Journal of Frontier Studies.

Via Russian History Blog, I learn of the appearance of Фронтирных исследований/Journal of Frontier Studies:

Just this week a new online journal for Russian Studies arrived, The Journal of Frontier Studies/Zhurnal frontirnykh issledovanii. It is being edited by a group of scholars at Astrakhan State University, and aspires to put Russian and Western scholars into conversation. They are planning on publishing articles in English down the line.

I haven’t had time to investigate it yet, but it certainly sounds promising.

Comments

  1. Well, this journal surprised me in more than one way. To begin with, I didn’t know that direct borrowing фронтир is part of Russian language, but apparently it is. The journal is so fond of this word that they included it in 11 titles out of 13 entries in the “current issue” (and, I understand it, so far the only one) with byline 2016-02-24.

  2. SFReader says

    Astrakhan is an interesting place-name.

    It is a Russian corruption of medieval Golden Horde town of Hajji-Tarkhan.

    Hajji is an Arabic word which means a devout Muslim who did a pilgrimage to Mecca.

    Tarkhan (Mongolian ‘darkhan’) is a medieval Turko-Mongol title which means someone who was granted exemption from all taxes and duties.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarkhan

    According to Arabic traveller Ibn Battuta, someone from that area did a pilgrimage to Mecca, became a Hajji and on return received an additional honorary title of Tarkhan (Golden Horde became Muslim in 1312).

    And so his village became an important town of Hajji-Tarkhan (and even managed to become a capital of independent Astrakhan Khanate in 15-16th centuries).

  3. Fascinating, I didn’t know that etymology!

  4. Ксёнѕ Фаўст says

    *Журнал украинских исследований

  5. I wouldn’t be so categorical with the statement that Astrakhan is a Russian corruption of Golden Hord name Hajji Tarkhan. By the period of the Russian conquest of the territory the twon was known under different names: Ajitarkan (Anonimos, 1351), Jitarkan (Francesco Pegolotti, 1340), Citrachan (Ambrogio Contarini, 1459).
    Other names of the town were also known: Ajdarkhan, Ghintarkhan, Astarhan and Russian variant Aztorokan’ (in analogy with the name of Mediaeval Kievan Rus’ principality Tmutorokan’.
    It is interesting that by the time of Contarini’s visit of the city it was already Citrachan, but we can’t be sure about the proper speling.
    Besides that the modern name of Astrakhan can be a a varant of folk ethimology formed on the basis of As-tarkhan — a document granted for the land property. In this case the As — an ethnic group of the Alanian origin. Other spellings of the tribe are known: the Yas, the Yasog etc. and may be Kasogs. By the last name Russian chronists ment the Circassians.
    By the way, Pizzigani brothers in their Chart (1367) placed the town in the land of Hajji-Circass Khan — «Casade Gercasi».
    And the last: Tarkhan or Darkhan in Mongolian and Turk languages was not only a a title or a document the fixed special rights of a holder but also a name of a person with special abilities. A good poet is a darkhan, a skilled master is also a darkhan. It is a person with a power that makes him prosperous.So Darkhan is also a power. Till the nowadays there are more than 20 tombs of such persons — Auliya. And only two of them are hajji who died on their way back from Mecca. Most of the auliya are devoted to sufies or to local shamans.
    So what is ethimology of the name of the town we can’t be sure.

