Interpretation of Zubdat al-fikra’s Information in the Work of A.A. Porsin
The purpose of this review is to evaluate the academic qualities of a book by A.A. Porsin about information from “Zubdat al-fikra” on the history of the ulus of Jochi in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, the author tries to establish the degree of reliability of information from “Zubdat al-fikra”. A.A. Porsin suggested numerous hypotheses in his book. In his opinion, the Bayat (a Kypchak tribe) played an important role in the Golden Horde from the time of Berke’s rule to the beginning of Tokhta’s rule. Representatives of the Bayat tribe contributed to the election of Uzbek Khan. According to the author, Chimpai, the son of Jochi, bore the informal title of “aqa” as the eldest in the family. After his death in 1291, Noghai became the new “aqa”. In 1293, Tokhta executed not only representatives of the Bayat tribe, but also Yaku, the heir of Chimpai. In the second part, the author offers his own version of the origin of the information source for “Zubdat al-fikra”. According to A.A. Porsin, the informant took part in political events in the Golden Horde in 1285-1313. He belonged to a political party whose head was Taz, the son of Munjuk. After 1313, he moved to Egypt and there became an informant for a now lost manuscript. This missing manuscript became the source for “Zubdat al-fikra” and for several other Arabic texts. The informer of “Zubdat al-fikra” had his own “non-Mongol” view of the history of the Golden Horde. From this viewpoint, the descendants of Chinggis Khan were equal in status to the tribal aristocracy. The work of A.A. Porsin made a great contribution to the study of the ethnopolitical history of the ulus of Jochi.