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The Franciscans and Yaylaq Khatun

This study explores two issues. The first topic, as the title suggests, deals with the appearance of the Franciscan Order and its expansion at the expense of the Dominicans on the southern Russian steppe in the second half of the thirteenth century. The second question is tied to one of the successes of the Franciscans: the conversion to Christianity of one of the wives of Nogay, the khanmaker, the powerful lord of the western regions of the Golden Horde. I will reconstruct what can be ascertained about this khatun, based on Latin, Muslim and Byzantine sources

Ecclesiastical Terminology in TÖRE BITIGI: ARÏ

In this article the semantic field of the Armeno-Kipchak word arï/ari “holy, sacred” is examined on the basis of Töre Bitigi (Wrocław version), which is an Armeno-Kipchak version of the Old Armenian law code Datastanagirk’. This magistrative-juridical text was based in a large part on ecclesiastical prescriptions. Accordingly it is possible to see a group of religious terms in the text and the word of arï/ari is one of them. This significant term shows parallelism with other historical Turkic texts, which have been translated from the Holy Book.Daγï da ne üčün emdi klädik yazmaga törälärni, ya ne säbäptän teprändi esimiz bu iškä [...] bu vaχtlarda erinčekliktän üvrämägä klämäslär Eski u Yäŋï Törälärni ne markarẹlardan, ne Awedarandan, ki bolgaylar edi ari bitiklerniŋ küčündän bilmägä könü töräni. Anïŋ üčün klädik bu Törä bitiki bilä oyatmaga alarnï, nečik kimsäni yuχudan.Töre Bitigi/Ekinči, ne üčün yazdïq ya kimniŋ pričinasïndan 5r/160

The Ten Principles of Karaite Faith in a Seventeenth-Century Hebrew Poem from Troki

The ten principles of Karaite faith were originally compiled by medieval Byzantine Karaite scholars to sum up the basics of the Karaite Jewish creed. Early modern Karaites wrote poetic interpretations on the principles. This article provides an analysis and an English translation of a seventeenth-century Hebrew poem by the Lithuanian Karaite, Yehuda ben Aharon. In this didactic poem, Yehuda ben Aharon discusses the essence of divinity and the status of the People of Israel, the heavenly origin of the Torah, and future redemption. The popularity of Karaite commentaries and poems on the principles during the early modern period shows that dogma―and how to understand it correctly―had become central for the theological considerations of Karaite scholars. The source for this attentiveness is traced to the Byzantine Karaite literature written on the principles and to the treatment of the Maimonidean principles in late medieval rabbinic literature

The Graphemes /š/ and /ŋ/ in the Religious Texts of the CODEX CUMANICUS

The aim of the article is to point out the lack of research on palaeography and orthography of the Codex Cumanicus. The article deals with the use of symbols used to denote the consonants /š/ and /ŋ/ of the religious texts in the “German part” of the manuscript. The texts can be divided into two sections: the first being on folios 61r–63r, while the second on folios 69r–76r and 80r. This difference in use of the symbols may show that there were two different methods of writing consonants, which were foreign to the orthography of Medieval Latin writing, in the above-mentioned two sections of the text. The article stresses the importance of the palaeographical and orthographical analysis on the Codex Cumanicus, in order to be able to draw valid linguistic information from the codex

Emergence of a New Written Culture: The use of Hebrew script among the Krimchaks and the Karaim

Conversion to a religion usually has a positive impact on the written culture of a given community. The conversion may or may not result in the adoption of a new writing system. In the Turkic world, we find examples for both cases. The Karaims, by their conversion into Karaitism, adopted the Hebrew script. They used the Hebrew alphabet up till the beginning of the 20th century in their everyday life for writing; for example, private letters and secular and religious texts in Karaim.Another Turkic speaking group, the heterogeneous Rabbanite community of Krimchaks (whose majority is of Sephardic origin) also used the Hebrew script to write their vernacular.Some characteristics of the writing systems of the Karaim and of the Krimchaks have been described, but no comparative research has thus far been carried out. In this study, the peculiarities of the Hebrew alphabet used by both Turkic speaking peoples will be discussed and illustrated. For instance, the new characters, which were introduced in order to indicate specific Turkic phonetic values, and the ways the same Hebrew vowel sign or letter is used in the different Krimchak and Karaim manuscripts

