Christianity among the Cumans

Roger Finch
1. The Origin of the Cumans

The question of where the Cumans originated has been the object of much study but a
denitive answer to this cannot yet be given. The Cumans are known in Russian historical
sources as Polovtsy and in Arabic sources generally as Kipchak Qipchak , although the
Arabic author al-Marwazi writing about 1120 referred to them as Qn, which corresponds
to the Hungarian name for the Cumans, Kun. The Russian name for these people, Polovtsy
< Slav. polovyi pale; pale yellow is supposedly a translation of the name Quman in Turkic, but there is no word in any Turkic dialect with this meaning; the only word in Turkic
which at all approximates this meaning and has a similar form is OT qum sand , but this
seems more an instance of folk etymology than a likely derivation. There is a word kom in
Kirghiz, kaum in Tatar, meaning people , but these are from Ar.

qaum fellow tribes-

men; kinfolk; tribe, nation; people . The most probable reexes of the original word in Turkic dialects are Uig., Sag. kun people , OT kun female slave and Sar. Uig. kun ~ kun
slave; woman < *kmn ~ *qumun , cf. Mo. kmn, MMo. quun, Khal. xun man;
person; people , and this is the most frequent meaning of ethnonyms in the majority of the
world s languages.
The Kipchaks have been identified as the remainder of the Trkt or Trk Empire,
which was located in what is the present-day Mongolian Republic, and which collapsed
in 740. There are inscriptions engraved on stone monuments, located mainly in the basin
of the Orkhon River, in what has been termed Turkic runic script; these inscriptions
record events from the time the Trkt were in power and, in conjunction with information
recorded in the Chinese annals of the time about them, we have a clearer idea of who these
people were during the time their empire ourished than after its dissolution.
According to some historians, who maintain that the Kipchak and the Cumans were two
distinct tribes, the Kipchak gradually migrated west and at rst occupied the steppe between



35

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the Ob and Irtysh Rivers in western Siberia, but they were pushed aside by the Cumans and
forced to move on, one group entering the south Russian steppes and spreading along as
far as the region between the Ural and Volga rivers north of the Caspian Sea, another group
moving down toward the Syr Darya that ows from the southeast into the Aral Sea. It has
also been surmised that the Cumans together with the Pechenegs are separate Kipchak tribes
or branches of the same Kipchak tribe . To the same Turkish ethnicity as the Kipchaks also
belong the Uigurs, including altogether fteen tribes, one of which was the Kun or Qn
and if the identication of the Kun as Cuman is correct, then the Kipchak and Cumans are
distinctly different tribes, in spite of what Arabic sources would seem to indicate.

2. Westward Migration of the Cumans

By the end of the eleventh century the Cumans had rejoined the part of the Kipchak tribe
who had settled in the south Russian steppes and it was these people who came to be known
as Cumans , the westernmost group of a loosely associated tribal confederation, which in
time came to extend from areas along the Danube River in Europe eastward to an ill-dened
area in the Kazakh steppe and western Siberia. The Pechenegs, who preceded the Cumans
in the general westward migration of these various Turkic tribes, had arrived in the Syr
Darya region at some point early in the 8th century but were pushed out by the Oghuz Turk
tribes later in that century and moved toward the same south Russian steppe area where the
Kipchak were living. In time they exerted control over the area, but were swept aside in turn
by the Cumans, who settled there and subjected neighboring Slavic principalities to constant
raids and attacks.
The Cumans are often referred to in conjunction with other Turkic tribes, beside the
Pechenegs, who inhabited the southern reaches of the Volga River, in particular the Bulgars,
the Khazars, and the Oghurs identied with the present-day Chuvash. Our information
regarding the political history of the Volga Bulgars comes almost exclusively from the
annals of the various Rus principalities. In 985, the Rus under Vladimir I, in alliance
with the Oghuz, raided Volga Bulgaria. The following year the Bulgars are reported to have
sent emissaries to Vladimir enjoining him to embrace Islam, and to the neighbors of the
Volga Bulgars these people had come to symbolize an Islamic state. The Bulgars must have
been in this same region and in the area around the Sea of Azov as early perhaps as the 6th



Christianity among the Cumans

century because by 679 one group of Bulgars had crossed into the northeastern Balkans and
conquered the local Slavic population there. The name Khazar appears, in conjunction with
the name Trk, as early as the Trk period 568~650 and by 630 they began to appear as a
distinct group, at war with their neighbors, the Bulgars, which lasted until some time in the
670s. As for the Oghur tribes, their homeland was in western Siberia and the Kazakh steppes
and their westward migration followed in the wake of the Huns; by about the middle of
the fth century they had settled in the steppes north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
First mention of the Cumans in western sources is in 1117, in an account of an attack by the
Cumans against the Bulgars, under the leadership of their khan ruler , Ayepa, who was the
father-in-law of the leading Rus

Russian prince of the north, Yuri Dolgorukii.

