Child Mortality and Its Causes Among the Tobolsk Bukharians in the Second Half of the 19th Century (Based on Materials from Muslim Books of the Komarov Mosque)

Research results on infant and child mortality in the second half of the 19th century and its causes among immigrants from Central Asia are presented. Although they were representatives of different nationalities (Tajiks, Uzbeks, Uyghurs, Karakalpaks, Kazakhs), in Siberia, they were combined into one ethnosocial group and referred to as Bukharians and Sarts. The Bukharians lived mainly together with the Yezaks and the military service Tatars; there are even two Bukharian settlements in the Tobolsk district – the Komarovskie (Komarau) and Mirimovskie (Kollar) yurts. The research materials are Komarov mosque books from the 19th and early 20th centuries of the Tobolsk province, written in the old Tatar language with Arabic script. So far, there are no studies dealing with the problem of mortality among the 19th-century Siberian Tatars, which is the novelty of this work. Our data show that the total mortality rate in the period under study (1835–1852, 1854–1862) amounted to 94% of the birth rate, of which children accounted for 55%. The quantitative component of deaths by age is shown: Newborns (from birth to one month) – 8 %, from one month to one year – 26 %, from one year to 5 years – 49 %, from 6 years to 16 years – 17 %. The most common causes of death were respiratory diseases (suffocation, asthma, consumption, cough), and the second most common causes of death were infectious diseases (smallpox, measles, rubella, jaundice, fever, leprosy). In 29 cases, the cause of death was given as “childhood illness”; the age of the deceased ranged from 2 days to 15 years, but most (90 %) were infants under one-year-old. The worst year in terms of the number of deaths was 1842 (12 children were born, 22 died, the most “dangerous” was the age of children from 1 to 5 years – 12 deaths (55%). The high child mortality rate (especially in infancy) was characteristic of Russia in general. The analysis of the causes of infant and child mortality in Western Siberia in the 19th and early 20th centuries allows us to determine the chronological framework of the outbreak periods of diseases and epidemics, to identify diseases typical for the region, to correlate the interpretations of the names of diseases (characterization of the cause of death by the imam, variable records, dialect names, and pronunciation).

Tobolsk province, Komarovskaya mosque, Muslim metric books, mosque books, demographic processes, causes of death