or, perhaps something
else as well: the artist called this work Tengri or
Khodai; he could scarcely have called it anything else.
Was it not from this that the universally recognized
Gott or God was derived? Though a bit distorted, this
is how many Europeans now pronounce the name of
the Almighty. It comes from Khodai.
Page 116
Iskandar visits a hermit. Detail of a miniature from the
Nizami manuscript "Khamseh" ("The Quintuplet").
1543. Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of
Oriental Studies Manuscript Collection, St.
Petersburg.
Pages 118-119
The Turkic karaka-ship. An old drawing.
Pages 120-121
Greek fire. Detail of a miniature. 14th century.
Pages 122-123
Belvedere Courtyard in the Vatican. Overall view.
Begun in 1505.
Pages 124-125
Members of a monastic order. Miniature from a
French book. 14th century. National Library, Paris.
On the chest of each monk is an order - the Turkic
mark of distinction which became a part of European
culture.
Pages 126-127
Tomb of Archbishop Friedrich von Wettin.
Magdeburg Cathedral. Bronze. 1160.
Pages 128-129
Pillaging. Miniature from "A French Chronicle". 15th
century. National Library, Paris.
Pages 130-131
Middleton Cross. Stonecarving. 10th century.
Yorkshire, England.
Pages 132-133
Scenes from the life of Sigurd. Woodcarving. 12th
century.
Pages 134-135
Baleen plate, topped with two horses' heads. Found in
Norway. 9th century. British Museum, London.
Page 136
Map with a route to America (Vinland) and runic
inscriptions. c. 16th century. This is not the actual
map, but a copy. Found by chance at the archbishop's
estate in Esztergom, on the banks of the Danube, it
was in the private collection of Guzsa Sepesi, the
director of the city's museum. The original map
vanished mysteriously in the archives of the Vatican.
Pages 138-139
Letter "P" from a medieval manuscript. 12th century.
Animals devouring one another was a favourite motif
of the Altai. This has long been a point of dispute for
European archaeologists. It is curious indeed that this
motif is encountered only where the descendants of
the Kipchaks lived.
Page 140
Pilgrims. Detail from a portal in Autun Cathedral,
Burgundy. Stone. 12th century. In the Middle Ages,
pilgrims from different countries understood one
another quite well: they essentially spoke one
language. This was sometimes called "Barbaric" or
"Vulgate"; more often, it was known as "the Divine
Tongue". This was Turkic speech. It was introduced
into European culture at the end of the 4th century by
Hieronymus, a Kipchak - one of the first to settle in
the Western Roman Empire. It was he who created the
script that was to take the place of runes. Today, this
script is known as the Glagolitic alphabet.
Hieronymus translated the Holy Book of the
Christians - the Bible - into the "national language".
Pages 142-143
Knights board ship to embark on the Crusade.
Miniature from the manuscript "Statute of the Naples
Order of the Holy Ghost". 14th century.
Crusader Friedrich Barbarossa. Miniature from the
manuscript "A History of Jerusalem". 13th century. A
legendary figure of the Middle Ages - and not, of
course, because he, like Genghis Khan, was called
Redbeard. This man was virtually the only one who
refused to be a toady to the Pope. It is said he boldly
told the Pope that "it was not you who gave me power
over the nation, but Tengri".
Pages 144-145
Taking of Antioch. The First Crusade. Miniature from
a medieval manuscript.
Pages 146-147
The ceremonial of dubbing. Miniature from the
Oxford Codex.
Pages 148-149
Crusaders battling Moslems. Stained-glass window
from the Abbey of St. Denis. 12th century.
Pages 150-151
Charles the Great. From a mozaic portait. 9th century.
Portrait of a Burgundian. Steel helmet. 16th century.
British Museum, London.
Pages 152-153
St. George and the Dragon. Detail of a fresco from a
church in Staraya Ladoga. This is a very rare
monument of the Middle Ages: it shows the changes
to the biography of St. George. It is as though two
motifs have been blended into one on the icon: the old
and the new. The priest has become a warrior; he is on
horseback, but, as before, he is not killing the dragon.
That which is new always takes some time to crowd
the old out of people's memory.
Pages 154-155
The dombra, queen of musical instruments, in a
Kazakh yurt.
Pages 156-157
Knights' tournament. From Duke Wilhelm IV's "A
Book of Tournaments". 16th century. State Library,
Munich.
Pages 158-159
"Electing the Emperor". Drawing from the manuscript
"The Codex of Baldwin of Trier". Provincial
Archives, Koblenz. A coronation would seem to be a
common scene in art. Before the arrival of the Turkis,
however, the monarchs of Europe did not wear
crowns. Diadems were worn on the heads of the
Roman emperors (see the bust of Julian on p. 25); this
was something altogether different.
Page 160
Crusaders battling Egyptian forces. From a stained-
glass window at the Abbey of St. Denis. 12th century.
