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The Origin of the Scythians and the Identity of the Scythians and the Alans in John Tzetzes’ Work

Year 2024, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 104 - 129, 23.02.2024
https://doi.org/10.35236/jots.1419539

Abstract

Much has been said about the origin of the Scythians, but no academician or researcher has ever been able to provide evidence to reveal the identity of the Scythians. Today, the prevailing view about the origin of the Scythians is the view that they are of Indo-European origin. And this argument is supported by Western academics. No written sources say that the Scythians were of Indo-European origin or spoke an Indo-European language. The only thing that makes those a community of Indo-European origin is the arbitrary explanations of the personal names belonging to their language in Indo-European languages and the kinship relationship established between the Ossetians and Alans. No consistent explanation of the words of the Scythian language in Indo-European languages has been provided to date. However, very recently, in the light of written sources, more than one piece of evidence has been presented to shed light on the origins of the Scythians. This article aims to reveal the true identity of the Scythians and Alans in the work of the 12th-century Byzantine writer John Tzetzes in the ligt of these new evidences.

References

  • Al-Athir, I. (2008). The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athīr for the Crusading Period from al-Kāmil fī’l-ta’rīkh Part 3: The Years 589-629/1193-1231 The Ayyūbids after Saladin and the Mongol Menace. London & New York: Routledge.
  • Albu, E. (2014). The Medieval Peutinger Map/Imperial Roman Revival in a German Empire. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Barbaro, J. & Contarini, A. (1873). Travels to Tana and Persia. London: The Haklyut Society.
  • Beekes, R. (2010). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden & Boston: Brill.
  • Berghaus, H. (1852). Physikalischer Atlas. Gotha: Justus Perthes.
  • Casey, B. & Kaestle, F. A. (2010). Investigation of Ancient DNA from Western Siberia and the Sargat Culture. Human Biology, 82(2), 143-156.
  • Cevdet, A. (2022). Kırım ve Kafkas Tarihçesi. İstanbul: Büyüyen Ay.
  • Chavannes, É. (1905). Les pays d’Occident d’après le Wei lio. T’oung Pao, 6, 519-571.
  • Dio, C. (1955). Dio’s Roman History IX. Cambridge & Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  • Diodorus. (1967). The Library of History II. Cambridge & Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  • Drinkwater, J. F. (2007). The Alamanni and Rome 213-496 (Caracalla to Clovis). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • DS = Türkiye’deki Halk Ağzından Derleme Sözlüğü I (2019). Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları.
  • Ebü’l-Fidâ. (2022). Ebü’l-Fidâ Coğrafyası. İstanbul: Yeditepe Yayınları.
  • El-Bîrûnî, E. R. (2013). Tahdîdü Nihâyâti’l-Emâkin. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları.
  • Foltz, R. (2022). The Ossetes/Modern-Day Scythians of the Caucasus. London: I. B. Taurus.
  • Golden, P. B. (1980). Khazar Studies/An Historico-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.
  • Herodotos (2004). Herodot Tarihi. Çev. Ökmen, M. İstanbul: İş Bankası Yayınları.
  • Herodotus (1904). The Histories of Herodotus. New York: D. Appleton and Company.
  • Hirth, F. (1901). Hunnenforschungen. Keleti Szemle, 2, 81-91.
  • Hirth, F. (1917). The Story of Chang K’ién, China’s Pioneer in Western Asia (Text and Translation of Chapter 123 of Ssï-ma Ts’ién’s Shï-ki). Journal of American Oriental Society, 37, 89-152.
  • Humbach, H. & Faiss, K. (2012). Herodotus’s Scythians and Ptolemy’s Central Asia: Semasiological and Onomasiological Studies. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag.
  • Khazdan, A. P. & Epstein, A. W. (1985). Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. California: University of California Press.
