ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Garun-Rashid Abdul-Kadyrovich Guseynov
Dagestan State University
Makhachkala, Russia

The Origin of the Name of the City of Derbent and the Toponymy of the Surrounding Area in the Context of Ethnolinguistic Situation in the Early Middle Ages

Voprosy onomastiki (Problems of Onomastics), 2014, Issue 2 (17), pp. 54–67 (in Russian)

Received 12 September 2013

Abstract: Founded in 438 and included on the World Heritage List in 2003, the ancient city of Derbent emerged in the area which, by the time of its foundation, was known under various names which belong, as it is shown in the paper, to different Bulgar (Turkic) languages: province of Chor, Ζουάρ-ος fortress, Chora / Djora way, Τζοΰρ, city of Chora, Chola / Choga / Chol, gate of Chola / Choga, province of Sul. These dialectal place names meaning ʻsteep bank, precipiceʼ meet the localization of the city in a narrow passageway between the Greater Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. The author argues that all etymologies of the considered oikonyms and horonyms based on linguistic data other than Bulgar should be recognized as inadequate. Their Bulgar origin is supported by the toponymic landscape and the names of the peoples who lived within its borders in the early Middle Ages. The existence of toponymic parallels outside the region in question is explained by the migration, in the first centuries AD, of the Bulgars from the North-Eastern Caucasus and Dagestan to Eastern and Southern Europe — the Volga region, the Balkans and Crimea.

Key words: Derbent, Turkic Bulgar languages, toponymy, oikonyms, horonyms, toponymic landscape, ethnonymy, etymology

References

Aliev, K. M. (2002/2003). Tainy kumykskoi etnonimiki (etnonimicheskie etiudy) [Mysteries of Kumyk Ethnonymy (Essays in Ethnonymy)]. In K. M. Aliev (Ed.), Vesti Kumykskogo nauchno-kul’turnogo obshchestva [Bulletin of the Kumyk Cultural and Scientific Society] (Issue 8/10, pp. 47–58). Makhachkala: RGZhT.

Aliev, K. M. (Ed.). (2009). Kumykskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ [The Kumyk Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Makhachkala: RGZhT.

Artamonov, M. I. (1962). Istoriia khazar [A History of the Khazars]. Leningrad: Izd-vo Gos. Ermitazha.

Baskakov, N. A. (1985). Tiurkskaia leksika v “Slove o polku Igoreve” [Turkic Vocabulary in the Tale of Igor’s Campaign]. Moscow: Nauka.

Bushakov, V. A. (1991). Tiurkskaia etnooikonimiia Kryma [The Turkic Ethno-Oikonymy of Crimea] (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://history-library.com/index.php?id1=3&category=istoriyaukraini&author=bushakov-va&book=1991.

Dybo, A. V. (2007). Lingvisticheskie kontakty rannikh tiurkov [Linguistic Contacts of Early Turks]. Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura.

Dzhafarov, Yu. R. (1981). Onogury vizantiiskikh pisatelei i khailandury Elishe [Onogurs in Byzantine Writers’ Works and Khailandurs in Yeghishe’s Writings]. Vizantiiskii vremennik, 44(66), pp. 153–162. Moscow: Nauka.

Dzhafarov, Yu. R. (1993). Gunny i Azerbaidzhan [The Huns and Azerbaijan]. Baku: Azerneshr.

Eremeyev, D. E. (1970). K semantike tiurkskoi etnonimii [On the Semantics of Turkic Ethnonymy]. In N. A. Nikonov (Ed.), Etnonimy [Ethnonyms] (pp. 133–142). Moscow: Nauka.

Eremian, S. T. (Ed.). (1953). Buzand Favstos. Istoriia Armenii [Faustus of Byzantium. History of Armenia]. Yerevan: Izd-vo Akademii nauk Armianskoi SSR.

Gadlo, A. V. (1979). Etnicheskaia istoriia Severnogo Kavkaza IV–X vv. [The Ethnic History of the Northern Caucasus in the 4–10th Centuries]. Leningrad: Izd-vo LGU.

