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Turko-Mongol mythology is essentiallypolytheistic but became moremonotheistic during the imperial period among the ruling class, and was centered around the worship ofTengri, the omnipresentSky God.[11][12][13][1] Deities are personified creative and ruling powers. Even if they areanthropomorphised, the qualities of the deities are always in the foreground.[14][15]
İye are guardian spirits responsible for specific natural elements. They often lack personal traits since they are numerous.[14] Although most entities can be identified as deities or İye, there are other entities such asgenien (Çor) anddemons (Abasi).[14]
According to a common Turkic belief, the attitude of indefinite spirits is determined by their color: Good spirits appear white and evil spirits black.[16][17]
Kök Tengri is the first of the primordial deities in the religion of the early Turkic people. After the Turks started tomigrate and leaveCentral Asia and encountermonotheistic religions,Tengrism was modified from itspagan/polytheistic origins,[12] with only two of the original gods remaining: Tengri, representing goodness andUçmag (a place like heaven), whileErlik represents evil and hell.
The wordsTengri andSky were synonyms and is maybe personification of the universe.[18]
Tengri's appearance is unknown. He rules the fates of all people and acts freely, but he is fair as he awards and punishes. The well-being of the people depends on his will. The oldest form of the name is recorded in Chinese annals from the 4th century BC, describing the beliefs of theXiongnu. It takes the form撑犁/Cheng-li, which is hypothesized to be a Chinese transcription ofTengri.[19]
Umay (The Turkic rootumāy originally meant 'placenta, afterbirth') is the goddess of fertility.[20]
Erlik (Old Turkic:𐰀𐰼𐰠𐰃𐰚 is a deity associated with the dead and the underworld. According to theKhakas, Erlik resides in a palace in the lowest region of the netherworld.[21] Worship of Erlik is usually frowned upon,[22] After conversion to Islam, Erlik becomes associated with theŞeytan.[23]
As a result of the Turks' nomadic lifestyle, thehorse is also one of the main figures of Turkic mythology; Turks considered the horse an extension of the individual, particularly the male horse. This might have been the origin of the title "at-beyi" (horse-lord).[citation needed] As such, horses have been used in various Turkic rituals, including in funeral rites and burial practices. Turkology researcher Marat Kaldybayev has suggested that "the presence of a horse in funeral rites is one of the ethnocultural markers uniting Turkic cultures, starting from the ancient Turkic time and ending in the late Middle Ages."[24]
The tree of life connects the upper world, middle world and underworld. It is also imagined as the "white creator lord" (yryn-al-tojon).[28]
According to the Altai Turks, human beings are actually descended from trees. According to theYakuts, Ak Ana sits at the base of the Tree of Life, whose branches reach to the heavens and are occupied by various supernatural creatures which have been born there. Yakut myth thus combines the cosmic tree with a mother goddess into a concept of nourishing and sustaining entity.[29]
In theOttoman Empire, and more specifically in westernAsia Minor andThrace the deer cult seems to have been widespread, no doubt as a result of the meeting and mixing of Turkic with local traditions. A famous case is the 13th century holy manGeyiklü Baba (ie. 'father deer'), who lived with his deer in the mountain forests ofBursa and gave hind's milk to a colleague. Material in the Ottoman sources is not scarce but it is rather dispersed and very brief, denying us a clear picture of the rites involved.[31]
In this instance the ancient funerary associations of the deer (literal or physical death) may be seen here to have been given a new (Islamic) slant by their equation with the metaphorical death offanaa (the Sufi practice of dying-to-self) which leads to spiritual rebirth in the mystic rapture ofbaqaa.[32]
Thewolf symbolizes honor and is also considered the mother of mostTurkic peoples.Ashina is the name of one of the ten sons who were given birth to by a mythical wolf in Turkic mythology.[33][34][35]
