Book of Chinggis by Otemish Hajji
A Khorezmian history of the Jochid ulus, written about 1550 from oral steppe tradition.
Full title Book of Chinggis: history of the Jochid ulus from Chinggis Khan to Toqtamish, written in Khorezm c.1550 from oral steppe tradition; Russian translation with facsimile and transcription by V. P. Yudin (Alma-Ata 1992)
چنگیز نامه (تاريخ دوست سلطان)
Otemish Hajji ibn Mawlana Muhammad Dosti (fl. 1550)
Otemish Hajji wrote this in Chagatai (Khorezmian) Turkic around 1550 for Dost Sultan of Khorezm, saying he gathered the story from elders and those who know the past. It follows the Jochid ulus from Chinggis Khan through Batu, Berke, Uzbek, Janibek and Toqtamish. It is the main steppe-internal Turkic history of the Golden Horde, written two centuries after the events. The atlas does not hold the text: the card records a 1992 Alma-Ata Russian translation by V. P. Yudin, known as a web transcription only.
- How they knew
- From informants
- Who “Tartar” means here
- Not recorded. The people are the Jochids, Shibanids and Uzbeks of the Golden Horde and its successors, whom Russian and European writers called Tartars.
- Why read it
- The steppe's own memory of the Golden Horde, independent of the Persian and Arabic court histories.
- Watch out
- Oral tradition was set down two centuries after the events, and Yudin's edition used a defective manuscript. The atlas quotes nothing from this work.
What it says
No quotes from this one yet. Its text is out of reach for now, or the scan could not be read.
The fine print
How we know
informant testimony Written down from what informants reported.
informant testimony: the author states he collected the accounts from elders and 'those who know the past'; retrospective for the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries
Research notes
- Oral tradition recorded two centuries after the events; Yudin's edition used a defective manuscript. The 'continuator' text (vostlit Utemis_hadzi_prod) concerns later Shibanids.
Why it matters
The principal steppe-internal (Turkic, oral-tradition) history of the Golden Horde, independent of the Persian and Arabic court sources; central to debates on the White and Blue Hordes and on Uzbek Khan's conversion.
Places named
Dasht-i Qipchaq; Volga; Khorezm; Siberia (Ak Orda, Kok Orda)
Peoples named
Jochids; Shibanids; Golden Horde khans (Batu, Berke, Uzbek, Janibek, Toqtamish); Uzbeks