Re: Bidev 1979 typescript on playing cards' origin

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Thanks for referring us to the Wilkinson article, Ross. In the Wiktionary pictures, the character for Wan even looks like a right-side up cup. If that is the connection between "tuman" and the picture of a cup, then there is no need to assume that the suit is a trump suit. In the Middle East, then, the character is turned into the suit-symbol and its meaning into the name of the suit.

Wilkinson also argues that the same was true for the other three suits, although in these cases it was what was on the cards that got changed into the suit-signs of polo sticks, swords, and coins.

Or is this too simple?

Some of Wilkinson's other ideas are suggestive, i.e. the origin of the "Fool" in a Chinese card, the rule of "last Bagat" being in a Chinese game, and there being nine number cards instead of ten, a convention that could be retained in some decks but also sometimes abandoned, given that the association with bank notes was lost. I wonder if his comments about Chinese games are considered accurate these days.

Re: Bidev 1979 typescript on playing cards' origin

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As the Turkish tūmān / trousers can be spelt either as طومان or تومان, then it would seem reasonable to think that Tuman / 10,000 can be too. However, it is certainly proving difficult to track down some examples! (There are very few examples of Ottoman Turkish texts online.)

Dummet writes:
quote

Rosenfeld interprets this word as meaning ‘myriad’, i.e., as being the Turkish word Tumen or the cognate Persian word Tuman. This word, originally Turkish, has a base meaning of ’10,000’, in which sense it is used also in Mongol; in both Turkish and Persian it can mean also a military unit, a territorial district, a large sum of money or a coin of high value. It may be held that this cannot be the word intended here, because of the unusual spelling with the emphatic t; but such a spelling does occasionally occur. (42) It is not surprising to find such a variation in the spelling of a non-Arabic word; the phonetic change may have occurred to avoid a possible ambiguity in Arabic...

Note 42: See Gerhard Doerfer, Türkische und mongolische Elemente im Neupersischen, ii, 1963, p.638, for the citation of a use of the word in this spelling by Ibn Battuta (his reference is to the edition by H. von Mzik, die Reise des Arabers Ibn Batuta durch Indien und China, Hamburg 1911, p. 442.

End quote from: Some remarks on Mamluk Playing Cards, by Michael Dummet and Kamal Abu-Deeb.

Re: Ibn Batuta, can't find that edition referenced, but in Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D. 1325-1354:

An amīr ṭūmān (ṭ with a dot beneath it طومان) in their usage is a commander under whose orders there ride ten thousand.

There is also this Persian site, which gives not two but six spelling variations:

تومان (یا تومن/ تُمان/ تُمن/ تومانه/ طومان)، واحد شمارش معادلِ ده هزار، قصبه ای مشتمل بر صد دِه، قشونی متشکل از ده هزار سپاهی، واحدِ پول.

Tuman (تومان) (or Tumen / Tuman / Tmn / Tvmanh / Tvman ( طومان)), unit of account equivalent to ten thousand, a borough consisting of one hundred tens, armed brigades made up of ten thousand men, currency.

http://ar.lib.eshia.ir/23019/1/4075

It gives as references:

Lazar Budagov, Stravnitelniy Slovar Turetsko-Tatarskik ¢h ¢narec §iy , St. Petersburg 1869;
Jean Chardin, Voyages du Chevalier Chardin en Perse et autres lieux de l'Orient , new ed. by L.Langle, Paris 1811;
Sir Gerard Clauson, An etymological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish , Oxford 1972;
Gerhard Doerfer, Turkische und mongolische Elemente im Neupersischen , Wiesbaden 1963-1975;
EI 1 , s.v. "Tuman" by W. Barthold;
EI 2 , svv. "Tu ¦ma ¦n. 1" by R. Amitai, "Tu ¦ma ¦n. 2" by R.E.Darley-Doran

Re: Bidev 1979 typescript on playing cards' origin

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While Arabic was the official language of the Mamluks, the common language of the Mamluks was Turkish, coming as they did from Turkic regions. While most official documents of the Mamluk are in Arabic, there are a great many others (such as poetry, histories, biographies) in Turkish, or both Arabic and Turkish (sometimes in interlinear format, which may have been used for schooling Mamluks in Arabic).

