Baburkunim

From Almeopedia

Baburkunim [ba bur ˈku nim], the words of Babur, is the scripture accepted by all Jippirasti. (Ajažril’s quotations are all from the Baburkunim.) A believer ends all citations from the Baburkunim with the Tžuro formula Jippir mul am asti, which means “Jippir spoke and I listened to Him”.

The Baburkunim consists of 71 asutum, literally ‘speakings’. About half the asutum are in the voice of Jippir; the rest in that of Babur.

Babur devised a script for recording his asutum, largely alphabetic in structure, but written in such a way that syllables form single glyphs. He did not actually finish transcribing the asutum in his lifetime; this was left to his followers.

Etymology: Tžuro Baburkunim “Babur spoke and we listened”; cf. kini ‘listen’, cognate to Old Skourene kisn-; Lenani Babukizem, Carhinnian Baučinim; Ver. Baborconim.

Jippirasti scripture

The Tžuro wrote a good deal in the next centuries— mainly exhortations and prophecies, as well as history and hagiography; the Kurundasti Tej discouraged theological speculation, and maintained that Babur’s words were so clear that no commentaries were necessary.

Among the Tžuro (but not the Lenani or Carhinnoi) some of these early writings are near-canonical, especially several volumes of prophecy, and the teacher Savagu’s biographies of Kurund and Attafei.

These writings also serve to define standard literary Tžuro. The standard edition of the Baburkunim also dates to this time, being completed c. 1810. This of course strongly influenced the written language, but Babur’s language contains some notable archaisms in both lexicon and morphology; see the Tžuro grammar for details.

The Anajati Tej, which took power in 2375, encouraged all types of religious writing. The most influential of these was simply known as the Čelepa s Atej, the Book of the Emperor. It was written at the request of the atej Goŋand to codify the understanding of the teachers on sin, law, expiation, and the duty of believers— in effect it was a how-to manual on being a Jippirasti believer or a Jippirasti society.

Translation

The Sačutu and Fanpita branches of Jippirasti read only the classical Tžuro Baburkunim.

The Lenani and Carhinnoi use translations, completed in the first centuries of Jippirasti. Since their conversion, the Sainor have produced a Sainor translation.

These are the only full versions of the book. The few converts of other linguistic backgrounds are generally encouraged to learn Tžuro.

There is a partial translation into Old Skourene (31 asutum), dating to 1840. Just one asutu (on the subject of istuja) was translated from this into Ṭeôši around 1966, and thence into Axunašin; and for centuries that was it.

In the late 2900s the Čeiyu produced a fuller but still incomplete Ṭeôši translation (53 asutum); this in turn has been translated into Xurnese and Telandi. It was not till 3357 that a very partial (and very poor) translation (12 asutum) was made into Verdurian, apparently from the Xurnese version; this version in turn has been translated into Kebreni. The Scholars’ Circle of Avéla has been working on a full translation directly from Tžuro; about a third has already been published.

Single asutum or passages from them have appeared in other languages, such as Cuolese and several languages of Arcél.