Foreword

It is with great pleasure and pride that Vilnius University’s Centre of Oriental Studies presents the latest special issue of Acta Orientalia Vilnensia, featuring a collection of peer-reviewed articles on the religious and linguistic diversity of Turkic-speaking peoples in Eastern Europe. [...

Framing the Body and the Body of Frame: Item songs in popular Hindi cinema

University of DelhiThe basic framework of this paper is to deliberate upon the emergence of item songs as a reinstatement of the dominance of the ‘song and dance sequences’ in popular Hindi cinema, and its inferences as a sub-text in contemporary cultural forms. While doing so, the paper argues that the transition in consumption and the circulation/distribution of Hindi film songs, and other visual/ audio media has affectively facilitated the course. In the given context, the paper further attempts to address shifts in the filmic techniques that have consistently regulated the production of such songs, revealing a spectrum of negotiations between and among the ‘body’, ‘performance’, and ‘frame’, with which the spectator becomes familiarized over a series of visual/ audio leaps that have taken place in the traditional media forms like that of television and in newer forms like the internet

ACTA ORIENTALIA VILNENSIA EXCHANGE PROGRAMME

The editors of the Acta Orientalia Vilnensia, in co-operation with the Oriental library at Vilnius University, highly welcome a regular exchange of scholarly periodicals publishing on Asian and Middle Eastern studies. For exchange proposals, please contact the secretary of the editorial board. Journals or serial publications received under the programme in 2012:• Acta Asiatica. Bulletin of the Institute of Eastern Studies• Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute• Archív Orientální• Asian Ethnology• Asian Studies Review• Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques• Brahmavidya: The Adyar Library Bulletin• Bulletin of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute• Cracow Indological Studies• Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy• East and West• Folia Orientalia• Indologica Taurinensia• Japanese Journal of Religious Studies• Journal of Sukrtindra Oriental Research Institute• Journal of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai• Journal of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies• Journal of the Oriental Institute, M.S. University of Baroda• Linguistic and Oriental Studies from Poznan• Monumenta Serica. Journal of Oriental Studies• New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies• Orientalia Suecana• Pandanus• Philosophy East and West• Religion East and West• Rocznik Orientalistyczny• Studia Indologiczne• Studia Orientalia• Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens• ZINBU

The Politics Around ‘B-Grade’ Cinema in Bengal: Re-viewing popular Bengali film culture in the 1980s‒1990s

Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityThe 1980–90s was a turbulent period for the Bengali cinema, the events being triggered by a series of industrial problems, the anxiety of a new film public and the pressing necessity for newer forms of articulation. During this time, Bengali popular cinema responded with newer genres of narratives (elaborated later) that emerged from dissimilar aesthetic positions and different social perspectives. But it is unfortunate that instead of engaging with this diverse range of film making practices, the journalistic and academic discourses on the 1980–90s Bengali cinema present only the ‘crisis-ridden’ scenarios of the Bengali film industry―suffering from multiple problems. Interestingly, this marginalized and unacknowledged cinema of the 1980–90s almost became synonymous to the concept of the ‘B-grade’ cinema, although it is not similar in formation, circulation and reception like the other established B-circuit or B-grade cinemas across the world. This paper aims to criticize this simpler ‘crisis narrative’ scenario by looking at the categories of class and audience and questioning the relevance of issues related to the popularity of these films. In brief, our article aims to problematize the notion of what is ‘B-grade’ cinema in the context of the Bengali cinema of the 1980–90s and by referring to this film culture, it tries to open up some other possibilities to which this notion can refer