As well as the Turkish name for the cups suit, Tuman, the deputy and second deputy of the suit of Tuman contain two Turkic personal names:

the deputy = Qushquli [ قشقلي = ق ش ق ل ي ]

the second deputy = Qaraja [ قراجا = ق ر ا ج ا ]

Qaraja was a typical Turkic name, and there were quiet a few people named Qaraja associated with the Mamluks over the centuries. Including one cup-bearer famous (or infamous) for poisoning a Sultan.

Qushquli I can't find much about, but I think may be an Oghuz Turkic name, associated with the Kashkali tribe (a tribe of about 2,000 families), one of the larger tribes in the confederacy of the Qashqai people, note that in transliteration both K and Q have been used (as in Qabala and Kabbala for example) :

quote:

"To survive, nomads have always been obliged to fight. They lead a wandering life and do not accumulate documents and archives.

But in the evenings, around fires that are burning low, the elders will relate striking events, deeds of valour in which the tribes pride themselves. Thus the epic tale is told from father to son, down through the ages.

The tribes of Central Asia were forced by wars, strife, upheavals, to abandon their steppes and seek new pasture grounds...so the Huns, the Visigoths, and before them the Aryans, had invaded India, Iran, Europe.

The Turks, forsaking the regions where they had dwelt for centuries, started moving down through the Altai Mountains and Caspian depressions, establishing themselves eventually on the frontiers of the Iranian Empire and in Asia Minor.

We are of Turkish language and race; some say that we are descendants of the Turkish Oghuz Tribe, known for its cruelty and fierceness, and that our name is derived from the Turkish "Kashka" meaning "a horse with a white star on its forehead". Others think this name indicates that we came from Kashgar in the wake of Hulagu. Others still that it means "fugitive".

Though these versions differ, we believe that the arrival of our Tribes in Iran coincided with the conquests of Jengis Khan, in the thirteenth century. Soon after, our ancestors established themselves on the slopes of the Caucasus. We are descendants of the "Tribe of the Ak Koyunlu" the "Tribe of the White Sheep" famed for being the only tribe in history capable of inflicting a defeat on Tamerlane. For centuries we dwelt on the lands surrounding Ardebil, but, in the first half of the sixteenth century we settled in southern Persia, Shah Ismail having asked our warriors to defend this part of the country against the intrusions of the Portuguese. Thus, our Tribes came to the Province of Fars, near the Persian Gulf, and are still only separated from it by a ridge of mountains, the Makran.

The yearly migrations of the Kashkai, seeking fresh pastures, drive them from the south to the north, where they move to their summer quarters "Yailaq" in the high mountains; and from the north to the south, to their winter quarters, "Qishlaq".

In summer, the Kashkai flocks graze on the slopes of the Kuh-è-Dinar; a group of mountains from 12,000 to 15,000 feet, that are part of the Zagros chain.

In autumn the Kashkai break camp, and by stages leave the highlands. They winter in the warmer regions near Firuzabad, Kazerun, Jerrè, Farashband, on the banks of the river Mound, till, in April, they start once more on their yearly trek.

The migration is organised and controlled by the Kashkai Chief. The Tribes carefully avoid villages and towns such as Shiraz and Isfahan, lest their flocks, estimated at seven million head, might cause serious damage. The annual migration is the largest of any Persian tribe.

It is difficult to give exact statistics, but we believe that the Tribes now number 400,000 men, women and children." Told to Marie-Tèrése Ullens de Schooten by the 'Il Begh' Malek Mansur, brother of the 'Il Khan', Nasser Khan, Chief of the Kashkai Tribes, in 1953.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qashqai_people

Trying to do a search on the name قشقلي is complicated by the fact that one is innundated with sites for the Nissan Qashqai car:

2015 فى مصر فى السوق, نيسان قشقلي الفئه الثالثه (in April 2015 the price of the Qashqai (قشقاى ) in the market...)

https://www.google.com.tr/search?q=%D9% ... 66&bih=643

So if you want to make a search on قشقلي, put a minus before Nissan (-Nissan) to exclude anything with Nissan in it.

