CONSTANTINE PORPHYROGENITUS: AΤΕΛΚΟΥΖΟΥ CONSTANTINE PORPHYROGENITUS: ATELKUZU

Abstract

The treatise of Konstantin Porphyrogenitus “On the Management of the Empire” is the most authoritative source on toponymy and ethnonymics of Eastern Europe regions associated with the early history of the ancestors of the modern Slavs, Turks and Indo-Iranians, so every name mentioned in it continues to arouse the most lively interest to this day. The purpose of the study is to introduce some data that are not taken into account by historians-medievalists and evaluate the interpretations proposed by the author when reading E.M. Usmanov’s publications “On the Problem of Interpreting Medieval European Sources about the Ancestral Homeland of the Hungarians” and “The Hingilus River and the “Turks” of Konstantin Porphyrogenitus”. Materials and methods. The main research methods were the method of analyzing historical sources, including those used by predecessors, and the historical-genetic method. The article presents the views of those who had already addressed the problem of interpreting the geographical name Atel Kuzu mentioned in Konstantin’s treatise, as well as additional information from dictionaries and other historical and linguistic sources. Study results. The article establishes incorrectness of: 1) attributing the name Atel kuzu to the Kypchak source, since it has a bright Oguz phonomorphological appearance; 2) attributing the meaning “source; top of the river” to the Bashkir word кѳҙ/күҙ; 3) searching for the territory called Atel kuzu in the Southern Urals. Based on the material of toponymic dictionaries, it is proved that in all the names of the river sources recorded in the territory of Bashkortostan are formed on the basis of the geographical nomenclature term bash “head; beginning; source, top”, it turns out that the Oguz appearance of the toponym Atel Kuzu is associated with the fact that all medieval authors consistently call the Hungarians as the Turks. Conclusions. The new, sensational derivation of the etymology for the historical toponym Atel Kuzu basing on the data of the modern Bashkir language does not stand up to criticism.