  • Kipshidze, İ. (1914). Grammatika Mingrel’skago (İverskago): s Khrestomatíeyu i Slovarem. St.-Peterburg: Tipografiya İmperatorskoy Akademiy Nauk.
  • Klein, E. (1966). A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language I. Amsterdam-New York-London: Elseiver Publishing Company.
  • Konovalova, I. G. (2009). Vostochnaya Yevropa v Trudakh Arabskikh Geografov XIII-XIV vv.: Tekst, Perevod, Kommentariy. Moskva: Vostochnaya Literatura.
  • Laypanov, K. T. & Miziyev, İ. M. (2008). Türk Halklarının Kökeni. İstanbul: Selenge Yayınları.
  • Maenchen-Helfen, O. (1939). Ting-Ling. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 4(1), 77-86.
  • Marcellinus, A. (1986). History III. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
  • Meshcherskiy, N. (1958). Istoriya İudeyskoy Voyny Iosifa Flaviya v Drevnerusskom Perevode. Moskva & Leningrad: Akademii Nauk SSSR.
  • Mogil’nikov, V. A. (1992). Lesostep’ Zaural’ya i Zapadnoy Sibiri. In Stepnaya Polosa Aziatskoy Chasti SSSR v Skifo-Sarmatskoye Vremya (pp. 274-311). Moskva: Nauka.
  • Molodin, V. & Pilipenko, A. S. (2012). Human Migrations in the Southern Region of the West Siberian Plain during the Bronze Age: Archaeological, Palaeogenetic and Anthropological Data. In Keiser, E. et al. (Eds.), Population Dynamics in Prehistory and Early History: New Approaches Using Stable Isotopes and Genetics (pp. 93-111). Berlin: De Gruyter.
  • Mori, M. (1957). The Account of the Tingling in Hsi-jung-chuan of the Weilio. 東洋学報 [Reports of the Oriental Society], 30, 82-109.
  • Mroveli, L. (2014). The Lives of Georgian Kings. In Kartlis Tskhovreba: A History of Georgia (13-44). Tbilisi: Artanuji Publishing.
  • Nemet, Y. (1960). Spisok Slovna Yazyke Yasov, Vengerskikh Alan. Ordzhonikidze: Osetinskiy NII.
  • Paasonen, H. (1950). Çuvaş Sözlüğü. İstanbul: İbrahim Horoz Basımevi.
  • Petermann, A. (1860). Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes’ Geographischer Anstalt über wichtige neue Erforschungen auf die Gesammtgebiete der Geographie. Gotha: Justus Perthes.
  • Ptolemaios (2006). Handbuch der Geographie. Basel: Schwabe Verlag.
  • Pulleyblank, E. G. (1983). The Chinese and Their Neighbours in Prehistoric and Early Historic Times. The Origins of the Chinese Civilization (pp. 411-466). Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Pulleyblank, E. G. (2000). The Hsiung-nu. In Roemer, H. R. (Ed.), History of the Turkic Peoples in the pre-Islamic Period (pp. 52-75). Berlin: Klaus Schwarz.
  • Şengül, F. (2013). Sabir Sekel Avar ve Bulgar Etnik Meselelerinin Çözümü. İstanbul: Hikmetevi Yayınları.
  • Şengül, F. (2023a). Sakaların ve Sarmatların Kökeni. Konya: Eğitim Kitabevi.
  • Şengül, F. (2023b). Turkic Shamanism and Belief Terms of Scythian Origin in Ancient Greek World. In Social Sciences in a Globalizing World (pp. 275-290). İzmir: Duvar Yayınları.
  • Tairov, A. D. (2005). Ranniye Kochevniki Yuzhnogo Zaural’ya i Sakskiy Mir v VII–II vv. do n.e. Arkheologicheskiye kul’tury i kul’turno-Istoricheskiye Obshchnosti Bol’shogo Urala. Yekaterinburg.
  • Taşağıl, A. (2013). Çin Kaynaklarına Göre Eski Türk Boyları. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu.
  • Taskina, V. S. (1973). Materialy po Istorii Syunnu (po Kitayskim Istochnikam). Moskva: Nauka.
  • Tavkul, U. (2000). Karaçay Malkar Türkçesi Sözlüğü. Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları.
  • Tavkul, U. (2012). Karaçay-Malkar/Kafkasların Kalbine Yolculuk. Ankara: Bengü Yayınları.
  • Tavkul, U. (2015). Kafkasya Gerçeği. İstanbul: Selenge Yayınları.
  • Tavkul, U. (2023). Karaçay-Malkarlar/Bir Kafkasya Halkının Etnik, Siyasî ve Kültürel Tarihi. İstanbul: Selenge Yayınları.
  • Tsyan’, S. (2002). Istoricheskiye Zapiski (Shi Tzi) IX. Moskva: RAN.
  • Tuğul, S. (2011). Kafkasya: Volga-Ural-Sibirya. İstanbul: Nasa Ajans Yayınları.
  • Tzetzae, I. (2019). Theogonia. Lecce: PensaMultimedia.