As for the Pechenegs, they were pushed both westward and south into the lands of
Islam by the Cumans during the course of the 11th century. The growing enmity between
the Byzantines and the Pechenegs led the former to an alliance with the Cumans who
now controlled the Pontic steppes. In April 1091, a joint Byzantine-Cuman force dealt
a disastrous defeat to the Pechenegs, and this broke much of the Pecheneg power. A
last attempt on the Byzantine Balkans was repulsed probably not with the help of the
Cumans , again amidst great loss of life, and thereafter the Pechenegs faded from the pages
of history as a distinct group, blending with and indistinguishable from other Turkic groups.
According to the Arabic historian al-Bakri d. 1094 , the Pechenegs up to the year 1009/10
were followers of the religion of the Magi, which may indicate some Zoroastrian or
Manichaean inuences; or, in fact, it may even refer to a shamanistic cult.

3. Religious Conversions of Various Turkic Tribes

Of particular interest is the attitude of these various Turkic tribes toward religion. As
they moved gradually westward and came in contact with sedentary populations of Eastern
Europe and the Near and Middle East, they appear to have converted rather easily from their
original animistic beliefs to various religions of their new neighbors, probably more in an
effort to assimilate Western culture than due to any strong religious convictions.
The most notable example of this is perhaps that of the Khazars: in spite of welcoming
the Christian missionary Constantine or Cyril sent by the Emperor in Constantinople in
851 to convert the people, the khan together with his court adopted Judaism as their ofcial



35

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religion instead, though there is no evidence that Judaism became the state religion of the
Khazar nation; and not long afterward, around 965, they renounced this faith in favor of
Islam.
The majority of the Turkic tribes who migrated to the west, however, adopted Islam,
as they settled near neighboring Islamic countries to the south, although the Bulgars who
were living along the Volga north of the Kipchaks were converted to Islam around 922 by
Ibn Fadlan, who was sent there by the Khalif of Baghdad for that purpose. In 989 Prince
Vladimir of Russia was converted to Christianity and this marked the institution of that
religion as the ofcial faith of the Russian people, as a whole. There is some difference of
opinion as to whether the Chuvash, whose language is similar to that of the Bulgars, though
nominally Christian, are in fact still Muslim, their religion preserving, however, some
pagan animistic elements, or whether at least part of the population belong to the Russian
Orthodox Church.
The other exception to the tendency of Turkic tribes migrating to the west to adopt Islam
are the Cumans, certain groups of which became Christian. As the Cumans moved across
the steppe they settled in ve different areas: 1 the Central Asian-Kazakhstan region; 2
the Volga area; 3 the Don River region; 4 the Dnieper River region; and 5 the Danubian
river region, and early Cuman settlements in Hungary date from probably around 1070.
The Cumans in time became masters of the entire southern Russian steppe zone. This
empire collapsed suddenly, however, when in the winter of 1238-39, the Cumans were
attacked by the Mongols ruled by Khan Batu and were soundly defeated. Following
this event, part of the Cuman population, under Khan Kten, fled to Hungary, where the
earlier Danubian Cuman groups had settled, and Kten sought refuge for himself and his
people from the king of Hungary, offering to convert to Catholicism, a proposition which
was received eagerly by the king, Andras. Early in the thirteenth century Hungary, with
encouragement from the Pope, had become very interested in Cuman affairs. Already the
diocese of Milkovia had been created in Moldavia, a historic region in present-day Rumania
bordering on the Black Sea, the jurisdiction of which extended to the region where the
Cumans had been living, and the Archbishop of Esztergom was named papal legate in
Cumania to follow up on earlier successes of Dominican monks in converting the Cumans
to the east of Hungary.
Welcomed in this way to Hungary, the Cumans spread out along the Danube, but when



Christianity among the Cumans

their khan was assassinated in 1241 by a group of Hungarians and Germans in concert,
apparently alarmed by their rapid incursion into the country, they went on a rampage of
burning and bloodshed equal to that which Europe had not experienced since the incursions
of the Mongols. However, in time most of the Cumans remained in Hungary, not entirely
assimilated culturally, but in separate ethnic communities. Converted to Catholicism and
gradually adapting to the ways of their host country, these people have contributed their own
racial characteristics to the complex make-up of the present-day Hungarian people.
The second conversion of Cuman people occurred during the following century in
the land from which this refugee group under Khan Kten had ed. As a result of Italian
commercial expansion on the north shore of the Black Sea during the 14th century and the
evangelizing activities of Franciscan monks in this region among the Cuman Turks, at least
a portion of the population was converted to Roman Catholicism. It even appears that these
missionary activities were encouraged by zbek, the khan of the Golden Horde himself, in
spite of the fact that he had been converted to Islam, and in 1338 he made a gift of land in
this area, designated to be used as a site for the building of a monastery.

4. The Codex Cumanicus

The Codex Cumanicus, a text preserved in a single manuscript in the Biblioteca Marciana
the library of the Cathedral of San Marco , is a work begun by certain Franciscan monks
who followed in the wake of expansion of Italian commercial activities along the north
shore of the Black Sea toward the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the following
century, with the view to converting the Cuman Turks residing there to Christianity.
The Codex consists of two parts: two glossaries in Latin with equivalents in Persian
which was a lingua franca of the Near and Middle East at that time and Cuman, the
rst glossary arranged according to subject and the second in alphabetic order; the second
part is a translation of Christian texts, most of them part of the ecclesiastical liturgy such
as the Pater Noster and the Credo , in prose and in verse. The rst part, the grammatical
treatise, was written toward the end of the 13th century by Italian colonists, possibly in
Crimea, as an introduction to the language of the people they were in trade with, and
then recopied, in 1303, at the convent of St. John, located probably at Saray, on the Volga
river, then copied again between 1330 and 1344. About ten years later certain Franciscan



