This article explores the early shape of the apanages of the sons of Chinggis Khan and Börte in light of their partial resemblance with pre-Chinggisid polities and the matrimonial alliances of the imperial princes. Noting the territorial and matrimonial links of Ögödei with the Naiman and Tolui with the Kereyid, I suggest that the early history of the Mongol Empire was more determined by the previous political order on the Mongolian Plateau than suggested in imperial historiography.
The Arabic language of the Qur’ān contains numerous linguistic loans, mainly from its sister Semitic languages, but not exclusively. These include not only simple loans proper (single words transferred with their native meaning or in a modified form) and structural calques (morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic), but also numerous hapax legomena resulting from the transcription and transliteration from other abjads/alphabets and/or languages. Given the current state of research, it is difficult to estimate the quantitative share of loanwords in the Qur’ānic vocabulary. The paper strives to inform on past and current academic research on the scope of the Syriac language and its influence in the Qur’ānic text, presenting some more and less known examples thereof
The paper analyzes an online lesson on Chinese music provided by the Polish Ministry of Education for use in secondary schools within the context of the Ministry’s official school program. It also briefly discusses the state of academic Chinese studies in Poland. A detailed examination of the lesson reveals factual errors, a mix of historical and legendary facts, misattribution of classical texts, and chaotic transcription of Chinese words, among other issues. Academic sources were not consulted; instead, the lesson is based on a 19th-century book, Britannica, and Wikipedia articles (including mistakes that had been corrected years ago on Wikipedia). The use of the text and illustrations is also questioned. None of the sources are referenced, possibly violating the moral rights of the authors, even if they waived their financial rights (e.g., by using a CC-BY-SA 3.0 license). The authorship of the main illustrations is attributed to “Online-skills” (the company responsible for creating the lesson), and the files have had their EXIF data erased. These illustrations are virtually identical to those from the Wikimedia Commons repository, where the authorship and EXIF data are preserved. The findings raise serious concerns not only about the factual quality of officially sanctioned online resources but also about the moral lessons inadvertently conveyed to the students.
Szkic o życiu i twórczości Agwaanbaldana (1797–1864), mongolskiego mistrza buddyzmu tybetańskiego
The history of Inner Mongolia has traditionally been told as a story of two ethnic groups, Mongols and Han Chinese. How these two ethnic groups, one mostly herding and the other mostly farming, used the land in different ways and engaged in cooperation and conflict has been the central narrative line of Inner Mongolian history. Yet this ethnic dualism of Han and Mongol is not the whole story of Inner Mongolia. Even in recent centuries, other ethnic groups, such as Manchus, Ewenkis, Hui, and Koreans have played certain roles. And before the rise of the Mongol empire and its unification of the Mongolian plateau, the ethnic diversity was much greater. Many of the terms used in Inner Mongolia before the Mongol conquest are still obscure, giving the historians of this area and era great difficulty. As part of my work on the Shengwu qinzheng lu I have attempted to analyze many of these terms, which I hope to discuss in my commentary on that work. In this paper, dedicated to the great Inner Mongolian scholar Čoyiǰi, I would like to shed light on a few terms, focusing on ones which did not appear in the Shengwu qinzheng lu, and hence will not be discussed in my commentary there.
In the nineteenth century Friedrich Schleiermacher made an indication to a pair of translation strategies which in 1995, Lawrence Venuti in his work “The Translator’s Invisibility” named “foreignization” and “domestication”. According to Venuti, domestication aims to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text and bring the writer to the reader. A foreignizing method is defined as a translation that indicates the linguistic and cultural differences of the text by disrupting the cultural codes that prevail in the target language. In 1965, Czytelnik Publishing House released in Poland a collection of short stories entitled Dam Ci dobrą radę (Eng. “I’ll give you good advice”) by the Turkish prose writer Aziz Nesin (1915–1995) and translated by M. Łabęcka-Koecherowa. Polish translation of the short story entitled Gûlgûle yok mu? (Polish title: “Etiudąku nie ma?”) contains good examples of a “domesticated translation”. This comparison shows what kind of choices and interventions the translator has to make to prevent the translation from being lost in footnotes, preserving the cultural context of the original and, at the same time, being acceptable within the target context.
