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REFLECTIONS ON REGIONAL VARIATION IN THE IMPACT OF THE BLACK DEATH ON THE GOLDEN HORDE
Uli Schamiloglu
Nazarbayev University & University of Wisconsin-Madison Astana, Kazakhstan & Madison, USA uschamil@wisc. edu
Abstract. In the presented material, some reflections on the impact of the plague on the demographic processes that took place in the Golden Horde are told.
Keywords: "Black Death", Golden Horde, Toqtami§, depopulation, destruction.
For citation: Uli Schamiloglu. Reflections on Regional Variation in the Impact of the Black Death on the Golden Horde. Turkological Studies. 2018; Vol. 1, no. 3: 19-22.
0. In 1988 I gave my first public lecture on the Black Death in the Golden Horde at a conference on Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This was later published in Central Asian Survey in 1993, as many of you know [1]. After my presentation I was severely criticized by my colleagues at the time at Indiana University-Bloomington. Here we are, twenty-eight years later, participating in the 5th Golden Horde Forum featuring a half-day focus on the role of the Black Death in the Golden Horde. I could not be more pleased and excited that this subject has advanced so far over the past three decades.
1. When I first noted 30 years ago that Toqtami§ migrated to the west with the four tribes of the §irin, Argin, Barin, and Kip^ak, I had no clue about what the mechanism for this might be [see my: 2, p. 179-184 and p. 203-204 (this work will be published soon in English and Russian)].
2. Later, as I began to study the role of the Black Death in the territories of the Golden Horde, I proposed that there was severe depopulation across the territories of the Golden Horde, including areas such as Lake Issiq-Kol and Volga Bulgaria where epigraphical languages disappeared completely. Connected with this obviously was the depopulation and destruction of urban centers and the rise in relative strength of nomadic confederations [see my: 1; 3].
3. More recently, I have discussed how the sudden expansion of Lithuania south as far as the Crimea and other phenomena can be seen as the sudden movement of troops and perhaps population into areas depopulated by plague [4, p. 335]. I have also called attention to the Black Death as a reason for the Kipchakization of the Middle Volga region [4, p. 336].
4. Most recently, there has been a proposal that the bacterium Yersinia pestis responsible for the Black Death may have mutated further in London or elsewhere in Western Europe and circulated back into the Volga region and elsewhere in western Eurasia [5]. It has been suggested that this mutation rendered the bacterium far more deadly than it had been before. (This may also be connected with human reactions to multiple exposures to plague, as was the case with multiple waves of smallpox in the 20th century, but I am not a medical doctor and reaching outside of my comfort zone.) This could support some data in the Russian sources, according to which the disease arrived from the west [for an overview of the historiography on the Black Death in Russia and the Golden Horde, see: 6].
5. This leads me to ask whether what we are seeing is an original wave of plague which was destructive, but which was followed by additional waves (as in 1358, 1360, 1364, etc.) which were the results of mutations in Western Europe which circulated back to the western territories of the Golden Horde plus the more recent proposal that there may be additional diseases such as smallpox making the history of epidemics in the western territories of the Golden Horde so particularly devastating in the 1350s-1360s [see also: 7].
6. To return to the migration of Toqtami§: Can this be just one data point among many more which can be found suggesting that the depopulation in the western territories of the Golden Horde (Aq orda) was far more severe than the depopulation in certain surrounding areas, such as Lithuania, Central Asia, and perhaps the territories which today we call Xinjiang. Other evidence we can see to support such an idea would be the resurgence of Tamerlane (Timur), the revival of an Islamic Turkic literature in the first half of the 15th century in Central Asia (culminating eventually in the elevation of this language to the language we now call "Chagatay"), and the renaissance of the Uygur alphabet in the 15th (?) century [see my: 8, p. 506].
7. To conclude, could it be that Central Asia had suffered less from these later waves of an even more destructive version of the plague, through a mechanism yet to be determined. If so, this would support the notion that we need to study plague in the 14th-16th centuries in the territories of the Golden Horde and the Later Golden Horde, but that we also need to identify evidence supporting the idea that plague expressed itself differently over time and space as a result of the evolution of the bacterium Yersinia pestis, the arrival of other diseases such as smallpox, climate change, and factors yet to be determined [see especially: 7].
References
1. Schamiloglu, U. "Preliminary Remarks on the Role of Disease in the History of the Golden Horde", Central Asian Survey 12:4 (1993), pp. 447-457.
2. Schamiloglu, U. "Tribal Politics and Social Organization in the Golden Horde", Ph.D. dissertation. Columbia University, 1986.
Тюркологические исследования
2018, том 1, № 3
3. Schamiloglu, U. "The End of Volga Bulgarian", Varia Eurasiatica. Festschrift für Professor Andras Rona Tas. Szeged, 1991, pp. 157-163.
4. Schamiloglu, U. "The Impact of the Black Death on the Golden Horde: Politics, Economy, Society, and Civilization", Golden Horde Review / Zolotoordynskoye obozreniye 5:2 (2017), 325-343.
5. Spyrou, M.A. et al. "Historical Y. pestis Genomes Reveal the European Black Death as the Source of Ancient and Modern Plague Pandemics", Cell Host & Microbe. 2016 Jun 8; 19(6):874-881. DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2016.05.012.
6. Khaydarov, T.F. "Istoriografiya epidemii 'Chernoy smerti' na territorii Ulusa Dzhuchi (1814-2016)", Golden Horde Review / Zolotoordynskoye obozreniye 5:1 (2017), 164-192.
7. Green, M. "Climate and Disease in Medieval Eurasia", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History (forthcoming). DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/ 9780190277727.013.6.
8. Schamiloglu, U. "Orta^ag Dillerinden Modern Dillere: Avrupa ve Türk Dünyasinda Yeni Edebi Dillerin Varliga Gelmesi", IV. Dünya Dili Türkge Sempozyumu Bildirileri. 22-24 Aralik 2011, Mugla, i-ii, ed. Mehmet Naci Önal. Ankara, 2012, i, 501-507.
About the author: Uli Schamiloglu, Ph.D. (History), Professor, Nazarbayev University (Astana 010000, Kazakhstan); Department of German, Nordic and Slavic, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1220 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA), e-mail: uschamil@wisc.edu
Received September 24, 2018.
Accepted for publication October 01, 2018.
РАЗМЫШЛЕНИЯ О РЕГИОНАЛЬНЫХ РАЗЛИЧИЯХ ВОЗДЕЙСТВИЯ «ЧЕРНОЙ СМЕРТИ» В ЗОЛОТОЙ ОРДЕ
Юлай Шамильоглу
Назарбаев Университет г. Астана, Казахстан Университет Висконсин-Мадисон г. Мадисон, США uschamil@wisc. edu
Резюме. В представленном материале повествуются некоторые размышления о воздействии эпидемии чумы на демографические процессы, происходившие в Золотой Орде.
Ключевые слова: «Черная смерть», Золотая Орда, Токтамыш, депопуляция, разрушение.
Для цитирования: Uli Schamiloglu. Reflections on Regional Variation in the Impact of the Black Death on the Golden Horde. Tyurkologicheskie issledovaniya =Turkological Studies. 2018; Vol. 1, no. 3: 19-22.
Сведения об авторе: Юлай Шамильоглу, Ph.D., профессор, Назарбаев Университет (Астана 010000, Казахстан); департамент немецкого, скандинавских и славянских языков, Висконсинский университет в Мадисоне (1220 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA), e-mail: uschamil@wisc.edu
Дата поступления материала 24.09.2018.
Принят к публикации 01.10.2018.
