Oghuz Khagan
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Oghuz Khan (aka Oguz Kagan) was a legendary and semi-mythological Khan of Turks. Some Turkic peoples use this legend to describe their ethnic origins and the origin of the system of political clans used by Turkmen, Ottoman, and other Oghuz Turks. The various versions of the narrative preserved in many different manuscripts has been published in numerous languages as listed below in the references. The narrative is often entitled Oghuznama, or narrative of the Oghuz.
Sources
The legend of Oghuz Khan is one of a number of different origin narratives that circulated among the Turkic peoples of Central Asia. It was first recorded in 13th century.
The anonymous Uyghur vertical script narrative of the 14th century preserved in the Paris manuscript was probably already being modified to fit somewhat with stories of the Mongol Conquest, as Paul Pelliot has shown. But it does not have any suggestions of Oghuz Khan's later significance as Islamizer of the Turks, and it does not include the figure of Moghul (Mongol) as an ancestor of Oghuz Khan.
Abū’l-Ghāzī’s 16th century version roughly follows Rashīd ad-Dīn’s already Islamized and Mongolized (post-conquest) version of the early 14th century. But in his account Oghuz Khan is more fully integrated into Islamic and Mongol traditional history: the account begins with descent from Adam to Noah, who after the flood sends his three sons to repopulate the earth: Ham was sent to Hindustan, Sam to Iran, and Yafes went to the banks of the Itil and Yaik rivers and had eight sons named Turk, Khazar, Saqlab, Rus, Ming, Chin, Kemeri, and Tarikh. As he was dying he established Turk as his successor. Turk settled at Issiq Kul and was succeeded by Tutek, the eldest of his four sons. Four generations after him came two sons, Tatar and Moghul, who divided his kingdom between them. Moghul Khan begat Qara Khan who begat Oghuz Khan. For three days he would not nurse and every night he appeared in his mother's dream and told his mother to become a Muslim or he would not suckle her breast. His mother converted and Abū’l-Ghāzī writes that Turkic peoples from Yafes to the time of Qara Khan had been Muslims but then had lost the faith. Oghuz Khan restores Islamic belief.
Legend
According to legend, Oghuz is born in Central Asia, as the son of Qara Khan, leader of Turks. He starts talking as soon as he was born. He stops drinking his mother's milk after one time and asks for kımız(an alcoholic beverage made by horse milk) and meat. After that he grews up supernaturally fast and only in forty days he becomes a young adult. At the time of his birth, lands of Turks was preyed upon by a dragon named Kıyant. Oghuz arms himself and goes to kill the dragon. He kills the great dragon with his lance and cuts his head.
After Oghuz kills the dragon Kıyat, he becomes a hero of the nation. He formes a special warrior band from the forty sons of forty Turk nobles. But his Chinese stepmother and half-brother who is the heir to the throne, become jealous and convince Qara Khan that Oghuz was planning to dethrone him. Qara Khan decides to assassinate Oghuz at a hunting party. Oghuz learns about this plan and instead, kills his father and becomes the khan. His stepmother and half brother flee to China.
After Oghuz becomes the khan, he goes to steppes by himself to praise and pray to Tengri (Sky-God). While praying he sees a circle of light coming from the sky and there is a supernaturaly beautiful girl in that light. Oghuz falls in love with the girl and marries her. He has three sons which he names Gün (Sun), Ay (Moon) and Yıldız (Star). Later, Oghuz goes hunting and sees a supernaturaly beautiful girl inside a tree. He marries her and has three sons which he names Gök (Sky), Dağ (Mountain) and Deniz (Sea).
After his sons are born, Oghuz Khan gives a great toy (feast) and invites all of his beys (lords). At the feast he gives this order to his lords:
"I am became your Khan;
Let's all take swords and shields;
Kut (divine power) will be our sign;
Grey wolf will be our uran (warcry);
Our iron lances will be a forest;
Khulan will walk on the hunting ground;
More seas and more rivers;
Sun is our flag and sky is our tent."
Then he sends letters to the kings of four directions, saying: "I am the Khan of Turks. And I will be Khan of the for corners of earth. I want your obedience."
Altun Khan (Golden Khan) on the right corner of earth submits his obedience but Urum (Roman) Khan of the left corner does not. Oghuz declares war on Urum Khan and marchs his army to west. One night, a large male-wolf with grey fur comes to his tent in an aura of light. He says "Oghuz, you want to march against Urum, I want to march before your army". The grey sky-wolf marchs before the Turkish army and guides them. Two armies fought near river İtil (Volga) and Oghuz Khan wins the war. Then Oghuz and has six sons carry out campaigns in Turkistan, India, Iran, Egypt, Syria, with the grey wolf guide. He becomes the khan of four corners of the earth.
In his old age Oghuz sees a dream. He calls his six sons and sends them to east and west. His elder sons find a golden bow in the east. His younger sons finds three silver arrows in the west. Oghuz Khan breaks the golden bow in to three pieces and gives to his three older sons Gün, Ay and Yıldız. He says: "My older sons, take this bow and shoot your arrows to the sky like this bow." He gives three silver arrows to his three younger sons Gök, Dağ and Deniz and says: "My younger sons, take this silver arrows. Bow shoots the arrows and you be like the arrow." Then, he passes his lands on to his sons, Bozoks (elder sons) and Üçoks (younger sons) at a final banquet. (Abū’l-Ghāzī identifies the lineage symbols, tamga seals and ongon spirit guiding birds, as well as specifying the political hierarchy and seating order at banquets for these sons and their 24 sons) Then he says:
"My sons, I walked a lot;
I saw many battles;
I threw so many arrows and lances;
I rode many horses;
I made my enemies cry;
I made my friends smile;
I paid my debt to Tengri;
Now I am giving my land to you."
Historical precursor
"In the scientific literature, the name of Maodun is usually associated with Oguz Kagan, an epic ancestor of the Türkic people. The reason for that is a striking similarity of the Oguz-Kagan biography in the Turko-Persian manuscripts (Rashid al-Din, Hondemir, Abulgazi) with the Maodun biography in the Chinese sources (feud between the father and son and murder of the former, the direction and sequence of conquests, etc.), which was first noticed by N.Ya. Bichurin (Collection of information, pp. 56–57)".[1][2]
Footnotes
See also
- Ansarlu
- Azerbaijani people
- Bayat
- Kara Koyunlu
- Khalaj language
- Modu Chanyu
- Oghuz languages
- Ottoman Empire
- Qizilbash
- Seljuk
- Turkmen people
References
Abū’l Ghāzī. 1958. Rodoslovnaia Turkmen. Andrei N. Kononov, ed. Moscow: Nauka.
Golden, Peter B. 1992. An introduction to the history of the Turkic peoples. Ethnogenesis and state formation in medieval and early modern Eurasia and the Middle East. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Pelliot, Paul. 1930. Sur la légende d'Uγuz-khan en écriture ouigoure. T'oung Pao. Second Series. 27: 4-5. pp. 247–358.
Rašīd ad-Dīn. Die Geschichte der Oġuzen des Rašīd ad-Dīn. Karl Jahn, trans. Vienna: 1969
Shcherbak, Aleksandr Mikhaǐlovich. Oguz-name. Muhabbatname. Moscow, 1959.
Woods, John E. 1976. The Aqquyunlu Clan, Confederation, Empire: a study in 15th/16th Century Turco-Iranian Politics. Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica.