Language and Linguistics as Historical Evidence in the Islamic World: A Preliminary Case Study of Culture and Identity in Eurasia Nathan Spannaus, McGill University, Quebec, Canada Abstract: Using sociolinguistic techniques to look at the use of language within the multi-linguistic Islamicate cultural space could provide important insights into the role of culture and identity in the history the Islamic world and the emphasis (or de-emphasis) on cultural, ethnic or national difference. The linguistic history of the Turkic nationalities of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union provide an interesting case study for this (admittedly preliminary) methodological framework. Summarizing the sociolinguistic history of language in the Turkic Islamic world, this paper then looks at two main stances towards language which appeared in the 19th and early 20th centuries among these groups (notably the Volga Tatars): Qayyum Nasyri’s (1825-1902) attempts to fabricate a modernized Tatar literary language and Ismail Gasprinski’s (1851-1914) efforts at a uniied pan-Turkic literary language. These approaches touch upon issues of identity, modernism, pan-Islamism, pan-Turkism, nationalism and cultural assimilation, as well as questions of education and the Islamic scholarly tradition, and competed simultaneously within the same discursive space, where issues of language and its uses were at the forefront. Keywords: Language and Linguistics, Islam and Muslims, Nationalism, Culture and Identity, Russia, Soviet Union, Eurasia, History and Historiography, Arabic, Methodology, Sociolinguistics H ISTORICAL LINGUISTICS—PRIMARILY ETYMOLOGY and study of loanwords—can be a productive and fruitful source for the historian, particularly for the study of interaction between language communities. By tracking the spread of loanwords and their type, the historian-cum-historical linguist can present a picture of cultural exchange. This approach, of course, is not new. To cite just three examples from the part of the world in question, Pentti Aalto pioneered new ways of using loanwords as a source for contacts between ancient Iranians and Turks, 1 and Peter Golden has used similar methods for tracing the historical development of Turkic peoples. 2 Ehsan Yarshater has also used Persian loanwords that made their way into Arabic in the pre-Islamic period to illustrate the cultural standing of Iran in the ancient Middle East. 3 1 “Iranian Contacts of the Turks in Pre-Islamic Times.” Studia Turcica. Ed. L. Ligeti. Budapest: Akademiai Kiado, 1971. 29-37. 2 An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples: Ethnogenesis and State-Formation in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1992. 3 “The Persian Presence in the Islamic World.” The Persian Presence in the Islamic World. Eds. Richard G. Hov- annisian and Georges Sabagh. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998. 4-125. The considerable list of loanwords and the attendant discussion is pg. 47-54. The International Journal of the Humanities Volume 8, Number 9, 2010, http://www.Humanities-Journal.com, ISSN 1447-9508 © Common Ground, Nathan Spannaus, All Rights Reserved, Permissions: cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com