  6. The journal is still going strong; here are some of the articles in the latest issue:

    Sergei Kan (Author)
    12-37
    “True Heirs to a Heroic Russian Past” or “Russians in Name Only”: Sitka Creoles as Seen by the Late Nineteenth Century Russian Orthodox Clergy
    https://doi.org/10.46539/jfs.v5i4.211

    Dmitry S. Zhukov, Valery V. Kanishchev, Sergey K. Lyamin (Author)
    38-58
    The Development of Settlements within the South Russian Frontier of the 17th – early 19th centuries and the Current Demographic Situation in the Central Black Earth Region Countryside (Based on Materials from the Tambov Oblast)
    https://doi.org/10.46539/jfs.v5i4.235

    Oleg B. Bubenok (Author)
    59-84
    Peculiarities of the Functioning of the Volga-Don Ship Reloading during the Khazar Time
    https://doi.org/10.46539/jfs.v5i4.234

    Amiran T. Urushadze (Author)
    127-151
    Gorets in the Russian Service during the Caucasian War (1801–1864): Mediator, Marginal, Traitor
    https://doi.org/10.46539/jfs.v5i4.251

    Elena V. Ponomarenko (Author)
    152-171
    Influence of the Architecture of Orthodox, Muslim and Lamaist Churches on Each Other in the Territory of the Southern Urals
    https://doi.org/10.46539/jfs.v5i4.230

  7. Trond Engen says

    Interesting. I think I’ll start with:

    Oleg B. Bubenok (Author)
    Peculiarities of the Functioning of the Volga-Don Ship Reloading during the Khazar Time

    Then I’ll read:

    Elena V. Ponomarenko (Author)
    Influence of the Architecture of Orthodox, Muslim and Lamaist Churches on Each Other in the Territory of the Southern Urals

  8. Trond Engen says

    No I won’t. The texts are in Russian. It’s probably overly optimistic to develop an interest in Central Eurasian (pre-)history without learning the language of the trade.

  9. Oh yeah, I should have mentioned that. But there’s always GT…

  10. Trond Engen says

    I know. I’ve read some achaeological papers by way of GT. It works fairly well, but it takes dedication.

  11. David Marjanović says

    Tarkan, true heir of Volker.

  12. From that Wikipedia page:

    Tarkan Tevetoğlu (Turkish pronunciation: [taɾˈkan teveˈtoːɫu]

    Surely the stress is wrong for the surname; the Greek page has Tαρκάν Tεβέτογλου, and that antepenultimate stress is what I expect for -oğlu names.

  13. DeepL is another auto-translator. It’s often smoother than GT.

  14. David Marjanović says

    Surely the stress is wrong for the surname;

    [e] is also wrong…

  15. But how can one correct it without a reference?

  16. David Marjanović says

    The Wikipedia article on Turkish phonology cites a bunch. But it turns out [e] isn’t as badly wrong as I thought.

  17. ə de vivre says

    Surely the stress is wrong for the surname; the Greek page has Tαρκάν Tεβέτογλου, and that antepenultimate stress is what I expect for -oğlu names.

    I thought ‘-oğlu’ names usually got penultimate stress. A brief look around for some specific information (rather than general rules of Turkish stress) only turned up this page of some guy saying “Davut Güloğlu,” which sound penultimate to me.

    [e] is also wrong…

    What vowel would you have put in the first two syllables of “Tevetoğlu?”

  18. I thought ‘-oğlu’ names usually got penultimate stress

    Huh. OK, I’m probably wrong. It would be nice to see a rule in print, though.

  19. David Eddyshaw says

    Lewis’ Turkish Grammar says that stress usually falls on the final syllable of the first element in compounds, though it gives no examples of -oğlu names specifically.

    Googling suggests that many Greeks with Turkish names of this pattern do indeed stress the antepenult, e.g.

    https://www.artandlife.gr/artists/Sophia-Papazogloy

    However, this page, discussing names specifically, has examples of both patterns:

    https://www.to10.gr/ten-files/epikerotita/581577/mathe-apo-pou-kratoun-ta-eponyma-mas-etymologia-katagogi/

  20. I may well have absorbed my accent pattern from Greeks, and of course they may not have reproduced the Turkish pattern (cf. disagreement between Russians and Ukrainians about how to stress -enko names).

  21. David Marjanović says

    What vowel would you have put in the first two syllables of “Tevetoğlu?”

    [ɛ] of course.

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