Gadzhiev, M. G., Davudov, O. M., & Shikhsaidov, A. R. (1996). Istoriia Dagestana s drevneishikh vremen do kontsa XV veka [History of Dagestan from the Antiquity till the Late 15th Century]. Makhachkala: DNTs RAN.

Geybullaev, G. A. (1986). Toponimiia Azerbaidzhana (istoriko-etnograficheskoe issledovanie) [The Toponymy of Azarbaijan (A Historical and Ethnographic Research)]. Baku: Elm.

Gmyria, L. B. (2009). Religioznye predstavleniia naseleniia prikaspiiskogo Dagestana [Religious Views of the Population of the Dagestan Coast]. Makhachkala: Nauka DNTs.

Grande, V. V. (1972). Vvedenie v sravnitel’noe izuchenie semitskikh iazykov [An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Semitic Languages]. Moscow: Nauka.

Guseynov, G.-R. A.-K. (2000). Braguntsy i barsily [Braghunians and Barsils]. In K. M. Aliev (Ed.), Vesti Kumykskogo nauchno-kul’turnogo obshchestva [Bulletin of the Kumyk Cultural and Scientific Society] (Vol. 1, pp. 13–17). Makhachkala: RGZhT.

Guseynov, G.-R. A.-K. (2002/2003). Eshche raz o gorode Semendere, khazarakh i ikh iazyke [Once Again on the City of Semender, Khazars and Their Language]. In K. M. Aliev (Ed.), Vesti Kumykskogo nauchno-kul’turnogo obshchestva [Bulletin of the Kumyk Cultural and Scientific Society] (Vol. 8–10, pp. 19–25). Makhachkala: RGZhT.

Guseynov, G.-R. A.-K. (2005). Drevniaia Rus’, Dagestan i gornye khazary. K etimologizatsii i areal’noi interpretatsii neskol’kikh bulgarizmov drevnerusskogo, dagestanskikh i drugikh iazykov [Old Rus’, Dagestan and Highland Khazars. On the Etymology and Interpretation of Some Loan Words from Bulgar in the Old Russian, Dagestan and Other Languages]. In A. G. Gyulmagomedov (Ed.), Iazykoznanie v Dagestane [Linguistics in Dagestan] (pp. 92–101). Makhachkala: Izd-vo DGU.

Guseynov, G.-R. A.-K. (2010). Istoriia drevnikh i srednevekovykh vzaimootnoshenii iazykov Severo-Vostochnogo Kavkaza i Dagestana s russkim iazykom [The History of Ancient and Medieval Relations of the Languages of the North-Eastern Caucasus and Dagestan with the Russian Language]. Makhachkala: IP Ovchinnikov (ALEF).

Hazlitt, W. (1851). The Classical Gazetteer: A Dictionary of Ancient Geography, Sacred and Pro-Fane. London: Whittaker.

Imnaishvili, D. S. (1977). Istoriko-sravnitel’nyi analiz fonetiki nakhskikh iazykov [A Historical Comparative Analysis of the Nakh Languages]. Tbilisi: Metsniereba.

Khakimzyanov, F. S. (1997). Bulgarskii iazyk [The Bulgar Language]. In E. R. Tianishev (Ed.), Iazyki mira. Tiurkskie iazyki [Languages of the World. Turkic Languages] (pp. 47–52). Moscow: Nauka.

Konovalova, I. G. (2009). Vostochnaia Evropa v sochineniiakh arabskikh geografov XIII–XIV vv. [Eastern Europe in the Works of the 13–14th Centuries Arab Geographers]. Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura.

Kotovich, V. G. (1974). O mestonakhozhdenii rannesrednevekovykh gorodov Varachana, Belendzhera i Targu [On the Location of the Early Medieval Cities of Varachana, Belendzhera and Targu]. In Drevnosti Dagestana [Antiquities of Dagestan] (pp. 182–196). Makhachkala: Dagestanskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo.

Magomedov, M. G. (1994). Khazary na Kavkaze [Khazars in the Caucasus]. Makhachkala: Dagestanskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo.