Nissan named the Qashqai after the Qashqai Turkic people living in mountainous Southwestern Iran. I wonder then should قشقلي be transcribed/pronounced Qashqai rather than qushquli?

Ah, no - on closer examination I see they are not spelt the same:

The letters of the name قشقلي are:

ق ش ق ل ي

From right to left: qaaf shin qaaf laam yaa Qshqly

The letters of the Nissan قشقاى are:

ق ش ق ا ى (qaaf shin qaaf alef yaa)

Despite the spelling difference, google seems to bring up the Nissan, which led to my momentary confusion, until I took a closer look at the spelling. However, they are related in as much as one is a sub-tribe of the other.

Variations of the name, all of which are predominant in Iran:
kashkooli
kashkoli
kashkouli
Last edited by SteveM on 16 Aug 2016, 18:04, edited 5 times in total.

Re: Bidev 1979 typescript on playing cards' origin

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Very nice, Steve. I didn't realize the Mamluks had their own Turkic literature, or that a tribe associated with a name on the cards came into southern Iran, sometime during the time Portugal was making conquests, 16th century? I think you are particularly suited to finding such things on Google! I didn't know about the "-". That will help on other searches, too.

Re: Bidev 1979 typescript on playing cards' origin

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SteveM wrote:... and there were quiet a few people named Qaraja associated with Mamluk courts over the centuries.
Here for example:

Late 15th, early 16th century

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turabay_ibn_Qaraja

15th century

https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=NB ... ja&f=false

14th century

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VxO ... uk&f=false

12th century! (Well before the Mamluk sultanate of course)

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GbL ... uk&f=false

On Qaraji as a typical Turkish name, and of a Qaraji who was a na'ib to Hamah (14th century), see

http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/MamlukStudie ... 1_2004.pdf

Qaraji there is translated 'little black' (black in Turkish is Kara).

Other articles from the Mamluk Studies Review are available here:
http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/detailed-con ... lumes.html

On literature in the Mamluk halls and barracks see:

http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/refe ... 49-260.pdf

(It includes a reference to a Qaraji who wrote and copied his Turkish poetry. And another (or possibly the same) who was a teacher.)

There are several more, but I'm sure you're able to use google yourself! :D

Re: Bidev 1979 typescript on playing cards' origin

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SteveM wrote: Qaraji there is translated 'little black' (black in Turkish is Kara).
Which doesn't make sense to me. Kara/Qara means black, but 'ji' is not a diminutive, it signifies profession/work, Similar to 'er' in English (e.g., bake, baker). So what type of work is associated with 'black', IMHO it would be 'black sheep', as with the Black Sheep Turcomans (Persian: قرا قویونلو), the Oghuz Turkic tribal federation that ruled over the territory comprising present-day Azerbaijan, Armenia (1406), northwestern Iran, eastern Turkey, and Iraq from about 1375 to 1468. As a place name too it applies to the Caucasus Iranian Highlands, the Qaraja dagh - there is also the village of Qaraja in North-West Iran. Bit of a stretch maybe but interesting nonetheless, that both of these personal names are associated with Turkish speaking peoples and places of Iran, interesting in as much that, outside of the Mamluk Kanifa, all our other references to Kanifa come from Persia and India. Some of the extent literature from the Mamluk barracks of Cairo are in Oghuz Turkish, so possibly the Turkish speaking mamluks taken from the Iranian regions brought Kanifa with them.

Re: Bidev 1979 typescript on playing cards' origin

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SteveM wrote: On Qaraji as a typical Turkish name, and of a Qaraji who was a na'ib to Hamah (14th century), see

