Adab in medieval Tatar literature

Abstract

   In any branch of knowledge, including literary criticism, there are terms that have been known since ancient times, but more than once “changed” their semantic content. This term also represents the adab, which is key for medieval Muslim culture. It is still actively used by the Tatars in the meaning of the “norm of good behavior”. However, in the Middle Ages, adab became the main genre name for the fiction of the Muslim world. In modern times, in Turkic and Tatar literature, there was a narrowing of the meaning of the term, which began to designate religious and didactic literature. At the same time, the word adab gave the general name - adabiyat - to the literature of both Arabic-speaking and Turkic-speaking peoples. The article examines the history of the adab in medieval Tatar literature. In our opinion, Kul Gali's poem “The Legend of Yusuf” was at the origins of the literary tradition of adaba in Tatar literature. In this poem, Kul Gali, in a creative dialogue with Y. Balasaguni, searches for the foundations of a harmonious world order and proposes his own model, according to which only those who remain faithful to the path of perfection indicated by the Almighty can benefit their people. The traditions of adaba were further developed by the poets of the Kazan Khanate, Muhammadyar. The material for the study was the iconic texts of medieval Tatar literature, which are considered in the context of Turkic-speaking literature. We used the methodology of the historical approach, which allows us to consider Tatar literature from the point of view of its prehistory, evolutionary development and historical connections.