Pages 162-163
Taking of Antioch by the Crusaders. Stained-glass
window in the Abbey of St. Denis. 12th century.
Pages 164-165
Fortress in Khertvisi. 10th-14th centuries. Georgia.
Pages 166-167
Monarch at a hunt. Detail from an engraved cup from
Mosul. Bronze. c. 1300. Museum of Islamic Nations'
Art, Berlin.
Pages 168-169
Travellers in the mountains. Landscape in the Li
Chao-tao style. Fragment of a scroll. Paint on paper.
7th-8th centuries. At one time in the Gugong Museum
Collection, Beijing.
Page 170
Statuette of a woman. Figure from a Chinese tomb.
Terracotta. 7th-10th centuries. British Museum,
London.
Page 173
Sample of a Uighur letter. Fragment from the
manuscript "A Biography of Hsuan-tsang". 11th
century. Manuscript Collection, Russian Academy of
Sciences' Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg.
Pages 174-175
Siege of a Chinese fortress by the warriors of Genghis
Khan. Detail of a miniature.
Pages 176-177
Pisanello (?). "Portrait of Sigismund of Luxembourg".
Parchment on wood, tempera. 1430. Art History
Museum, Vienna. The art of the Middle Ages is up to
this time a mystery, one that is distinguished by an
expressive artistic language. Scholars do not know
what kind of style this is - a style that was followed all
over Europe. Where did it come from? It has been
dubbed International Gothic. It is said that it had no
native land, and belonged to no one in particular. Is
this really true? Is it by accident that identical art,
sometimes separated by great distances, has been
found in Turkic lands - Flanders, Lombardy,
Burgundy, Tuscany, Catalonia, England, the banks of
the Rhine, and the lands of present-day Austria,
Hungary, Germany, Bohemia and Moravia? This is
not even a complete geographical listing. Where were
the fountainheads of such especially soft and elegant
painting? In the Altai, of course, among the Turkis.
Pages 178-179
Ruins of the ancient city of Bulgar. 10th-14th
centuries. Tatarstan.
Pages 180-181
St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. Detail. 11th century.
The cathedral's architecture does not merely remind
one of the exteriors of the temples of ancient Bulgar;
it duplicates them exactly. They were obviously
created by artisans from one school of building - the
school of the Great Steppe.
Pages 182-183
Black Palace in the ancient city of Bulgar. 10th-14th
centuries. Tatarstan.
Pages 184-185
People of Galitsko-Volynskaya Rus fleeing to the
Mongols. Miniature from a Hungarian chronicle.
1488. Two centuries after these events, a new
"history" of Rus would start to be written: legends
would appear about the horrors of tribute; then about
the "Tatar-Mongol yoke".
Page 187
Our Lady of Vladimir. Detail of the icon . Tretyakov
Gallery, Moscow.
Pages 188-189
Fragment from the sculptured decoration of the
Cathedral of St. Dmitry. Vladimir. 1194. This
cathedral is one of the oldest in Russia. It is a subject
of dispute among architects. In their opinion, the
building duplicates the churches of Dark Ages
Lombardy, which were identical to temples built by
Turkic artisans in both the Transcaucasus and Europe.
The resemblance is beyond question. They do not,
however, recognise Turkic architecture in Russia.
They continue to argue without knowing that in the
19th century, the Frenchman Viollet-le-Duc
"travelled" all the way to the Altai in his research, and
told the world about Turkic temple architecture.
Another scholar, the Austrian Jozef Strzygowski,
wrote a unique work on the history of iconography,
which also, as it turns out, began in the Altai.
Pages 190-191
"Massacre on the Ice in 1242." Detail of a miniature
from "An Illuminated Chronicle of the Codex". 16th
century.
Page 192
Gothic arch of an interior staircase for horsemen,
leading into the Vladislav Hall. Detail. Sobeslav
Palace, Prague.
Pages 194-195
Horrors of the Inquisition. Drawing from Samuel
Clark's book "A Martyrology".
Pages 196-197
Street in Vienna.
Pages 198-199
Burning heretics in Paris. Miniature. 13th century.
Pages 200-201
University of Salamanca. Facade. 1515. Spain.
Pages 202-203
Fortress tower in Beijing. It has been rebuilt many
times. 15th-17th centuries.
Pages 204-205
Hans Baldung. "Wild Horses." 1534.
Page 206
Hans Baldung. "The Enchanted Groom." 1544.
Page 215
Hunting with hawks. Detail of a French casket. Bone.
14th century. Metropolitan Museum, New York.
Cover:
Crusader in a hauberk. Miniature from a book. 13th
century. British Museum, London.
Back fly-leaf:
Mahmoud Pakhlavan's Complex in Khiva. Majolica.
14th century.
Horsemen:
like the designs of the Altai,
they have become a symbol
of medieval Europe as well.
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