http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/MamlukStudie ... 1_2004.pdf
It also has this on the use of the Mamluks' Turkish names:
quote:
Dedicatory inscriptions on sgraffito wares occasionally include the name or
office of the amir. His full title could consist of an honorific (laqab), his personal
name (in Turkish), a fictitious patronymic (‘Abd Allah, for instance), patron
affiliation (nisbah), and his rank (which would theoretically correspond to the
blazon). Official inscriptions containing Mamluk names, titles, or official forms
of address represent the status and authority of the patron in much the same
fashion as amiral blazons. Mamluk names carried prestige. In spite of the official
restrictions, there were attempts by civilians to adopt the Turkish names of the
Mamluk aristocracy. The leaders of the ‘urban (bedouin) took on Mamluk names
as a way of expressing their authority locally. Foreigners could enter the upper
strata of the Mamluk military apparatus by adopting Turkish names to conceal
their ethnic background to slave dealers. Turkish names given to children of
private citizens in Mecca honored the dignitaries of the local Mamluk garrison.
The adoption of Turkish names by non-Mamluks was rare in Cairo. The few
exceptions were individuals among the awlad al-nas (sons of Mamluks) who
preferred Turkish names to the more traditional Arab-Muslim ones.
end Quote

So it seems there is nothing surprising or unexpected for there to be Turkish names on the Mamluk cards. From 1521, under Ottoman rulership, all Mamluks were obliged to use Arabic names only.

Mamluks were apprehended by the Ottomans throughout Egypt in these early days
of Ottoman rule and they were easily recognizable by their headgear. Therefore
many of them and their sons got rid of their hats as they represented a potential
threat to their lives. However, after the first impetus of the conquest had slowed
down, Mamluks were allowed to wear the red zamṭ again for a while by the new
Ottoman governor of Egypt, Khāyrbak, a former Mamluk amir himself. In the
summer of 924/1518 this practice was then finally forbidden, but some Circassian
Mamluks disobeyed the order and the governor reinstituted it in Shawwāl
927/September 1521, saying that anyone still wearing the red zamṭ after the
announcement, whether Mamluk, son of a Mamluk, or even Ottoman, would be
hanged without mercy. 3
Mamluk headgear thereafter disappeared from Egyptian
heads as did the specific Turkish names of the Mamluks, which had marked their
elite status for centuries. From now on, it was Ottoman turbans and Arabic names
for the remaining Mamluks.

http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/MSR_XII-2_20 ... p71-94.pdf

It also mentions how Turkish names and words were transliterated in a variety of ways by Arabic scribes, thus introducing many errors and difficulties of identification.

Re: Bidev 1979 typescript on playing cards' origin

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The earliest reference we have to Kanjifa:

وسبب القبض على آقباى المذكور أنّ السلطان الملك المؤيّد كان اشتراه فى أيام إمرته صغيرا بألفى درهم من دراهم لعب الكنجفة «1» ، وهو أنّ الملك المؤيّد كان قاعدا يلاعب بعض أصحابه بالكنجفة وقد قمر ذلك الرجل بدراهم كبيرة، فأدخل عليه آقباى المذكور مع تاجره فأعجبه واشتراه، وطلب خازنداره ليقبض التّاجر ثمن آقباى المذكور فلم يجده، فوزن له المؤيد ثمنه من تلك الدّراهم التى قمرها، ثم رباه وأعتقه وجعله خازنداره، ثم رقّاه أيام سلطنته إلى أن جعله من جملة أمراء الألوف، ثم دوادارا كبيرا بعد موت جانى بك المؤيدى، ثم ولّاه نيابة حلب.

http://shamela.ws/browse.php/book-11988/page-4536

Google translate doesn't make much sense of that, but the relevant part is:

وهو أنّ الملك المؤيّد كان قاعدا يلاعب بعض أصحابه بالكنجفة

...the Sultan Al-Malik* was sitting down with some of his companions playing Kanjifa كنجفة.

*Mamluk Sultan El-Muayyad (Sheikh El-Mahmudi), Mamluk Sultan 1412-1421

Quote
The text is described in English by Richard Ettinghausen, in his article "Further Comments on Mamluk Playing Cards". The quote refers to the work of Ibn Taghribirdi,* called "Nujum al-zahira fi muluk Misr wa'l-Qahira". Ettinghausen notes that the reference comes in the section describing events from the year 820H or 1417-1418 AD.*
end quote

*Jamal al-Din Yusuf bin al-Amir Sayf al-Din Taghribirdi (جمال الدين يوسف بن الأمير سيف الدين تغري بردي) or Ibn Taghribirdi (1410-1470 AD/813-874 Hijri) was an Egyptian historian born into the Turkish Mamluk elite of Cairo in the 15th century. He studied under al-Ayni and al-Maqrizi, two of the leading Cairene historians and scholars of the day. His most famous work is a multi-volume chronicle of Egypt and the Mamluk sultanate called Nujum al-zahira fi muluk Misr wa'l-Qahira. His style is annalistic and gives precise dates for most events; this format makes it clear that Ibn Taghribirdi had privileged access to the sultans and their records.

