Leo Tolstoy
Hadji Murad
Published by Good Press, 2021
EAN 4064066316907
Table of Contents
A List of Tartar Words Used in Hadji Murad
A List of Tartar Words Used in Hadji Murad
Aoul
A tartar village.
Bar
Have.
Beshmet
A Tartar undergarment with sleeves.
Burka
A long round felt cape.
Dzhigit
The same as a brave among American Indians, but the word is inseparably connected with the idea of skilful horsemanship.
Gazavdt
A holy war against the infidels.
Imam
The leader in the holy war, uniting in himself supreme spiritual and temporal power.
Khansha
The wife of a khan.
Kizyak
A fuel made of straw and manure.
Kunak
A sworn friend, an adopted brother.
Murid
A disciple or follower: "One who desires" to find the way in Muridism.
Muridism
Almost identical with Sufism.
Murshed
"One who shows" the way in Muridism.
Naib
A Tartar lieutenant or governor.
Pilau
An oriental dish prepared with rice and mutton or chicken.
Saklya
A Caucasian house, clay-plastered and often built of earth.
Shariat
The written Mohammedan law.
Tarikat
"The Path" leading to the higher life.
Yok
No, not.
Chapter I
I was returning home by the fields. It was midsummer, the hay harvest was over and they were just beginning to reap the rye. At that season of the year there is a delightful variety of flowers -- red, white, and pink scented tufty clover; milk-white ox-eye daisies with their bright yellow centers and pleasant spicy smell; yellow honey-scented rape blossoms; tall campanulas with white and lilac bells, tulip-shaped; creeping vetch; yellow, red, and pink scabious; faintly scented, neatly arranged purple plaintains with blossoms slightly tinged with pink; cornflowers, the newly opened blossoms bright blue in the sunshine but growing paler and redder towards evening or when growing old; and delicate almond-scented dodder flowers that withered quickly. I gathered myself a large nosegay and was going home when I noticed in a ditch, in full bloom, a beautiful thistle plant of the crimson variety, which in our neighborhood they call "Tartar" and carefully avoid when mowing -- or, if they do happen to cut it down, throw out from among the grass for fear of pricking their hands. Thinking to pick this thistle and put it in the center of my nosegay, I climbed down into the ditch, and after driving away a velvety bumble-bee that had penetrated deep into one of the flowers and had there fallen sweetly asleep, I set to work to pluck the flower. But this proved a very difficult task. Not only did the stalk prick on every side -- even through the handkerchief I wrapped round my hand -- but it was so tough that I had to struggle with it for nearly five minutes, breaking the fibers one by one; and when I had at last plucked it, the stalk was all frayed and the flower itself no longer seemed so fresh and beautiful. Moreover, owing to a coarseness and stiffness, it did not seem in