İskitlerin Kökeni ve John Tzetzes’in Eserinde İskitlerin ve Alanların Kimliği

Year 2024, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 104 - 129, 23.02.2024
https://doi.org/10.35236/jots.1419539

Abstract

Much has been said about the origin of the Scythians, but no academician or researcher has ever been able to provide evidence to reveal the identity of the Scythians. Today, the prevailing view about the origin of the Scythians is the view that they are of Indo-European origin. And this argument is supported by Western academics. No written sources say that the Scythians were of Indo-European origin or spoke an Indo-European language. The only thing that makes those a community of Indo-European origin is the arbitrary explanations of the personal names belonging to their language in Indo-European languages and the kinship relationship established between the Ossetians and Alans. No consistent explanation of the words of the Scythian language in Indo-European languages has been provided to date. However, very recently, in the light of written sources, more than one piece of evidence has been presented to shed light on the origins of the Scythians. This article aims to reveal the true identity of the Scythians and Alans in the work of the 12th-century Byzantine writer John Tzetzes in the ligt of these new evidences.

References

  • Al-Athir, I. (2008). The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athīr for the Crusading Period from al-Kāmil fī’l-ta’rīkh Part 3: The Years 589-629/1193-1231 The Ayyūbids after Saladin and the Mongol Menace. London & New York: Routledge.
  • Albu, E. (2014). The Medieval Peutinger Map/Imperial Roman Revival in a German Empire. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Barbaro, J. & Contarini, A. (1873). Travels to Tana and Persia. London: The Haklyut Society.
  • Beekes, R. (2010). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden & Boston: Brill.
  • Berghaus, H. (1852). Physikalischer Atlas. Gotha: Justus Perthes.
  • Casey, B. & Kaestle, F. A. (2010). Investigation of Ancient DNA from Western Siberia and the Sargat Culture. Human Biology, 82(2), 143-156.
  • Cevdet, A. (2022). Kırım ve Kafkas Tarihçesi. İstanbul: Büyüyen Ay.
  • Chavannes, É. (1905). Les pays d’Occident d’après le Wei lio. T’oung Pao, 6, 519-571.
  • Dio, C. (1955). Dio’s Roman History IX. Cambridge & Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  • Diodorus. (1967). The Library of History II. Cambridge & Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  • Drinkwater, J. F. (2007). The Alamanni and Rome 213-496 (Caracalla to Clovis). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • DS = Türkiye’deki Halk Ağzından Derleme Sözlüğü I (2019). Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları.
  • Ebü’l-Fidâ. (2022). Ebü’l-Fidâ Coğrafyası. İstanbul: Yeditepe Yayınları.
  • El-Bîrûnî, E. R. (2013). Tahdîdü Nihâyâti’l-Emâkin. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları.
  • Foltz, R. (2022). The Ossetes/Modern-Day Scythians of the Caucasus. London: I. B. Taurus.
  • Golden, P. B. (1980). Khazar Studies/An Historico-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.
  • Herodotos (2004). Herodot Tarihi. Çev. Ökmen, M. İstanbul: İş Bankası Yayınları.
  • Herodotus (1904). The Histories of Herodotus. New York: D. Appleton and Company.
  • Hirth, F. (1901). Hunnenforschungen. Keleti Szemle, 2, 81-91.
  • Hirth, F. (1917). The Story of Chang K’ién, China’s Pioneer in Western Asia (Text and Translation of Chapter 123 of Ssï-ma Ts’ién’s Shï-ki). Journal of American Oriental Society, 37, 89-152.
  • Humbach, H. & Faiss, K. (2012). Herodotus’s Scythians and Ptolemy’s Central Asia: Semasiological and Onomasiological Studies. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag.
  • Khazdan, A. P. & Epstein, A. W. (1985). Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. California: University of California Press.
  • Kipshidze, İ. (1914). Grammatika Mingrel’skago (İverskago): s Khrestomatíeyu i Slovarem. St.-Peterburg: Tipografiya İmperatorskoy Akademiy Nauk.
  • Klein, E. (1966). A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language I. Amsterdam-New York-London: Elseiver Publishing Company.