*Although in section 1417-1418, think it talks of the Sultan playing cards when he was Emir, which would make it prior to 1412?

Perhaps someone with Ettinghausen's article can quote what he says about it?

The word Kanjifa (كنجفة) on the top right-hand corner of the Mamluk King of Swords:

Image
Last edited by SteveM on 19 Aug 2016, 09:16, edited 1 time in total.

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Ettinghausen ...

Mamluk Playing Cards
L. A. Mayer, Leo Ary Mayer Richard Ettinghausen Otto Kurz
Brill Archive, 01.08.1997
https://books.google.de/books?id=8s4UAA ... en&f=false

Gatherings in honor of Dorothy E. Miner
Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore, Md.)
Walters Art Gallery, 1974 - 353 Seiten
Snippet view only ...
https://books.google.de/books?id=3gXqAA ... gQ6AEIJTAB
Contains article: Further Comments on Mamluk playing cards
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Bidev 1979 typescript on playing cards' origin

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SteveM wrote:The earliest reference we have to Kanjifa:

وسبب القبض على آقباى المذكور أنّ السلطان الملك المؤيّد كان اشتراه فى أيام إمرته صغيرا بألفى درهم من دراهم لعب الكنجفة «1» ، وهو أنّ الملك المؤيّد كان قاعدا يلاعب بعض أصحابه بالكنجفة وقد قمر ذلك الرجل بدراهم كبيرة، فأدخل عليه آقباى المذكور مع تاجره فأعجبه واشتراه، وطلب خازنداره ليقبض التّاجر ثمن آقباى المذكور فلم يجده، فوزن له المؤيد ثمنه من تلك الدّراهم التى قمرها، ثم رباه وأعتقه وجعله خازنداره، ثم رقّاه أيام سلطنته إلى أن جعله من جملة أمراء الألوف، ثم دوادارا كبيرا بعد موت جانى بك المؤيدى، ثم ولّاه نيابة حلب.

http://shamela.ws/browse.php/book-11988/page-4536

Google translate doesn't make much sense of that, but the relevant part is:

وهو أنّ الملك المؤيّد كان قاعدا يلاعب بعض أصحابه بالكنجفة

...the Sultan Al-Malik* was sitting down with some of his companions playing Kanjifa كنجفة.
Hi Huck, apparently Ettinghausen has this passage in English, I can't find it (even in snippet view). The word Kanjifa appears twice. It is the first mention I was wondering about at the beginning of the paragraph:

وسبب القبض على آقباى المذكور أنّ السلطان الملك المؤيّد كان اشتراه فى أيام إمرته صغيرا بألفى درهم من دراهم لعب الكنجفة

It says something about the reason/warrant for Akbay's arrest mentions something about a sum/purchase of 2,000 dirhams playing at cards (kanjifa)..., (Sultan Malik's?) ..young?..days of his command (Sultan Malik's when he was Amir?). I just wondered if Ettinghausen has translation of that sentence? Or, indeed, the whole paragraph? I think it says something later about the treasurer getting involved to secure his release. Is it talking about the present (1417/18) period of the Sultan, or a prior period when the Sultan was an Amir? (prior to 1412). Or even earlier, when the Sultan was 'young, small, little'?

edited to add:

Babylon translates it:
The reason for the arrest of آقباى mentioned that Sultan King pro-was purchased in days small ordered him 2,000 dirham of aed الكنجفة played.

Google:
The reason for the arrest of Akabbay mentioned that Sultan King Pro was bought in the days of his command of young/small/little two thousand dirhams dirhams playing Alkenjvh
Last edited by SteveM on 19 Aug 2016, 21:20, edited 1 time in total.
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