Talk by Prof Isenbike Togan, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul on ‘Nomadic Perception of History and Inner/Central Asian Historiography’

Cambridge Central Asia Forum invites you to a talk by

Prof Isenbike Togan, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul

on

‘Nomadic Perception of History and Inner/Central Asian Historiography’

Date: 31 January

Time: 11am

In Person Venue: Room S1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge

Online Zoom registration link: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/Vu0-L-UHQ5eiILMpKuPEtA

Everyone is welcome.

Abstract: Nomadic people’s accounts of the past were based on oral literature. Oral literature is not as static and fixed as the written text, and both the bard and the audience have great agency in the articulation of a historical account – as well as its variants. Lev Gumilev’s statement that for the nomads, history is perception of realities and expression of feelings captures this point well. However, this postulation does not take into consideration the change in nomads’ realities as well as their perceptions of reality. In this paper, I will focus on one episode from the The Secret History of the Mongols and compare it with accounts in Mongolian historiography Altan Tobchi, Erdeni-yin Tobchi as well as with texts in Chagatai Turkic such as Tarikh-i Guzide Nusretname   (16th c.) and Chinggisname   (17th c.) This comparison underlines the significance of historical context in the construction of these variants.  

Biography: İsenbike Togan (Ph.D. Harvard University), is an honorary member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences and is currently affiliated with Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. Isenbike Togan’s research focuses on nomads, tribe-state relations, intellectual and aesthetic studies, Sufism and women’s history. She has worked at various universities including Harvard University, Tufts University, Washington University in St. Louis, Hacettepe University and Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara. After retiring from the Department of History at Middle East Technical University Professor Togan was elected as a full member of Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA). She also continues with her research at Department of History and Asian Studies Center of Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.

She specializes on Central Asian, Mongolian and Chinese history. Her research interests cover tribe-state relations, women’s history, historiography, intellectual and aesthetic patterns in Inner Asian history. Her latest book Breeze & Storm – Nomadic Culture and Tribal Politics along the Silk Road (2023) is on nomadic culture and tribe-state relations. Over the years she published  chapters “Mongolia Before Chinggis Khan” and “The Early Mongol State” in The Mongol World eds. Timothy May and Michael Hope (New York, London: Routledge, 2022; The Role of Trade in Building the Mongol Empire” ORE  (2021) “Evolution of Tribal Policies in the Regional Empires of Asia” (Problemy Vostokovedeniya 4( 2017), pp. 21-26); “Variations in the Perception of Jasagh” Main Aspects of Medieval History of Central Asia (for the Honor of Professor Roziya Mukminova), eds. G. Sultonova et.al., (Tashkent: Sano Standart, 2013 pp.67-101); “The Qongrat in History,” History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East. Studies in Honor of John E. Woods, eds. Judith Pfeiffer and Sholeh A. Quinn (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2006 pp. 61-83); Flexibility and Limitation in Steppe Formations: The Kerait Khanate and Chinggis Khan. Brill, Leiden, 1998.

Cambridge Central Asia Forum Seminar Series Term Card (Lent Term 2025)

7 February Ismael Biyashev, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, ‘The City and the Silent Hill: Nomadic Archaeology and the problem of historicity at Otrar’

14 February Boram Shin, Jeonbuk University, South Korea, ‘Critical Story of critical minerals in Central Asia’

21 February TBC

28 February TBC

7 March Gulnara Abikeyeva, Visiting Fellow in Trinity College, University of Cambridge, Discussion: ‘Is It Difficult To Be A Strong Woman In Kazakhstan?’ and Film Screening of Nuri (Director: Sharipa Urazbaeyva)

14 March Fieldnotes with Rachel Kay, University of Cambridge, 'Working lives and ecological change in the Central Asian walnut trade' & Ainsley Trahan, University of Cambridge, 'Cross-border Disaster Management: A case study of Azerbaijan and Georgia'

More information available on https://centralasia.group.cam.ac.uk/