The Dynamics of Fertility and Mortality of the Turkic-speaking Population of the Tobolsk Province (based on the Material of the Muslim Metric Books "on the Note of those Born and Dead")

Fajzullina Guzel Chakhvarovna ORCID: 0000-0002-2721-4063 Doctor of Philology Senior Researcher, Tobolsk Complex Research Station, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 626150, Russia, Tyumen region, Tobolsk, Academician Yuri Osipov, 15 utgus@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction. The relevance of the study is due to both the object of study – the Turkic–speaking population of the Tobolsk province, and the source – Muslim metric records of the XIX - early XX centuries.

In historiography, the names of the following scientists are known, in whose works Siberian Tatars (including Siberian Bukharians) become the object of historical, ethnographic and linguistic research: G. F. Miller, S. Patkanov, M. B. Lavryashina, S. N. Korusenko, G.H. Fayzullina, E.H. Kadirova, M. V. Ulyanova, D. O. Imekina, Z. A. Tychinskykh, V. V. Poddubikov, B. A. Tkhorenko, V. G. Volkov, S. A. Likshina, R. R. Zamaletdinov, Galiullina G.R., Khadieva G.K., Mukhametgalieva Z.M., Dubrovina M.E. and others ^[1-12]. Statistical data on Siberian Tatars are updated in such documents as revision tales, the 1897 population census (then processed by Patkanov S. Statistical data showing the tribal composition of the population of Siberia, the language and genera of the gentiles (based on data from a special development of the 1897 census material). Vol. 2. St. Petersburg, 1911. 432 p.), "Review of the Tobolsk province..." etc. However, these documents give only general ideas about the quantitative composition of the Turkic-speaking population, while the dynamics of fertility and mortality remain beyond the scope of study.

Back in the XIX century, the value of metric records in conducting demographic research was emphasized. Thus, the doctor P. Vershinin, a researcher of infant mortality in Verny (1875-1884), notes: "In Russia, so far, the only material on the issue of population movement is the church-metric books compiled by our clergy. These books, despite their weak merits with respect to the accuracy of some data, can still have the value of approximately correct statistical material, and therefore any study on the issue of population movement based on data borrowed from metric records, although only approximately correct, nevertheless deserves practical significance. in the sense of "grounds and guidelines for improving the living conditions of the population." And where, finally, can we find more accurate figures than those that are collected bit by bit by our clergy" ^{[14, p. 3]}.

The author of the pre-revolutionary work "Experience on the laws of mortality in Russia and on the distribution of the Orthodox population by age" V. Ya. Bunyakovsky writes: "The method of death lists essentially consists of extracting from the metric books a very significant number of testimonies about the deceased, which are first distributed by age" ^{[15, p. 7]}.

At the same time, researchers point out that the source is only church metric books. For example, E. Anuchin notes: "When starting to draw up a mortality map, we, of necessity, took into account only one Orthodox population of the region on the grounds that for the population of other faiths we did not have any data that we could rely on without a large margin of error" ^{[16, p. 303]}.

Consequently, metric records, firstly, are the only source for studying the dynamics of fertility and mortality in the pre-revolutionary period, and secondly, Muslim metric records are an unexplored source both from the point of view of history and philology.

The main part. Muslim metric books "on the note of those born, on marriages, divorces and death", written in the Old Tatar language (on Arabic graphics), were kept from 1828 until the beginning of the XX century by decree "On the introduction of metric books on the Orenburg Spiritual Mohammedan Administration".

The material of our research is the metric records of the Komarovskaya mosque of Tobolsk province from 1835 to 1862 (with the exception of 1853), extracted from the archival funds of Ufa (NARB) and Tobolsk (GBUTO GA in Tobolsk). These records were transliterated and translated into Russian by scientists of the Ibragimov Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan – E.H. Kadirova and Tyumen State University – G.H. Fayzullina and L.H. Faizova ^[17]. The materials obtained by the researchers are used in our article. The mosque books of the Komarovsky parish recorded information about the inhabitants of two villages – Komarovsky and Arapovsky proper. Komarovsky were part of only Bukhara volost, Arapovsky – Bukhara and Vagay.

According to the census of 1897, indigenous Turks (Tobolsk Tatars-foreigners; 17,817 people), Siberian Bukharians (3,380 people) and Tatars (peasants; 1,392 people) lived in the Tobolsk district from among the Muslim population. It should be noted that the majority of the Turkic-speaking population lived in rural areas. Accommodation is recorded in the city of Tobolsk: 1% of Tatars are foreigners, 2% of Bukharans and 14.5% of Tatars are peasants.

In 1897, 10 Russians (only men), 236 Siberian Bukharans (107 men and 129 women), 8 indigenous Turks (4 men) lived in Komarovsky yurts. and 4 wives); in Arapov yurts – 20 Siberian Bukharians (8 men and 12 women), 99 indigenous Turks (41 men and 58 women) and 59 Tatars (30 men and 29 women). Table 1 shows the population by yurts ^[18-21].

Let's consider the statistical data presented in Komarov mosque books. Figure 1 graphically shows the dynamics of fertility and mortality. During the period under review, only 489 people were born, including 252 males (51.5%) and 237 females (48.5%). Only 448 people died, including 216 males (48.2%) and 232 females (51.8%). These graphs have points of intersection, while the fertility curve retains a certain relative amplitude and is ascending, while the mortality graph is characterized by both maximum (1842 – 39 people) and minimum (1836 – 3 people) indicators.