35

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monks from Germany added glosses in German to some of the words in the lists in the rst
part and composed the second part. This manuscript was acquired later by some Italian
merchants who were residing in the area, and it eventually made its way to Venice. It is the
sole extant copy of this work and, if it was the only copy the fact that it was available for
purchase suggests that missionary activities had ceased in this area. There is a story that
the manuscript at one point belonged to the famous Italian poet Petrarch 1304~1374 , but
there is no foundation to this story in fact.
A facsimile of the Codex Cumanicus was published in 1936 in Copenhagen under the
direction of Kaare Grnbech. a Danish scholar of Turkish languages. The manuscript
contains 82 folios pages , written on both sides; the first part consists of 55 folios, the
second part consists of 27 folios. The first part begins with the conjugation of the Latin
verb audi to hear in Latin, followed by the corresponding forms in Persian and Cuman
Turkish, and then a list of Latin verbs together with nouns derived from the same verbs
for example, auditus hearing; sense of hearing from audi in alphabetic order; a list of
adverbs; a table showing the declension of nouns and pronouns; and nally a list of nouns
grouped according to category, such as terms pertaining to religion, colors, parts of the
body, vegetables, and mammals. The second part begins with several pages listing words in
Cuman with German glosses and this is followed by texts; these include not only prayers,
sermons, and religious hymns some with music notation of the ninth through fourteenth
century, called neums

, but also riddles, additional notes on the Cuman language, and

short lists of other vocabulary occurring in the preceding prayers and hymns.
Following the publication of this facsimile, Grnbech published, in 1942, a dictionary
listing all the words occurring in the Codex Cumanicus, with German denitions. Translations of some of the riddles and other texts in the Codex Cumanicus had already been published by Willy Bang and other scholars of the Turkic languages, between 1910 and 1930,
but it was not until 1973 that a complete translation, in French, of all the texts in the second
part of the manuscript, nally appeared.

5. Evidence of Christianity among 15th-Century Tatars

As a footnote to the history of this manuscript, it may be noted that a Tatar verson of
the Pater Noster Lord s Prayer was recorded in the account of the travels of Johann Schilt-

0

Christianity among the Cumans

berger in Turkey and areas around the Black Sea between 1396 and 1427. Schiltberger, who
was born in Bavaria in 1381, was taken prisoner in 1396 in the battle of Nicosia against
the Ottoman Turks, and accompanied Suleiman, the eldest son of the sultan, Bayazet, back
to Turkey, where he was employed as a personal attendant to the sultan, particularly in the
capacity of runner or messenger. According to one early annalist, Schiltberger was spared
by Suleiman from the general massacre of prisoners on account of his good looks, but this
is rather a fanciful interpretation on the part of the author because it is clearly asserted in
Schiltberger s account that none of the prisoners under twenty years of age was executed
and he was scarcely sixteen years old

Teer, p. 5 .

Subsequently, upon the defeat of Bayazet by Timur at the battle of Ankara, July 20th,
1402, Schiltberger was again captured, together with the sultan himself, and it was while
he was in the service of Timur that he was sent rst through Armenia, Georgia, and through
Samarkand to Persia and later, upon the death of Timur in 1405, he was dispatched by
Shah Rukh, Timur s son and successor, together with four other Christians, to escort the
Tatar prince Tchekre, recalled to assume the supreme power in the Golden Horde, whom
they accompanied as far as Anjak, at one time a port on the Caspian, near Astrahan.

op.

cit., xxiii , for though Shah Rukh would have naturally taken over the throne, Chegre =
Tchekre appears to have been considered the Khan of the Golden Horde in the period of
political unrest following the death of Timur Spuler: 1965, 140-41 .
It was presumably during Schiltberger s travels through Great Tatary that he heard
the Pater Noster recited in the Tatar language and must have committed it to memory, for
the fact that he was illiterate is well attested; not only was the account of his life dictated
and recorded by someone else it is not mentioned by whom , he was unable to correct
the names recorded in the written text because he could not read op.cit., xviii . This is
unfortunate because some time must have elapsed between the occasion when Schiltberger
heard the prayer and when it was set down, and though he would have had to learn Ottoman
Turkish in the service of Sultan Bayazet, he may not have understood the Tatar text well
enough to recall it entirely and accurately when he dictated it, for a careful study of the
prayer as it was recorded reveals a number of mistakes and it is difficult to reconstruct
the original from what was written. In the present edition of Schiltberger s memoirs, rst
published by the Hakluyt Society, a modern version of the Pater Noster in Tatar has been
included in the notes but, although this helps to some extent to elucidate Schiltberger s



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version, it differs notably from the former. Finally, an Ottoman Turkish version of the Pater
Noster, published in 1842, together with notes, is also given here for the sake of comparison.

