A new theory of medieval Rus’ terminology for Muslim Tatars: Batunskii’s Russia and Islam

Abstract

Research Objectives: To examine Mark Batunskii’s theory, articulated in Volume 1 of his history of Russia and Islam, that by calling the Tatars “Pechenegs” and “Polovtsy” the Rus’/Russian sources “Islamized” both the Tatars and their Kyivan predecessors. Research Materials: This article is based upon narrative sources, including chronicles, tales, epics, and saints’ lives, which refer to the Tatars from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Novelty of the Research: No specialists have engaged Batunskii’s theory by analyzing the terminology applied to the Tatars, either Muslim or not, in the medieval sources. Nor has anyone compared the Rus’ application of other terms also applied to Muslims such as “pagan,” “Ishmaelite,” “Hagarene” and “Saracen” to their appearance in Western European sources. Results: Extensive examination of the sources reveals that Rus’/Russian sources carefully identified who was a Muslim (besermen) and who was not. The Pechenegs, Polovtsy and Tatars who invaded Rus’ in the thirteenth century were not. Only sources from the late fourteenth century and later associated Tatars, now Muslims, with Pechenegs and Polovtsy not as adherents of Islam but as nomads who were not Orthodox Christians. This historicist identification had the effect of minimizing Tatar adherence to Islam. Fifteenth and sixteenth-century sources do put more emphasis on the Islamic identity of the Tatars, probably because of the increasing weight placed upon Russian Orthodox Christianity as the hallmark of Muscovy.