NOBILITY AND POWER IN 15TH-CENTURY KABARDA ACCORDING TO THE SOURCE “PRECIOUS NECKLACES CONCERNING MERITS OF THE STATE OF AL-ASHRAF AL-GHAWRI”

The unpublished and previously unexplored by domestic caucasiologists source from the collection of Suleymaniye Yazma Eser Kutüfanesi (Istanbul) – the second volume entitled “al-‘Uqūd al-Jawhariyya fī al-Mahāsin al-Dawla al-Ashrafiyya al-Ghawiyya” (“Precious Necklaces Concerning the Merits of the State of al-Ashraf al-Ghawri”) reveals unique information regarding the history of North Caucasian peoples, particularly the Adyghe and Abazins, during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. This volume is part of an anonymous manuscript dedicated to the praise of the Mamluk sultan from the Burji dynasty (1382-1517), al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri (r. 1501-1516). The text of the source provides information on the territorial and political structure of Circassia, including the “countries” or “lands” of the Circassians – Karmuk, Kabak, and Kabarda – and their social structure. Moreover, it covers the origin and civil strife of the Circassian princes, their foreign policy contacts, and the ethnocultural and confessional situation in the North-West Caucasus and Central Ciscaucasia in the 15th century. The manuscript testifies to the formation of Kabarda under its own name, reflected in Arabic as قبردا [Qabarda], at least by the beginning of the 1440s. The manuscript’s data is compared with information from 15th-century Arabic and Italian sources, as well as 16th and 17th-century Russian charters from the Ambassadorial Office, using retrospective analysis. To date, the anonymous work “Precious Necklaces Concerning Merits of the State of Al-Ashraf Al-Ghawri” is the only source that provides such comprehensive information on the formation of this Circassian principality, the genealogy of the first generations of Kabardian princes, the social structure – primarily the nobility – and the organization of power in Kabarda in the 15th century. This work focuses on the analysis of these topics.