6. The Pater Noster in Three Turkic Languages

The text of the Pater Noster in Latin, as part of the Roman Catholic liturgy, is presently,
as it appears in the Maryknoll Missal, as follows:
Pater noster, qui es in caelis:
Sanctiicetur nomen tuum.
Adveniat regnum tuum.
Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie:
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
Sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
The usual rendering in English of this prayer is:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will
be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen. The French version of this same prayer is as given by
Vladimir Drimba :
Notre Pre, qui est aux cieux, que ton nom soit sancti! Que ton rgne arrive; que ta
volunt soit faite sur la terre comme au ciel! Donne-nous aujourd hui notre pain quotidien!
Et pardonne-nous nos pchs, comme nous pardonnes ceux qui nous ont fait du mal. Et ne
nous induis pas dans la tentation du diable, mais dlivre-nous de tout mal. Amen.
What is of note in both of these translations is rst that sicut in caelo, et in terra literally
is as in heaven, so on earth, and that et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et dimittimus
debitorimus nostris is sometimes rendered as and forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors, which follows more closely etymologically the original Latin but misses the
meaning, which in fact should be better expressed, forgive us for our sins even as we
forgive those who have sinned against us. The presumably Latin word tentatio is in fact



Christianity among the Cumans

not the original Latin form, which is temptatio, but is based either on the Italian derivative
tentazione or the French tentation; in the French translation, la tentation du diable is more
specic in specifying this sin as originating from the Devil rather than from another human
being and he renders libera nos a malo not simply dlivre-nous de mal but dlivre-nous
de tout mal.

The Pater Noster in Cuman

Atamz kim kkt sen, al l bolsun seni at !
Kelsin seni xanlx , bolsun seni tilemegi neik kim kkt alley yerd!
Kndegi tmkimizni bizg bugn bergil!
Da yazuqlarmzn bizg boatql neik biz boatrbiz bizg yaman etxenlerg.
Da yekni snamaqna bizni kwrmagil,
Basa bara yamandan bizni qutxargl. Amen!

A lexical and grammatical analysis of this translation from Latin, with the various morphemes rearraged according to the order of the corresponding morphemes in the original
Latin version, will serve to illustrate the characteristic features of the Cuman text:

Pater Noster qui e-s in cael-is

Ata- -mz

kim sen t kk -t al l bolsun at

Adven-iat regnum
kel-

sicut

sancti-c-etur nomen tuum.

-sin xanlx

in cael-o

tuum. Fi-at

voluntas

seni bol-sun tilemeg i

et

sen-i

tua
seni

in terr-.

neik kim t kk -t alley -d yer -d

Pan-

-em nostrum quotidianum

tmek--ni -imiz-

kndegi

d-a

no-bis hodie.

ber-gil biz-g bugn



35

Et

dimitt-e no-bis debit-a

nostra sicut et nos dimitt-i-mus

Da boat-ql biz-g yazuq-lar---n -mz- neik

debi- tor-

i-bus nostris. Et

2008

ne nos

induc-

biz boat-r-biz

as

yaman etxen-ler-g biz -g da -m- biz-ni kwr--gil

in tentation-

em sed liber- a nos

mal-

o.

Amen.

-a- yekni snamaqn- a basa qutxar- l biz-ni -dan bara yaman-dan. Amen.

In his edition of the Cuman translation of the Latin texts in the second part of the Codex
Cumanicus, Vladimir Drimba gives the word superstantialem for the original Latin text
in the phrase Panem nostrum superstantialem 1973, 259 , but the corresponding Cuman
translation of this part of the text as Kndegi tmkimizni with the word kndegi proves that
the text from which this was translated had quotidianum here.

The Tatar Pater Noster

Neither the Tatar Pater Noster collected by Schiltberger in the course of his travels nor
that contributed by Hakhoumoff to the English translation and edition of Schiltberger s account of his travels is fact in what may be termed, strictly speaking, the Tatar language, the
present-day language of the people living mainly in the Autonomous Tatar Republic and
adjacent areas of the Volga region, as well as in scattered places in Western Siberia. The
name Tatar is also applied to a language, more specically referred to as Crimean Tatar
formerly spoken in the Crimean peninsula; that is, until this population was relocated during
World War II to Central Asia, the remnants of which are now residing in the zbek Republic
Poppe: 1965, 44~45 . The source of this misnomer is the fact that during the course of
history the name Tatar has been applied loosely to any number of Turkic peoples, in
particular to those tribes coming into close contact with European nations, often in the
course of their invasions.
A close examination reveals that the language of the prayer recorded by Schiltberger s
annalist is essentially the same as that of the Codex Cumanicus. Though the vocabulary of
this version of the Pater Noster is in places of difcult reconstruction due to the erratic or-



Christianity among the Cumans

thography, the majority of words are recoverable, if not from Cuman Turkic, then from other
Turkic languages; these are qay- turn away; turn aside

here with an extended sense of

forgive ; qoy- allow, permit; put, place; set ; ve and; also, too

not found elsewhere

in the Cuman texts ; and a hapax logomenon, gndelik not kndelik , the equivalent of
Tk. gnlk daily . The only word in this text which might in fact cast doubt upon the
classification of this language as Cuman is ver- give

< OT ber- rather than Kom.

ber-, since the passage of initial b- > v- is restricted to only two Turkic languages: Azeri
and Ottoman Turkish. But this may be the result of interpretation by Schiltberger, since he
was obviously a speaker of the latter language. The rest of the vocabulary is to be found
in the word list for the Cuman version of this prayer; it should be noted that there is some
difference in word order and syntactic constructions between these two versions.

