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Post a Comment The Oriental Duodenary Animal Cycle in Old Russian Manuscripts
Abstract
Translated by L. I. Matkina
The article, first published by a well-known British scholar W. F. Ryan (1937–2023) in 1971, discusses curious texts within Russian manuscripts that he had discovered, associated with the Church calendar, entitled The Uighur cycle of twelve years containing the Polovtsian [Cuman] years’. This is a short piece, usually presented in diagrammatic form. Ryan found this in five manuscripts of the 17th and 18th centuries. These texts clearly have a common origin. The first text is a series of concentric circles divided into twelve. The first circle contains the names of the twelve animals of the oriental duodenary cycle: Mouse, Ox,—Pig etc. The next circle contains the Russian names of the signs of the zodiac, the next shows the propitiousness of the sign. The last carries the first letter of the name of the month in the Julian calendar. Another text includes in addition to the circular diagram a hand diagram in which the joints and sections of the fingers are marked by the names of cyclic signs. It is entitled The Uighur hand for 12 years. Another version of the text also gives the parts of the body etc. governed by each sign and offers predictions (albeit limited in scope). The presence of texts of this sort in Russian manuscripts linked to the Church calendar was probably associated with diplomatic relations between Russia and the Golden Horde.
DOI: 10.31168/2305-6754.2025.2.09
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