There are still ongoing debates about the significance and the value of Divan literature. It is often accused of being out of touch with reality and detached from socially relevant issues. Its complex language if often incomprehensible. The counterargument to the above hypotheses is the “localization” (Tur. mahallileşme). This term, in its most general definition, means the penetration of local elements into poetry. The present article aims to show how the features of the mahallileşme are manifested in the poetry of Nedim, who is considered one of the most prominent representatives of this trend.
The article presents a lexical analysis of two manuscripts comprising Karaim translations of Tanakh. The first one, no. ADub.III.84, is written in South-Western Karaim and was copied in the second half of the nineteenth century, whereas the second one, no. BSMS 288, is written in Crimean Karaim and was copied in the second half of the eighteenth century. The research, performed based on Psalms 76–150, aims to determine the nature of differences in vocabulary selected for both translations and, consequently, discrepancies in interpretation of the Hebrew original text. In addition, the paper presents a transcription of Psalm 90 from the manuscript no. ADub.III.84, supplemented with a comparison with the manuscript no. BSMS 288 (in brackets) and a translation into Polish.
Turkish Alevis are a heterogeneous group whose ancestors came from Central Asia to Anatolia with the waves of Turkic migrations beginning in the 11th century. Alevi culture is usually described as a syncretic system combining elements of the cultures of the peoples with whom they came into contact in the past, as well as elements of both Sunni and Shia Islam (including various Sufi movements). Moreover, their social doctrine is closely related not only to the religious system but also to the tribal and kinship relations, which is clearly reflected in their rituals, distinctly different from Sunni norms. This position historically placed Alevis outside the centralised state structure. Combined with their sympathies for Shia ideas, their close relations with the Kızılbaş groups, and their political ties political to the Safavid dynasty, this caused the Ottomans to treat them unfavourably or even with hostility. From the 15th century onward, sources confirm the Ottomans’ distrust of the Alevis and the emergence of a negative stereotype portraying them as a suspect group. This deeply entrenched Sunni perception of them and led to repeated acts of intolerance, persecution, and discrimination, often resulting in the deaths of many Alevis, even as late as the 20th century. In 2007, Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan, then the Prime Minister of Türkiye, after winning the parliamentary elections, announced the “Alevi Opening” (Tur. Alevi açılımı). The initiative aimed to build a society of unity, equality, tolerance, and peace. In cooperation with representatives of Alevi communities, a number of actions were undertaken to identify the problems of Alevi groups and to address them in order to preserve unique Alevi culture. Another goal was to counteract the negative stereotype of Alevis. Some Alevis supported these initiatives, while others regarded them with distance and suspicion. The paper aims to assess the real intentions of the authors of the “Alevi Opening” project, and to analyse the actions taken and their effectiveness in terms of building social unity while preserving freedom of belief and worldview among the members of society.
The theme, the virtues of tea, evolved over time into the ten virtues of tea (cha no juttoku), and is present in Japanese tea tradition as early as the arrival of powdered tea in Japan. The earliest examples come from the Kissa yōjōki (Record of drinking tea for health, 1214) by Myōan Eisai and the inscription on the iron kettle of ten virtues (juttokugama) attributed to Myōe. Virtues from differing early lists, could generally be divided into two categories benefiting an individual: health benefits, like prolonging life, and psychological and spiritual benefits, like focusing the mind and gaining spiritual power. Analyzing these earlier examples, Hisamatsu Shin’ichi creates his own selection of ten virtues that he feels are more proper for post-war Japan. He advocates for tea practice as a path of moral and spiritual growth, with Zen Buddhist thought as a teaching tool. His aim is tea practice of the highest standard, a showcase of material and intellectual, culture Japan can be proud of in an increasingly international environment.
