Sun-Gods and Soviets : historicising a North Caucasian Nart Saga

This paper examines the potential historical value of the Nart Sagas, a cycle of North Caucasian folk epics. It discusses the methodological problems in dating them, and especially in treating them as a corpus of entirely ancient date. In response, the author proposes the use of a 'rhizomatic' approach: treating the surviving sagas as unique, 'frozen' performances, which concentrate a number of strands, some of which may lead into other extant parallel texts. To test this theory, it is applied to a single saga, the tale of the hero Shoshlan's journey to the underworld, and this saga's apparent parallels with Sarmatian art and with early mediaeval Christian Apocalypse Literature. The paper concludes with a summary of how this method can be more widely applied, through the use of thematic analogy

The late Mamlūk transition of the 1380s : the view from the North Caucasus

This article argues that the transition between the early and late Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt in the 1380s was partially caused by political developments in the Northwest Caucasus. The transition from "Turkish" to "Circassian" mamluk dominance was facilitated by the rise of new princely elites in the Northwest Caucasus during the bulqaq civil wars in the Ulus of Jochi (Golden Horde) (1359-1381). These new elites justified their rule through their access to the wider Mediterranean world and its material products. With the end of the bulqaq, these princes lost access to the imperial centres of the Ulus of Jochi, important sources of these prestige goods. In order to maintain their position in the Mediterranean market, they increasingly raided, enslaved and sold other Northwest Caucasians, which led to a rise in the number of Circassian slaves becoming available in Egypt and Italy

Middeleuwse zijderoutstad Magas terug op de kaart

Tweehonderd jaar lang waren archeologen en historici op zoek naar de verloren middeleeuwse stad Magas in het Russische Kaukasusgebergte. Onderzoeker John Latham-Sprinkle (UGent) vond de mythische zijderoutestad na heel wat speurwerk in oude geschriften