“Kizhe”: on the name of the Madrasah’s Founder in Staryi Krym

Objective: to compare preserved epigraphic monuments from Staryi Krym with the “Travel book” by Evliya Çelebi and clarify the name of the founder of the madrasah. Research materials: The article is based on the study of the “Travel Book” by Evliya Çelebi published in the Ottoman language in 1928, particularly his visit to Staryi Krym; translation of the “Travel Book” into Russian by E.V. Bakharevsky; modern transliteration into Latin by a group of researchers in Turkey; Russian publications of epigraphic monuments of Staryi Krym starting from the mid-nineteenth century and up to the present. These materials have been compared with the tombstone and inscription above the entrance to the so-called “Uzbek Mosque”. The manuscript “Muizz al-ansab” and various dictionaries from the Turkic languages were used as additional materials. Results and novelty of the research: A comparison of previously published sources and researches helped to consider various options for reading the name, acceptable for the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries, and the drawing of the inscription of the tombstone confirmed that O. Akchokrakly’s reading of the name was correct. In addition, on the basis of the new material, it has been confirmed that the Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi during his journeys wrote down the inscriptions he saw with minor errors and that these inscriptions can be considered trustworthy, with some caution. According to the inscription on the tombstone found in 1925, the name of the founder of the madrasah should be read as Ilchi Khatun.