Beszermény and besermen

Hungarian and Slavic words for Mohammedans in the centuries of the Mongol invasion. Part 1

Abstract

An earlier form of Hungarian böszörmény was roughly beszermény, usually not found in etymological dictionaries. Its first attested occurrence is the place name Bezermen from the 13th century. Its meaning is ’Muslim’. Words of the same form and meaning are also found in Old Russian and in Old Czech. The first time the form besurmen occurred in Old Russian chronicles was in an 1184 entry of the Kievan Chronicle. In a 1282 entry of the Laurentian Chronicle, besurmen occurs once, and besermen occurs five times. The abrupt and unexpected change is probably due to an unintended effect of a later copier’s or compliler’s own language. The form besurmen probably comes from the language of Polovtsians. Based on the fact that Volga Bulgarians were later referred to in Old Russian as besermen in the 14th century, we can assume that Old Russian borrowed the word from the language of the Volga Bulgarians, one of the Chuvash-type Turkic languages. The form besermen was widespread in the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal first, and later it became dominant in the whole territory of Rus’. Hungarian beszermény may be a loanword from another Chuvashtype Turkic language, borrowed in the 9th century the latest. With respect to the origin of Old Czech Bezzermene (Besermené), Hungarian transmission is more probable than Eastern Slavic. In the thirteenth century, these words had the meaning ‘Muslim’ west of the Volga, as far as the Vltava River, with no particular ethnic reference. The same meaning is hidden in Bisermin as mentioned by Plano Carpini, mistakenly thought to be an ethnic name by the Franciscan monk. On the other hand, his fellow traveller, Benedictus Polonus, who was familiar with Slavic languages, took the Czech and Russian word to be a common noun, and did not mention the word Bisermin in his travelogue.