Water Puppetry in Vietnam stems from the direct experience of wet rice cultivation and the ongoing dialogue between water and land, and land and water. This theatrical tradition, developed since the 12th century, weaves together elements of agrarian life, Buddhist beliefs, and myths surrounding the origins of the Vietnamese nation. The stage – a fluid surface of a pond, lake, or artificial pool – is not merely a performance space but an active partner in the spectacle. The aquatic element co-creates the illusion and dramaturgy of the performances, emphasizing its mystical, symbolic, and ecological dimensions. The tradition of water puppetry preserves rural values, reinforces cultural identity, and remains a living bridge between past and present. The puppets, made from waterproof wood and animated with bamboo rods, gears, rudders, or strings, move through precisely controlled mechanisms concealed beneath the water. For centuries, this was a profession practiced exclusively by men, with its secrets carefully guarded. Since the 1970s, however, mixed-gender troupes have become increasingly common. A typical performance consists of 20 to 30 short scenes, in which artists draw on traditional stories while incorporating contemporary themes and imagery. The article also highlights the potential of this heritage within contemporary debates on the agency of wate
Muslim communities, living as ethnic minorities, constitute nearly half of the world’s whole Muslim population. The number of Muslims in Germany, Great Britain, and other West European countries is constantly growing. Until recently, Muslims were scarcely visible to the receiving society, and Islamic law was silent about their specific situation. Nevertheless, in this growing population, charismatic thinkers sometimes emerge, who are actively involved in further developing the Muslim perspective by incorporating new issues vital to contemporary Muslims. Participation in civil society, as well as many other phenomena compounded by globalization, are among the most important factors. While functioning in non-Muslim societies, the thinkers are aware of the pressing need for updating and verifying Islamic law so that it can be practiced without restraint within a non-Muslim environment, without having to resort to alienation from the rest of society. The term “fiqh of a minority” (fiqh al-aqalliyyat) was used for the first time in 1994 by Taha Jabir al-Alwani. Another theoretician and supporter of the fiqh of a minority is Jusuf al-Qardawi. The concept of the fiqh of a minority, as viewed by the two alims, will be presented in the article.
The aim of the article is to present the efforts made over the last hundred years to maintain the knowledge of the native tongue among Karaims in Poland and Lithuania. After World War I, the awareness of the importance of the vernacular language for the preservation of cultural heritage increased, but the knowledge of the Karaim has been systematically declining. In the last 30 years, attempts to revitalize the mother tongue have intensified. Nevertheless, with the rapidly declining Karaim populations in Poland and Lithuania, the level of language proficiency is dropping even faster. The North-Western dialect is the only one still spoken today. In recent years, field recordings are being made to preserve the sound of the Karaim, which is listed on the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. Currently, out of about 300 people living in Poland and Lithuania, only ten percent can speak their ancestors’ tongue.
