THE STUDY OF THE MAMLUK-KIPCHAK MANUSCRIPT “KITAB BAYTARAT AL-WADIH” AND THE TRADITIONAL VETERINARY PRACTICES OF THE KAZAKH PEOPLE

Abstract. This article examines the content, degree of scholarly development, and scientific significance of the treatise Kitab Baytarat al-Wadih (“The Comprehensive Veterinary Book”) in relation to the traditional veterinary practices of the Kazakh people. The work integrates the veterinary knowledge of the Mamluk-Kipchak period with the principles of Islamic medicine, providing a systematic description of diagnostic methods and therapeutic practices for equine diseases. The study highlights the importance of reassessing medieval veterinary-medical treatises, including Kitab Baytarat al-Wadih, through contemporary academic methodologies. The treatise represents a medical manuscript grounded in Mamluk-Kipchak veterinary experience and Islamic therapeutic tradition. Although the translator and the precise place of compilation remain unknown, two manuscript versions are documented: one featuring distinct Kipchak linguistic characteristics, and the other reflecting Oghuz-Turkic elements. The aim of the study is to analyze the structure and content of the treatise, its linguistic features, and its trajectory of integration into scholarly circulation. The research tasks include: identifying the text’s structural composition; determining differences between the manuscript versions; systematizing data on the level of academic investigation of the work. Materials and methods: the study draws upon two manuscript versions preserved in Turkey and France. Comparative linguistic analysis, transcription, and textual-contextual methodologies were employed. The results demonstrate that the treatise embodies the achievements of Islamic medicine and the Mamluk-Kipchak veterinary school; its lexical and grammatical features have been systematized, and the work is recognized as one of the earliest scientific contributions to veterinary knowledge in the Turkic world.