Mahmud of Khinalug (1977). O sobytiiakh v Shirvane i Dagestane XIV–XV vv. [On the Events in Shirvan and Dagestan in the 14–15th Centuries]. Makhachkala: Dagestanskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo.

Mamedova, F. (1986). Politicheskaia istoriia i istoricheskaia geografiia Kavkazskoi Albanii (III v. do n. e. — VIII v. n. e.) [The Political History and Historical Geography of Caucasian Albania (3rd Century BD — 8th Century AD)]. Baku: Elm.

Miller, B. V. (1953). Persidsko-russkii slovar’: ok. 35 000 slov [A Persian-Russian Dictionary: about 35 000 entries]. Moscow: Gos. izd-vo inostr. i nats. slovarei.

Movses Kaghankatvatsi (1861). Istoriia strany Aluank [The History of the Country of Aluank (Albania)]. Saint-Petersburg.

Mustakimov, I. A. (2010). Vladeniia Shibanov i Shibanidov v XIII –XV vv. [The Possessions of the Shaybanids in the 13–15th Centuries]. In B. R. Rakhimzianov (Ed.), Srednevekovye tiurko-tatarskie gosudarstva [Medieval Turkic and Tatar States] (Vol. 2, pp. 21–32). Kazan: Ikhlas.

Piotrovsky, V. B. (Ed.). (1988). Istoriia narodov Severnogo Kavkaza s drevneishikh vremen i do kontsa XVIII v. [The History of the North Caucasian Peoples from the Antiquity till the Late 18th Century]. Moscow: Nauka.

Sevortian, E. V., Levitskaya, L. S., Dybo, A. V., & Rassadin, V. I. (1974–). Etimologicheskii slovar’ tiurkskikh iazykov [An Etymological Dictionary of the Turkic Languages] (Vols. 1–). Moscow: Nauka.

Shcherbak, A. M. (1977). Ocherki po sravnitel’noi morfologii tiurkskikh iazykov (Imia) [Essays on the Comparative

Morphology of the Turkic Languages (Nomen)]. Leningrad: Nauka.

Shikhsaidov, A. R. (1984). Epigraficheskie pamiatniki Dagestana [Epigraphic Monuments of Dagestan]. Moscow: Nauka.

Shikhsaidov, A. R., Aitberov, T. M., & Orazaev, G. M.-R. (1993). Dagestanskie istoricheskie sochineniia X–XVII vv. kak istoricheskii istochnik [The 10–17th Centuries Dagestanian Historical Works as Historical Sources]. Moscow: Nauka.

Suleymanov, A. S. (1978). Toponimiia Checheno-Ingushetii [The Toponymy of the Chechen-Ingush Republic] (Vol. 1). Grozny: Checheno-Ingushskoe knizhnoe izdatelstvo.

Tenishev, E. R. (Ed.). (1984–2006). Sravnitel’no-istoricheskaia grammatika tiurkskikh iazykov [A Historical Comparative Grammar of the Turkic Languages] (Vols. 1–6). Moscow: Nauka.

Trever, K. V. (1959). Ocherki po istorii i kul’ture Kavkazskoi Albanii IV–VII vv. [Essays on the History and Culture of Caucasian Albania]. Moscow, Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR.

Vasmer, M. (1964–1973). Etimologicheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka [The Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language]. (Vols. 1–4). Moscow: Progress.

Vinogradova, O. I., & Klimov, G. A. (1979). Ob armenizmakh v dagestanskikh iazykakh [On Loan Words from Armenian in the Dagestan Languages]. In O. N. Trubachev (Ed.), Etimologiia 1977 [Etymology 1977] (pp. 154–158). Moscow: Nauka.

Yeghishe (Elishe). (1971). O Vardane i voine armianskoi [History of Vardan and the Armenian War]. Yerevan: Izd-vo AN Armianskoi SSR.

Yuzbashian, K. N. (2001). Armianskaia epopeia V veka [Armenian Epopee of the 5th Century]. Moscow: XXI vek-Soglasie.