Making Sense of Multilingualism: Emic Theories of Literary Comparison in Premodern Asia and North Africa

Vortrag von Kristof D’hulster

Abstract: In this paper, I examine the understudied functional distribution of Arabic, Turkic and Circassian in the ethno-linguistic and literary market of the Late Mamluk Sultanate. Drawing on Arabic and Turkic sources–including a wide array of translations–I recognize Turkic and Circassian as two distinct dimensions of Mamluk identity that were equally significant yet validated differently. I first argue that Turkic underwent a shift from an ethnonym to a socionym, becoming a discursive construct that served the Mamluks as a strategy of distinction between ruler and ruled within the Sultanate. I then ask why they opted for Turkic, rather than Circassian, for that purpose. I propose that Turkic, unlike Circassian, fulfilled a dual function: it served not only as a strategy of distinction within the Sultanate but also as a strategy of inclusion without, embedding the Mamluks withing a burgeoning Turkic literary ecumene. In this ecumene, sultan-poets emerged as a new type of ruler, sharing Turkic as a novel aristolect.