The legend tells of a young boy who survived a raid in his village. A she-wolf finds the injured child and nurses him back to health. He subsequently impregnates the wolf which then gives birth to ten half-wolf, half-human boys. One of these, Ashina, becomes their leader and establishes theAshina clan which ruled theGöktürks (T'u-chueh) and otherTurkicnomadic empires.[36][37][38] The wolf, pregnant with the boy's offspring, escaped her enemies by crossing the Western Sea to a cave near to theQocho mountains, one of the cities of theTocharians. The first Turks subsequently migrated to theAltai regions, where they are known as experts inironworking.[39]
TheErgenekon legend tells about a great crisis of the ancient Turks. Following a military defeat, the Turks took refuge in the legendary Ergenekon valley where they were trapped for four centuries. They were finally released when a blacksmith created a passage by melting amountain, allowing the gray wolf to lead them out.[40][41][42][43][44][45] A New Year's ceremony commemorates the legendary ancestral escape from Ergenekon.[46]
TheBook of Dede Korkut from the 11th century covers twelve legendary stories of theOghuz Turks, one of the major branches of the Turkic peoples. It originates from the state of Oghuz Yabghu period of the Turks, from whenTengriist elements in the Turkic culture were still predominant. It consists of a prologue and twelve different stories. The legendary story which begins inCentral Asia is narrated by a dramatis personae, in most cases byKorkut Ata himself.[47] Korkut Ata heritage (stories, tales, music related to Korkut Ata) represented byAzerbaijan,Kazakhstan andTurkey was included in theRepresentative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity ofUNESCO in November 2018 as an example of multi-ethnic culture.[48][49]
^abKlyashtornyj, Sergei G. (2008). Spinei, V. and C. (ed.).Old Turkic Runic Texts and History of the Eurasian Steppe. Bucureşti/Brăila: Editura Academiei Române; Editura Istros a Muzeului Brăilei.
^Róna-Tas, A. (1987).W. Heissig; H.-J. Klimkeit (eds.). "Materialien zur alten Religion den Turken: Synkretismus in den Religionen zentralasiens" [Materials on the ancient religion of the Turks: syncretism in the religions of Central Asia].Studies in Oriental Religions (in German). Wiesbaden.13: 33–45
^Zhanar, Abdibek, et al. "The Problems of the Mythological Personages in the Ancient Turkic Literature." Asian Social Science 11.7 (2015): 344.
^Zarcone, Thierry, and Angela Hobart, eds. Shamanism and Islam: Sufism, healing rituals and spirits in the Muslim world. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017. p. 317
^Bekebassova, A. N. "Archetypes of Kazakh and Japanese cultures." News of the national academy of sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Series of social and human sciences 6.328 (2019): 87-93.
^Jean-Paul Roux,Die alttürkische Mythologie, p. 255
^Eason, Cassandra.Fabulous Creatures, Mythical Monsters, and Animal Power Symbols: A Handbook. Greenwood Press. 2008. p. 53.ISBN978-02-75994-25-9.
^Burnakov, V. A. "Erlik khan in the traditional worldview of the khakas." Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 39.1 (2011): 107-114.
^Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer Shamanism: Soviet Studies of Traditional Religion in Siberia and Central Asia: Soviet Studies of Traditional Religion in Siberia and Central Asia Routledge, 22. Juli 2016, ISBN 978-1-315-48724-3 S. 63
^Moldagaliyev, Bauyrzhan Eskaliyevich, et al. "Synthesis of traditional and Islamic values in Kazakhstan." European Journal of Science and Theology 11.5 (2015): 217-229.
^Christopher I. Beckwith, Empires of theSilk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present, Princeton University Press, 2011, p.9
^Oriental Institute of Cultural and Social Research, Vol. 1-2, 2001, p.66
^Büchner, V.F. and Doerfer, G., “Tañri̊”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 18 January 2023doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_7392First published online: 2012First print edition:ISBN9789004161214, 1960-2007
Hausman, Gerald; Hausman, Loretta (2003).The Mythology of Horses: Horse Legend and Lore Throughout the Ages. pp. 37–46.
Heissig, Walter (2000).The Religions of Mongolia, Kegan Paul.
Klyashtornyj, S. G. (2005). 'Political Background of the Old Turkic Religion' in: Oelschlägel, Nentwig, Taube (eds.),"Roter Altai, gib dein Echo!" Leipzig:FS Taube,ISBN978-3-86583-062-3, pp. 260–265.
Kulsariyeva, Aktolkyn, Madina Sultanova, i Zhanerke Shaigozova. 2018. "The Shamanistic Universe of Central Asian Nomads: Wolves and She-Wolves". In:Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski 9 (2): 231-40.https://doi.org/10.31648/pw.3192.