Hakhoumoff s Tatar version turns out, upon comparison of Tatar vocabulary with
corresponding forms in several other possible languages, to have been written in the Azeri
language, spoken in Azerbaijan, in the transcaucasian area, which is divided into five
distinct groups of dialects: 1 eastern on the shore of the Caspian Sea ; 2 western in
the north-west of the general region ; 3 northern in the northern part of the Azerbaijan
Republic ; 4 southern; and 5 central; the language is also spoken in Persian Azerbaijan,
situated in northern Iran Poppe: 1965, 52 . The crucial features that distinguish the language
of this version of the Pater Noster as Azeri are: ver- give , which, as mentioned above,
distinguishes Azeri and Ottoman Turkish from all other Turkic languages, which have forms
with initial [b-]: ber- or bir-; and ol- be; become rather than bol- or bul-, the form without
the initial [b-] again a salient characteristic of the same two languages. There is one word,
gg heaven in the text which does not correspond to the form gy in standard Azeri, but
the former appears to be an earlier form from the original Turkic kk or gk . It is also to
be noted that this Lord s Prayer Our Father pertains rather to the Protestant liturgy and in
the analysis of the text the parallel glosses are given here in English.



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Schiltbergers Tatar Pater Noster

Original text with normalized text

Atha wysum chy chockta sen algusch ludur senung adung kil-sin senung hanluchg
ata bizim kim kk-t sen al -

l-dr seni

at-

kel-sin seni

xanlx-

belsun senung arcchung aley gier da vk achta wer wisum gundaluch otmak chumusen
bol-sun seni

arzu-

alay yer-d ve kk-t. Ver bizim gndlik tmk- imiz-in

woug.
bugn

Kay wisum iasochni alei wis dacha kayelle nin wis iasoch lamasin
Qay bizim yazuq-n alay biz da

qayl- ?

bizim yazuq-lar-mz-n

dacha koina wisni sunamacha illa garta wisni gemandan.

da qoy-ma bizni snamaq-a illa qutxar bizni yamandan

Hakhoumoffs Tatar Pater Noster

Original text with normalized text

Byzum athamuz ky ghyogdasan pyr olsun sanun adun ghyalsun sanun padshalygun
Bizim ata-mz ki gg-d s n pir ol-sun s nin ad-n g l-sin

s nin padalk-n

Olsun sanun stadygun nedja ky geogda ella da dunyada ver byza gyounluk georagymuz
Ol-sun s nin istek-in n

ki gg-d il da dnya-da ver biz gnlk

rek-imiz

Va bagushla byzum tahsurlarumuz nedja ky byz baghishlruh byzum tahsurlulara

V ba la bizim tahsrlarmz n ki biz ba luyuk

bizim tahsrllara

Goma byzy gedah shetan oluna amma pakh ela byzy pyslugden
Goy-ma bizi get-e eytan yol-n-a amma bax



il bizi pislig-d n

Christianity among the Cumans

Tchounky sanunkidr padshalus ihtiar va hiurmat ta diunianun ahruna.

nki

s ninki-dir padalk ixtiyar va hrmet ta dnya-nn axr-n-a.

The Tatar

Azeri Pater Noster with parallel text in Latin ending in English :

Pater Noster

qui es in caelis:

Ata bizim-mz ki s n -d gg d

Adven-iat regnum
G l-

tuum.

santi-c-etur nomen tuum.

ol- sun ad n s nin-n

pir

Fi-at

voluntas tua

sin padalk n s nin-n ol-sun istek in s nin-in

sicut

in cael-o et

n ki d gg d

in

terra.

ile da da dnya da

Panem nostrum quotidianum da no-bis hodie.

rek -imiz

gnlk

ver biz- -----

Et dimitte nobis debit -a

nostra

sicut et

V ba la ----- tahsur-lar mz bizimmz n ki

nos dimitt- i-mus debi- tor-i-bus nostris.

biz ba -lu- yuk tahsur-l- lar-a bizim

Et ne nos inducas

in temptation- em Sed

-- -ma bizi goy ma get-e aytan yol-n

-a

libera nos a

ammaile bax

For thine is

the kingdom and the power and the glory

nki s ninki-dir

padalk

even until the end

ta

-a

ixtiyar va

of the world.

axr n-a -nn

dnya nn



hrmet

malo.

bizi -d n pislig d n

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The Pater Noster in Ottoman Turkish

As given by Charles Boyd in his grammar, The Turkish Interpreter, p. 299

Ai geuklerdeh olan babauz, ismi moocades olsoon.

Ay gk-ler-de ol-an baba- z, is-mi mukaddes ol-sun

Mlekiootoo guelsooon, geujdeh muradu nidjeh iseh yerdeh.

