The Karsakpay epigraphic monument on Altynshoky Hill in the Landscape of Tamerlane’s 1391 Military Campaign

Abstract

This study offers a comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of the cultural-historical complex on Altynshoky Hill (Ulytau, Kazakhstan), established in connection with Tamerlan’s military campaign against Tokhtamysh, Khan of the Golden Horde, in 1391. We conceptualize the landscape of this military conflict as a distinct historical and cultural space, in which material objects acquire sacred and commemorative significance. The study focuses on the epigraphic monument known as “Timur’s Stone” (also referred to as the Karasakpay inscription by its first translator, Nicholas N. Poppe, in 1940), as well as the kurgan-oboo, interpreting them as interconnected elements of a unified complex that constitutes a “place of memory.” Using methodology of lieu de mémoire, which identifies historical events symbolically embedded in material environment, we integrated archaeological, historical, and textual evidence into a unified analytical framework. The epigraphic monument reflects the continuity of Turkic written traditions within the political culture of Timurid' era. It uses the Uyghur script to record a text in the Chagatai language upkeeping earlier Turkic writing practices in the official commemorative address of the late fourteenth century. The mixture of Arabic formulaic expressions with a Turkic text illustrates the synthesis of Islamic political ideology and Turkic state-administrative traditions. The bilingual character of the inscription along with its composition suggest the prominence of this inscription in political legitimation, linking sacred Islamic discourse with established forms of steppe political culture. It constitutes as important relic of cultural and ideological policies under the Timurid dynasty. The horizontal orientation of the text is also a notable epigraphic feature. It reflects the adaptation of the Uyghur script to the demands of monumental inscription and to the physical layout of the stone slab, indicating a transformation of graphic conventions within the broader context of material culture and regional practices of written record-keeping. It shows flexibility of writing norms when transferred from manuscript to epigraphic context and highlights the influence of technical and spatial constraints on the visual organization of the text. The inscription functioned as a politico-memorial marker, recording Tamerlane’s campaign against Tokhtamysh in 1391. In this role, the epigraphic monument serves as a material instrument for constructing historical memory and symbolically representing power in medieval Turkic political culture. Alongside the kurgan, interpreted as a ritual and thermotechnical structure, the Altynshoky complex is considered a unique example of sacralizing the space of military conflict, combining elements of Turkic-Mongol tradition, Islamic ideology, and local natural-cultural practices of steppe landscape. This study offers a new perspective on the role of material objects in shaping historical memory and political symbolism.