At the end of the 18th century, the first depiction of a mosque and of the Polish-Lithuanian Tatars was created – a drawing by the popular artist of historical and religious painting of the King Stanisław August Poniatowski’s era and the founder of the Vilnius painting school, Franciszek Smuglewicz, “The Mosque of the Tatars and their service”. Made with ink, despite its small size, it shows with great precision the interior of the mosque in Łukiszki near Vilnius and the praying Tatars there. For a long time, it was dated to 1781, but in light of the current findings on the life of Franciszek Smuglewicz, the date of the drawing needs to be moved to 1785 or 1786. It is an excellent iconographic document containing many reliable details, such as the Tatar clothes, the imam’s outfit, their prayer gestures and items used during prayer, the minbar with forms borrowed from rococo church furniture, spatial arrangement of the prayer room, longitudinal division of the interior of the mosque into a male and female hall separated by a wall with a sight gap covered with a curtain, stripes stretched on the floor cloths used instead of prayer rugs, candlelight, prayer benches for the disabled. For the first time (and the only time, until the photographic documentation from the 20th century), publics who had no direct contact with the Tatars could come into contact with their religious practices and the temple’s interioring was not widespread for a long time. Along with twenty other similar views of Vilnius, it was included in an album that belonged until the 19th century to the Jaszczołd family from the Kingdom of Poland. In 1843, the Russian army’s lieutenant of the corps of engineers, Jan Jaszczołd (d. 1858), made it available to prof. M. Homolicki in Vilnius, described the contents of the album (but without discussing the depiction of service in the mosque). Jan Jaszczołd was a son of Wojciech Jaszczołd (d. 1821), a Polish painter and decorator who had been trained by Smuglewicz – this can explain why the album with views Vilni s was eventually found in Jaszczołd family. Later, the Jaszczołd album found its way to the collection of Emeryk Hutten-Czapski at the National Museum in Krakow. Only then (in 1912) the drawing could reach a wider audience, as it was published in black and white photographic reproduction. It is worth adding that the entire album, including the discussed view of the service in Łukiszki, was commissioned by Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski.
The article contains introductory remarks on the Mongolian manuscript „The Tales of King Bikramijid and Kisna” (mong. Boγda Bikramiǰid qaγan Kisna qaγan qoyar-un üliger), from the collection of the Asia and Pacific Museum in Warsaw, cataloged under the number MAP 9025. The manuscript is unique, as it is probably the most comprehensive collection of Mongolian stories related to the Indian king Vikramaditya (Skt. Vikramāditya, Mong. Bikramiǰid). It seems that the creator of the manuscript wanted to collect in one work all three cycles of stories connected to the king Vikramaditya, i.e. the stories of Bikramijid, Arji Borji and Kisna. Other available manuscripts contain only one of these cycles or even a part of them. The article discusses the current state of research in the field as well as information on the Mongolian, Oirat and Tibetan manuscripts gathered in Western and Asian collections.
According to Chinese astrology, 2023 is the year of the Water Rabbit, which is an occasion to look at this animal from a linguistic perspective. The article aims to reconstruct the linguistic image of the ‘rabbit’ contained in Polish phraseology and Chinese chengyu. The comparative linguistic analysis was preceded by a description of the animal preserved in the culture of both countries. In total, forty-two idioms containing the lexeme ‘rabbit’ were analyzed, including nineteen Polish phraseologism and twenty-three Chinese chengyu. The research allowed us to indicate the differences and similarities in the linguistic image of the rabbit among Poles and Chinese, which may be an important part of the language research on the reconstruction of the full linguistic picture of this animal.
The Be language, also known as Ong Be or 临高话 Língāohuà, is spoken by around 600,000 people in Lingao county on Hainan Island and in the suburbs of Haikou city. It is a non-Chinese language that belongs to the Tai-Kadai group (状侗语族 Zhuàngdòngyǔzú). Be is a language that is spoken mostly in informal contexts as it is considered inappropriate to speak it at school or work. Nowadays, plenty of native Be speakers decide to communicate with their children only in 普通话 Pǔtōnghuà. This phenomenon is worth further investigation. The purpose of this study is to learn more about the language attitudes of native Be speakers towards their mother tongue. The main research method was an on-location survey in September 2019. The questionnaires were distributed and collected in Xianguang village in Lingao county. First, respondents were asked to state which language they use in a variety of situations. Next, they were asked which language they would prefer to use in the same situations. Finally, they were asked to state the extent to which they agree with statements presenting views on the Be language. As 40 respondents matched the operational definition, i.e., they were native Be speakers, 40 questionnaires were analysed. The general results are that while native speakers of Be show a positive attitude towards using their mother tongue in informal settings such as at home with family or close friends, especially when talking to elderly people, they believe that using the Be language is not appropriate in formal contexts such as at school or work. The purpose of this article is to show the results and analysis of the data collected during the on-location survey.