Fig. 1. Dynamics of fertility and mortality

In the book "on the note of those born" in 324 cases (66.2%) Komarov yurts are indicated, in 163 cases (33.4%) – Arapov yurts and 2 – Kyrkyrali (0.4%). The geography of the burial of the deceased is wider: the villages of Tobolsk county – Komarovsky (315 people – 70.3%), Arapovsky (124 people – 27.7%), Sauskansky (2 people – 0.45%), Pushnyatsky (1 person - 0.22%), Epanchinsky (1 person - 0.22%), Abalaksky (2 people – 0.45 %); other counties or provinces – Yanka of Tyumen County (1 person – 0.22%), Kurtai of Kainsky county (1 person – 0.22%), Chur...ichka (written illegibly) Tomsk province (1 person – 0.22%). The reasons for the burial in these or other villages are not specified. Probably, the person died during his stay or residence in the village of Komarovsky (or Arapovsky), where the local imam witnessed the death.

Let's consider the dynamics of child and adult mortality. In Federal Law No. 124-FZ of 24.07.1998 (as amended on 11.06.2021) "On the basic guarantees of the rights of the child in the Russian Federation", a child is understood as "a person until he reaches the age of 18 (majority)" [FZ]. In pediatrics, a system of gradation of children by age is generally accepted (the basis for the periodization of childhood is the scheme of N.P. Gundobin and the decision of the WHO Committee of Experts from 1977), in which the following groups of the extrauterine period are distinguished:

1) from birth to the 28th day of life - newborns;

2) from the 1st to the 12th month – infants, infants;

3) from 1 year to 3 years – nursery age, early childhood;

4) from 3 to 7 years – preschool age, middle childhood;

5) from 7 to 12 years – primary school age, older childhood;

6) from 12 to 16 years – high school age, adolescence, adolescence;

7) from 16 to 20 years – adolescence, the period of social maturation ^[22].

Following the researcher P. Vershinin, "for the convenience of comparing the mortality of children and adults," we will consider two groups: those who died at the age of birth and up to 15 years (children) and those who died over the age of 15 (adults) ^{[14, p. 3]}.

During the entire period, 246 children (54.9%) and 202 adults (45.1%) died. Figure 2 shows the dynamics of child and adult mortality by year. The peak of infant mortality occurred in 1838 and 1842, adult mortality – in 1842 and 1843. In 1838, the causes of infant death were indicated: jaundice (1 person), suffocation (6 people), smallpox (5 people), consumption (1 person), tumor (1 person), fever (3 people), the influence of evil spirits (2 people); in 1842 – abdominal disease (2 people), suffocation (4 people), rubella (4 people aged 2-3 years from January 20 to February 7), asthma (8 people), tumor (2 people), consumption (2 people). Among the causes of death of adults for the designated two years, asthma and consumption are more common than others.

Fig. 2. Dynamics of child and adult mortality by year

P. Vershinin draws attention to the ubiquity of this problem: "Excessive, almost total extinction of children in comparison with older ages is observed everywhere, not only in Russia, but also in Western Europe, although on a smaller scale" ^{[14, p. 1]}.

Figure 3 shows a graph of child and adult mortality by month. These curves are descending. The highest point of the child mortality chart is January, the lowest is December; the highest point of the adult mortality chart is April, the lowest is November. Consequently, despite the fact that child mortality exceeds adult mortality, the same trend is observed – the mortality rate decreases by the end of the year.

Fig. 3. Dynamics of child and adult mortality over the entire period by month

Figure 4 shows a graph of infant mortality by age, from which it can be seen that the most dangerous ages are the first month of life and the period from 1 to 3 years. Common causes of death are epidemiological diseases: measles, smallpox, dysentery, rubella, etc. From the age of 4, the schedule goes to the maximum reduction in the level of death.

Fig. 4. Dynamics of child mortality by age

Conclusion. When analyzing the dynamics of the birth rate and mortality of the Turkic-speaking population of Tobolsk province (old-country Tatars, Siberian Bukharans, trespassers) during the period under review, there is, firstly, an excess of fertility over mortality (489 people were born, 448 people died), secondly, an excess of infant mortality over adult mortality (54.9% / 45.1%), thirdly, the tendency to decrease the mortality rate by the end of the calendar year, and fourthly, the excess of mortality (in some years) from epidemiological diseases (measles, smallpox, dysentery, rubella, etc.).

The study of the causes of both child and adult mortality is an urgent task for individual scientific research, while there is a prospect in studying this problem in a comparative aspect with data on related and unrelated peoples who lived on the territory of the Tobolsk province. Some arguments about this can be found in the work of E. Anuchin "Climate of Tobolsk": "The average life for a Russian is less than for a Tatar. The mortality rate among the children of Tatars is not as high as among the children of Russians. Tatars reach the highest ages much less often than Russians" ^{[16, p. 333]}.

Thus, the analysis of the Muslim metric books "on the note of births, deaths" allows us to identify the dynamics of the birth rate and mortality of the Turkic-speaking population of the Tobolsk province, as well as to reconstruct the epidemiological situation in Western Siberia.