Melekt-u

gel-sun

gk-de murad-

nije

ise yerde

Dakhi beuileh olsoon. Hehr guiunkih etmekimizy bizeh boo guiun vir:
Dak

byle

ol-sun her gn-ki

etmek-imiz bize

bugn

ver

V bizeh sootchlarimizy baghishla, nidjehkih biz daki bizeh sootchly olanlareh

Ve bize

su-lar- m z-

ba la

nije ki

biz daki bize sulu

olan-lar-a

baghishlariz.
ba la-r-iz

Hem bizy ighvaya salma, illa bizy khabisdan coortar; tchun mlek
Hem bizi i va-ya sal-ma ill bizi habis-den kurtat un

ve izzet ebbed senu dir. Amin.

ve izzet ebbed seni -dir, min

7. Vocabularies
Abbreviations

AG

Alttrkisches Wrterbuch

CM

Chagatay Manual

DE

Dictionnaire Etymologique de la Langue Latine

DTL

Dictionary of the Turkic Languages



v coovah

melekt ve kuva

Christianity among the Cumans

ED

An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish

GLT

Grammaire de la langue turque

KW

Komanisches Wrterbuch

PN

Azeri Pater Noster

SC

Syntaxe Comane

WTD

Versuch einer Wrterbuches der Trk-Dialecte

Cuman Vocabulary
alay ~ alley

ita [et] KW 34 . OT ayla alay

so; auf diese Weise

Kom. alay ~allay

ED 272; 154b

thus

al l heiling; geheiligt
Kom. alq ~ al

sanctus; benedictus . OT alq- < alqa-

nomen

KW 44 . OT t d

ata Vater

pater

KW 44 . OT ata at
omnis; totus

name : Kom. at name

father

dare

ED 356b

etiam; ergo; set = sd d autre part, mais, DE 609b

KW 52 . OT basa and; also, in addition; once more

geben

ED 371b

KW 55 . OT br- give : Kom. ber- ED 354b~355a .

bergil gib, Imper. of ber- geben : Uig. brgil give me !

nos : bizg bizge , Dat. of biz

biz wir

bizi AG 92 ; bizni, Acc. of biz wir

bol- werden

ieri

ED 32b~33a

ED 40a

KW 50 . OT bara all

basa und; dann auch, ferner; daher

ber- bir-

praise; blessing :

ED 137b

blessing

at Name

bara all, ganz

thus; like that :

= nobis

ED 354b

KW 61~2 . OT Yen. bizk;

= nos . OT bizni Acc.

AG 92

KW 63 . OT bol- become : Kom. bol- become; be

bolsun Optative or Hortative

ED 331 ;

let him be; may he be .

boat- vergeben, verzeihen absoluere : yzuqlarmz-ni bizge boatql vergib uns unsere
KW 65-6 [dimittere envoyer dans des sens opposes, renvoyer, DE 408a].

Schuld

OT bout- release; renounce; purge

ED 378

bugn ~ bukn heute hodie KW 68 : Not listed in reference sources for OT as a compound.
/-DA/ Locative KW 80 . OT /-DA/ id. AG 88
da ~ ta

auch; jedoch; und

et

KW 80 . OT taq daq

and; furthermore; also

ED 466
/-Dan/ Ablative ab, de [ab ~ a en s loignent, en partant de, depuis, de, DE 1a]
et- tun

facere . OT et- t-, d-

put in order; create; make; do



ED 36a

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etxen < et- tun + /-GAn/: OT /-GAn/, Pres. Ptcpl. ED xliv ; bizge yaman etxenler die
KW 95

jenigen, die Bses gegen uns tun; unsere Schuldiger

etmek ~ tmek

Brot

KW 96 . OT etmek ~ tmek

panis

bread < *epmek cf.

ED 60a

Az. epmek

/-GIl/ Imperative SC 11 . OT /-GIl/ AG 110 < ql- do; make

/-I / 2nd pers, sg. Possessive [tuus]: OT /-I / AG 97
venire [advenire] KW 136 . OT kel- gel-

kel- kommen

come back : Kom. kel-

ED 715b

come

KW 143 : atamz kim kkte-sen Vater unser, der du bist im Himmel

qui

kim der

KW 144 . OT kim who : Kom. kim id.

cel l um = caelum ciel , later coelum, celum, DE 83b

kk Himmel
kk gk

ED 720b~721b

ED 708b~709a

sky : Kom. kk id.

kndegi tglich

cotidianum = quotidianum, DE 561b

KW 158 . OT kn gn
kvr- < *kigr-

sun; day : Kom. kn id.

einfhren

KW 150 . OT

KW 159 < kn Tag

dies

ED 725

_____ [indcere mener, conduire dans; tromper, DE

186a]: snamaqna bizni kvrmegil fhre uns nicht in die Versuchung des Teufels
KW 160 . OT kigr- Caus. < kir-

bring in; introduce

ED 712b : kir- gir-

enter

ED 735b
/-mA-/ Vb. Negative [ne forme de negation, DE 432b]. OT /-mA-/ Negation of Verb Stem
AG 81
/- I mIz/ our [noster]. OT /- I mIz/ id.
neik wie

AG 97

sicut [sicut et]: bolsun seni tilemegi neik kim kkte aly yerde dein

wille geschene, wie im Himmel so auf Erden

Rel.
why

KW 170 . OT nek how? why?

how;
ED 775b~776a
sicut

neik kim: neik wie

KW 169 ; neik kim Leitet temporale Nebenstze ein: als

neik kim eittik, neik kim eittiler audires etc. KW 171 . OT nek how; why :
Kom. nek ~ neik
qutqar- ~ qutxar-

as; like

ED loc. cit. ; cf. nkin wie?

