A New Version of the Edige Epic from the Crimea: Karaim or Krymchak?

Abstract

This paper presents a critical edition of a hitherto unknown Crimean version of the famous Noghay epic Edige. This version is anonymous and undated, probably copied in the 19th century. It contains seven pages of a codex of various contents and is incomplete. Despite being so short, this version is very interesting as it was copied in Hebrew script. After comparing this text with other versions, such as those in Crimean Tatar, Noghay, Baraba, Karakalpak and Kazakh, the article demonstrates that this version is closest to the Crimean Tatar and Noghay versions.