SULAYMĀN BĀḲIRG̲H̲ĀNĪ IN THE CULTURE OF THE VOLGA TATARS: THE PHENOMENON OF THE “BĀḲIRG̲H̲ĀN KITĀBĪ”

Abstract

The name of the Central Asian mystic Sulaymān Bāḳirg̲h̲ānī/Ḥakīm Ata and the literary legacy, attributed to him, were well-known among the Tatar Muslims of the Volga region in Russia till the middle of the 20th century. A representative of the Yasawiya tariqat that in the past was widespread among the Tatars, he was venerated as a saint and as an author of many popular poems. The recitation of these texts became a part of “the book chanting” /kitap köyläp uqu/ tradition. A special place in this repertoire was taken by the Sufi anthology “Bāḳirg̲h̲ān kitābī”, which was repeatedly published in Kazan from 1846. Thanks to these editions before the revolution of 1917, this collection could be found in almost every Tatar house. Till almost the mid of the 20th century texts of this book were recited with tunes called “Bāḳirg̲h̲ān köe”. At present, one can state the disappearance of this tradition in the Tatar environment, as well as the knowledge both about Bāḳirg̲h̲ānī himself and the collection under his name. The aim of this article is to show the specificity of the perception of the texts ascribed to Bāḳirg̲h̲ānī in Tatar culture and to follow the changes of their interpretation in the Tatar milieu towards the beginning of the 21st century. The study is based on the analysis of little studied textual sources and materials collected in the territory of the Tatarstan Republic on field trips in the 1990-2000s.