befreien; erlosen

_____ [liberre librer, dlivrer, DE 355a]:

bara yamandan bizni qutxar l erlose uns von allem beln

rescue ; qurtul- be rescued

AG 100

KW 205 . OT qurt ar-

<*qurt- ; /-GAr-/ is not a regular Causative Sufx ED

649b , but cf. /-GAn-/ Denom. Vb. , e.g. k lkr- durchdenken < k l Hertz

0

Christianity among the Cumans

AG 67 ; for *qurt- cf. Mo. qoru- diminish, decrease; wane; lessen; die .
sen du

KW 217 . Used also alone as copula for 2 pers. Sg.: sen = err sen [es], cf.

tu

SC 17

ata- mz kim kkt-sen notre Pre qui es aux cieux

seni : Gen. of sen du
/seni

Gen. /sana Dat.

snamaq Versuchung

KW 217 . OT sen thou : Kom. sen/seni Acc.

tu = tuus

ED 831a~832b

_____ < sna- erproben

probare

KW 228 . OT sna- test

ED 835
/-sUn/ Optative SC 10 . OT /-zUn/ ~ /-Un/

AG 110

tilemek Wille voluntas < tile- wnschen; erbitten

KW 170 . OT tile- dilexanlq qanlq

KW 244 ; geschehen

velle

ED 492

seek; desire : Kom. tile- ask for

Knigtum; Knigreich [regnum]. OT xanlq kingdom : Kom. qanlq ~

xanlx < OT xan ruler : Kom. qan ~ xan

ED 630

malus : yaman et- Bses tun; schlecht handeln KW

yaman schlecht, bse, bel; bel

112 . OT yaman bad; evil

emperor; king

ED 937a

yaman etxen [dbitor dbiteur , DE 165b] < yaman et- Bses tun, schlecht handeln KW
loc.cit.
yazuq ~ yazq

Snde; Schuld

ED 985b

yazuq sin; failing; defect

yek Teufel; teuich, bse

culpa; peccatum [dbita, DE 165b] KW 119~20 . OT

_____

yakka < Skr. yaksa demon

KW 121 . OT yek yk

demon; evil

< ? Prak.

ED 710 : yekni snamaq [temptti tentation, DE

681b
yer Erde

terra : kk yer Himmel und Erde

Kom. yer earth; ground; place

KW 122 . OT yr ground; earth; land :

ED 954

Azeri Vocabulary
/-A/ mperfect Gerund Converb , e,g, al-a by taking . One use is to indicate purpose or
aim: meni kra keldi he came to see me
ad, Tat. isem name

CM 141-42

DTL 98 ; but cf. at in atsz namenlose

WTD 1.440 ; Tk. ad

name : OT t d ; Chag. at, Kip. ad ED 32b~33a : pir olsun s nin adn PN 1~2
holy be thy name
alay ~aly , Kom. so, auf diese Weise
amma, Tat. mma but

KW 34

DTL 23 ; Tk. < Ar. amma but



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arzu, Kom. wish; desire; request in arzula- begehren, zu besitzen wnschen

KW 42

DTL 56 ; Tk. arch. ata father : OT ata; Chag. ata, Kip. ata ED

ata, Tat. ata father

40 : bizim atamz PN 1

Our Father
WTD 1.132 ; Tk. < Ar.

axr, Tat axr Letzte, Ende

Chag. axr darauf; nachher; der Letzte

end; at the end; at the last :

WTD 1.134

DTL 61 ; Tk. ba la- forgive : OT ba la- give

ba la-, Tat. gafu it- forgive

ED 321b

ba gift ; Chag. ba la- give; forgive

ba lu forgiving; possessing forgiveness : Kom. ba Geschenk

donum

KW 47 ;

WTD 4.1453

Kom., Tat. ba Geschenk; Gabe

bax-, Tat. kara- look

<

DTL 88 ; Tk. bak- look; look after, take care of; treat = cure ;

bakl- be treated, cured : OT baq- look at/after ; Chag. bak-, Kip. bak- look at ,
Kom. bak- ~ bax-

ED 311

look at/after

biz, Tat. bez we ; Tk. biz we ; Az. biz

bizi, Tat. bezne us

Dat.

to us DTL 164 ; Tk. bize to us ; Az.

DTL 160 ; Tk bizi us ; Az. bizim, Tat. bezney Gen.

our

DTL 105 ; Tk. bizim our

r k, Tat. ikmk bread

DTL 21 ; Tk. prov. rek bread; ring-shaped bread ;

Tkm. rek bread : OT etmek ~tmek ; epmek bread ; Chag. tmek, Kip. epmek
~ etmek ; SW Az. epmek ~ eppek , NC, SW dial. ekmek ED 60a; 12a : ver biz
gnlk r k- imiz PN 4
nki, Tat. nki because
da, Tat da also

give to us our daily bread

DTL 15 ; Tk. < Pers. nki because; for

DTL 6 ; Tk. da too; also ; Krm., Osm. daha noch, wieder; auch

WTD 3.1615 ; Tat., Kom., Kaz. ta auch; noch

as in Tk. ; cf. Kom. da ~ ta

/-DA/ Enclitic Particle = too; also

Chag. da and; also, too
/-Dir/ Aux. Vb. to be

auch; jedoch ;

CM 287

CM 134 ; Tk. /-DIr/ is indeed

dnya < Ar. , Tat. dn ya world

g l-, Tat. kil- come

WTD 3.798

DTL 168 ; Tk. < Ar. dnya world; Earth

DTL 32 ; Tk. gel- come : OT kel- gel- ; Chag. kl- kel- , Kip.

