Mamluk-Kipchak language explained

Mamluk-Kipchak
Region:	Egypt and Syria
Extinct:	After 1516^[1]
Familycolor:	Altaic
Fam1:	Turkic
Fam2:	Common Turkic
Fam3:	Kipchak
Fam4:	Kipchak-Cuman
Glotto:	none
Script:	Ottoman Turkish alphabet

The Mamluk-Kipchak language was a Kipchak language that was spoken in Egypt and Syria during the Mamluk Sultanate period.

Classification

The Mamluk-Kipchak language belongs to the Cuman-Kipchak group of Kipchak languages. Other Cuman-Kipchak languages include Kumyk, Karachai-Balkar, Crimean Tatar.^[2]

History

Since most of the Mamluk rulers were monolingual Turkic speakers, several dictionaries were complied to enable communication between Arabic speaking population of the empire and its rulers. The language was also used as literary language and several Arabic and Persian works have been translated to Kipchak by Mamluks.^[3] It was written in Arabic script.

Mamluk-Kipchak lost its ground as the dominant Turkic language to Oghuz Turkic among the ruling Burji dynasty.^[4]

Literature

• Kitab al-'idrak li-lisan al-'atrak (كتاب الإدراك للسان الأتراك) 'Aspects of the Turkic language' archive (in Arabic), Ibn Hayyan.
• «At-Tufhat-uz-zakiya fil-lugat-it-Turkiyya» «Valuable gift to Turkish language»

Notes and References

1. Web site: STATUS OF THE KYPCHAK LANGUAGE IN MAMLUK EGYPT: LANGUAGE - BARRIER OR LANGUAGE - CONTACT?. ResearchGate . Gulnar Nadirova Logo. 25 April 2024. Even towards the end of the Mamluk period, during the reign of the last sultan al-Ghawri (1501-1516), the Mamluk, called Asanbay min Sudun, copied the religious Hanbali tract of Abu al-Layth in Kypchak language for the royal library..
2. Баскаков Н. А. Историко-типологическая фонология тюркских языков / Отв. ред. Э. Р. Тенишев. — М.: Наука, 1988.
3. Eckmann . János . 1963 . The Mamluk-Kipchak Literature . Central Asiatic Journal . 8 . 4 . 304–319 . 41926593.
4. Turan. Fikret. Boeschoten. Hendrik. Stein. Heidi. 2007. The Mamluks and Their Acceptance of Oghuz Turkish as Literary Language: Political Maneuver or Cultural Aspiration?. Turcologica. English. Harrassowitz.