  • Konovalova, I. G. (2009). Vostochnaya Yevropa v Trudakh Arabskikh Geografov XIII-XIV vv.: Tekst, Perevod, Kommentariy. Moskva: Vostochnaya Literatura.
  • Laypanov, K. T. & Miziyev, İ. M. (2008). Türk Halklarının Kökeni. İstanbul: Selenge Yayınları.
  • Maenchen-Helfen, O. (1939). Ting-Ling. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 4(1), 77-86.
  • Marcellinus, A. (1986). History III. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
  • Meshcherskiy, N. (1958). Istoriya İudeyskoy Voyny Iosifa Flaviya v Drevnerusskom Perevode. Moskva & Leningrad: Akademii Nauk SSSR.
  • Mogil’nikov, V. A. (1992). Lesostep’ Zaural’ya i Zapadnoy Sibiri. In Stepnaya Polosa Aziatskoy Chasti SSSR v Skifo-Sarmatskoye Vremya (pp. 274-311). Moskva: Nauka.
  • Molodin, V. & Pilipenko, A. S. (2012). Human Migrations in the Southern Region of the West Siberian Plain during the Bronze Age: Archaeological, Palaeogenetic and Anthropological Data. In Keiser, E. et al. (Eds.), Population Dynamics in Prehistory and Early History: New Approaches Using Stable Isotopes and Genetics (pp. 93-111). Berlin: De Gruyter.
  • Mori, M. (1957). The Account of the Tingling in Hsi-jung-chuan of the Weilio. 東洋学報 [Reports of the Oriental Society], 30, 82-109.
  • Mroveli, L. (2014). The Lives of Georgian Kings. In Kartlis Tskhovreba: A History of Georgia (13-44). Tbilisi: Artanuji Publishing.
  • Nemet, Y. (1960). Spisok Slovna Yazyke Yasov, Vengerskikh Alan. Ordzhonikidze: Osetinskiy NII.
  • Paasonen, H. (1950). Çuvaş Sözlüğü. İstanbul: İbrahim Horoz Basımevi.
  • Petermann, A. (1860). Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes’ Geographischer Anstalt über wichtige neue Erforschungen auf die Gesammtgebiete der Geographie. Gotha: Justus Perthes.
  • Ptolemaios (2006). Handbuch der Geographie. Basel: Schwabe Verlag.
  • Pulleyblank, E. G. (1983). The Chinese and Their Neighbours in Prehistoric and Early Historic Times. The Origins of the Chinese Civilization (pp. 411-466). Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Pulleyblank, E. G. (2000). The Hsiung-nu. In Roemer, H. R. (Ed.), History of the Turkic Peoples in the pre-Islamic Period (pp. 52-75). Berlin: Klaus Schwarz.
  • Şengül, F. (2013). Sabir Sekel Avar ve Bulgar Etnik Meselelerinin Çözümü. İstanbul: Hikmetevi Yayınları.
  • Şengül, F. (2023a). Sakaların ve Sarmatların Kökeni. Konya: Eğitim Kitabevi.
  • Şengül, F. (2023b). Turkic Shamanism and Belief Terms of Scythian Origin in Ancient Greek World. In Social Sciences in a Globalizing World (pp. 275-290). İzmir: Duvar Yayınları.
  • Tairov, A. D. (2005). Ranniye Kochevniki Yuzhnogo Zaural’ya i Sakskiy Mir v VII–II vv. do n.e. Arkheologicheskiye kul’tury i kul’turno-Istoricheskiye Obshchnosti Bol’shogo Urala. Yekaterinburg.
  • Taşağıl, A. (2013). Çin Kaynaklarına Göre Eski Türk Boyları. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu.
  • Taskina, V. S. (1973). Materialy po Istorii Syunnu (po Kitayskim Istochnikam). Moskva: Nauka.
  • Tavkul, U. (2000). Karaçay Malkar Türkçesi Sözlüğü. Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları.
  • Tavkul, U. (2012). Karaçay-Malkar/Kafkasların Kalbine Yolculuk. Ankara: Bengü Yayınları.
  • Tavkul, U. (2015). Kafkasya Gerçeği. İstanbul: Selenge Yayınları.
  • Tavkul, U. (2023). Karaçay-Malkarlar/Bir Kafkasya Halkının Etnik, Siyasî ve Kültürel Tarihi. İstanbul: Selenge Yayınları.
  • Tsyan’, S. (2002). Istoricheskiye Zapiski (Shi Tzi) IX. Moskva: RAN.
  • Tuğul, S. (2011). Kafkasya: Volga-Ural-Sibirya. İstanbul: Nasa Ajans Yayınları.
  • Tzetzae, I. (2019). Theogonia. Lecce: PensaMultimedia.
There are 52 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects History of Central Asia
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Fatih Şengül 0000-0003-0111-3579

Publication Date February 23, 2024
Submission Date January 14, 2024
Acceptance Date January 18, 2024
Published in Issue Year 2024 Volume: 8 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Şengül, F. (2024). The Origin of the Scythians and the Identity of the Scythians and the Alans in John Tzetzes’ Work. Journal of Old Turkic Studies, 8(1), 104-129. https://doi.org/10.35236/jots.1419539