kel-, SW Az. kel- ED 715b

get-, Tat. bar- go

DTL 66 ; Tk. git- go on, continue : OT kt- gt-

go ; Chag. kt-

git- , Kip. ket- go away ; SW Az. ket- ED 701a

gg, Az. gy < *gg , Tat. kk sky; heaven

DTL 136 ; Tk. gk sky; heaven : OT kk

gk ; Chag. gg, Kip. kk; Tkm. gk ED 708b~709a : bizim atamz ki ggd s n PN



Christianity among the Cumans

Our Father, who art in Heaven

gnd lik = gnlk, cf. Tk. gnlk daily : OT knlk gnlk

knlk daily

ED 732 ; Kar. knl einen Tag habend

/-lIK/, cf. OT kntemek daily

period of a day ; Khak.

WTD 2.1442 ; for gn-d +

ED 731a

hrmet: Tk. < Ar. hrmet respect; honor; dignity ; Kom. xormat Ehre
/- y IK/ 1 pers. pl. of Substantive Verbs

= we are : Tk. obs.

KW 103

/- y IK/ for /- y IZ/

GLT 386, table . Given the form baghishlruh of the text, the most likely analysis is
ba - lu-yuk we are forgiving

PN 6 rather than ba la-r-z we forgive

DTL 167 ; Tk. ile with; and : OT birle with ; Chag. birle with ;

il , Tat. beln with

bile likewise , Kip. bile; SW Az. ile ED 364b~365a

istadk ? for istiade, cf. Tk. < Ar. istiade asking; desiring or Tk. istek wish; desire
OT isteg seeking; desire
xtyar ixtiyar , Az. Auswahl, Wahl
will : Chag. ihtiyr choice; option
ki, cf. Tk. < Pers.

WTD 1.1357 ; Tk. < Ar. ihtiyar choice; free

CM 296

who; that : Chag. ki which; that

CM 298

/-KI/ Denom. N. forms adjectives with the sense of belonging to especially of places and
times

CM 55

n , Tat niek how

DTL 75 ; Tk. nije how? : OT nee how many ? ; Chag. ne

how much? ; nee nije

because ; SW Az. nije ED 775

n ki as , cf. Kom. neik kim wie : olsun s nin ist gin istiadan n kim ggd il
da dnyada PN 3~4

thy will be done as in Heaven, so on earth : Kom. bolsun seni

tile megi neik kim kkte aly yerde 126.28

dein Wille geschehe, wie im Himmel so

auf Erden
ol-, Tat. bul- be; exist

DTL 14 ; Tk. ol- be; exist : OT bol- id. ; Chag. bol- ~ ol- ,

Kip. bol-; SW Az. oltmek, Kom. bread ; cf. etmek

padalk padalq , cf. Tk. padiahlk kingdom : Osm. padiahlk < padiah
itt, Regierung

WTD 4.1182 : g lsin s nin padal n PN 2

pir der Heilige; der Herrscher : Kar., Krm. id.

Souvern-

Thy kingdom come

WTD 4.1331 ; Tk. < Ar. bir the

mercy and grace of God

pislik Schlechtigkeit, Bosheit

WTD 4.1352 ; Tk. pislik filth; filthiness; obscenity ;

Az., Osm., Chag. pis unsauber; schmutzig, schlecht



WTD 4.1350

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qayl- Passive < qay- turn away/back : Tk. kay- slide, slip ; but cf. kay l anxious, worried < kay anxiety, grief ; here = be forgiven

cf. Kom. boatr- cause to release

= cause to forgive
qay-: OT qay- turn away/back ; Osm. kay
release
qoy-

turn aside/away

ED 674b = boat-

forgive
DTL 118 ; Tk. koy- let go; leave; put, place; permit : OT

oy- , Tat. kuy- put

kd- put down; give up; put ; Chag. koy- abandon; relinquish , Kip. koy- let go,
release; put down ; Osm. koy- abandon; allow

ED 596a , Cum. qoy- allow, permit;

put, place = kvr- lead; bring in; conduct, introduce to ; lead into
sen s n , Tat. sin you sg. , thou
s nin, Tat. sine

Gen.

DTL 169 ; Tk. sen you sg. ; thou : OT sen; Az.

your sg. , thy ; Tk. senin your sg. , thy

s ninki yours sg. , thine < s nin

snamaq, Kom. Versuchung

temptation

KW 228 , sna- erproben

try =

attempt
eytan, Tat. aytan Satan
ta < Pers.

DTL 128 ; Tk. eytan Satan; devil

even until ; Tk. ta even until/unto; as far as

tahsur = trespass ; Tk. < Ar.

v , Tat. hm and

a causing to suffer loss; ruining

DTL 7 ; Kom. and : Tk. < Ar.

and; also, too; or; nut

DTL 66 ; Tk. ver- give : OT br- give ; Chag. br- vr- , Kip.

ver-, Tat. bir- give

ber- ~br- ; SW Az. ver- ED 354b~55a

yol, Tat. yul road
yol road

DTL 125 ; Tk. yol path; way : OT yol road; way ; Chag. yol, Kip.

ED 917

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