Alp Er Tunga

Alp Er Tunga

Alp Er Tunga, or Alp Er Tonğa (Altai Turkic: İlb Er Tonga), is a legendary Turkic khagan. The name combines "Alp" (alp, brave, hero, warrior), "Er" (er, man), and "tonğa" (a leopard/tiger). He is at times referred to as the Khan of the Saka.

His Name and Historical Position

The word tunga is in fact the name of a predatory animal of the leopard kind. As a symbol of valor it is given as a name to alps (heroes). Because being long-haired evokes the tunga, the alps grow their hair long. Moreover, warriors wear the pelts of predatory animals, especially of the lion, tiger, panther, and tunga. These pelts are the symbol of warriorhood. Alpar Tunga Han is depicted with two tungas (leopards) beside him and a pelt on his back, the pelt's teeth showing above his head. As throughout the Turkic world, so too many of the peoples of Iran and the Middle East know him. He is counted among the thirty-three ancestors of the Seljuks. He dwells in an underground iron palace of a hundred columns. He is called by the epithet Alpar. In Iranian mythology his name appears as Afrasiyab.

Alp Er Tunga, whose life is based on legends, is claimed by the Turanists to descend from the lineage of the ancient ancestors of the Turks. Moreover, in the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk and in the Kutadgu Bilig, it is stated that he is the same person as Afrasiyab, one of the heroes of the Iranian epic the Shahnameh. According to the Shahnameh, during the Iran–Turan wars, in the course of his struggle with Rostam son of Zal, he was ambushed and killed. The Lament of Alp Er Tunga (Alp Er Tunga Sagusu), concerning his death, is said to be given as a sample text in various places in the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk.

The Names "Alp Er" and "Tunga" in the Orkhon Inscriptions

The name Alp Er is also mentioned in the ancient runic Turkic inscriptions found in the Altai Mountains. In the Orkhon Inscriptions (i, north 7; ii, east 31), when Kül Tigin in 714 successfully carried out his fifth campaign against the Oghuz, he had the following inscribed on the monument:

"tunga tigin yoghinda kiri ölürtimiz."

Alp Er Tunga in the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk

Mahmud al-Kashgari, after noting that Kaz was his daughter, reports that Afrasiyab and Alp Er Tunga are the same person with the words: "For Kaz's father, 'تنكا الب ار Tonğa Alp Er,' means Afrasiyab; he is the man who built the city of 'مءرڤ Merv.'"

Alp Er Tunga in the Kutadgu Bilig

In the work titled Kutadgu Bilig, which Yusuf Khass Hajib presented as a gift to the Karakhanid ruler Tabgach Bughra Khan, he states that among the world's rulers the most just were the Turkic rulers, and that the most famous of these was Alp Er Tonga, whom the Tajiks (the Iranians) called Afrasiyab.

He also speaks of Afrasiyab in these words:

"Kent: city. From this word, for Kashgar they say 'Ordu Kend.' It means the city where the khan resides. For Afrasiyab, because its air was fine, used to reside here."

Alp Er Tunga in Ali Shir Nava'i's Tarih-i Müluk-i Acem

That the character who appears in the Avesta as "Arjasp" (Arjāsp) is Alp Er Tonga is seen in Ali Shir Nava'i's work Tarih-i Müluk-i Acem (History of the Kings of Persia) in the form "Arjasp son of Afrasiyab, who was a Turkic sovereign."

His Tomb

Prof. Dr. Necati Demir, in a statement he made on 3 October 2021, asserted that the tomb of Alp Er Tunga is in the city of Bukhara in Uzbekistan, and stated: "Some of the available sources actually say directly where the tomb is. For security reasons I cannot say this, but I was able to go and find the location of the tomb without much difficulty." In his statement, Demir noted that he had been researching the location of Alp Er Tunga's tomb for 25 years, that he had gone to Uzbekistan to research the matter, and that although he could not disclose the tomb's location for security reasons, an Uzbek scholar named Narshakhi (c. 899–959) mentioned the tomb's location in a book titled Afrasiyab written in 942, and that he had conveyed the mausoleum to the President of Uzbekistan in a dossier. He expressed that his aim was to have a very large mausoleum or tomb built at the site in question.

Etymology

"The word Tunga is in fact the name of a predatory animal of the leopard kind. As a symbol of valor it is given as a name to alps (heroes). Because being long-haired evokes the Tunga, the alps grow their hair long. Moreover, warriors wear the pelts of predatory animals, especially of the lion, tiger, panther, and tunga. These pelts are the symbol of warriorhood. Alpar Tunga Han is depicted with two tungas (leopards) beside him and a pelt on his back, the pelt's teeth showing above his head. He is recognized not only throughout the Turkic world but by many of the peoples of Iran and the Middle East. He is counted among the thirty-three ancestors of the Seljuks. He dwells in an underground iron palace of a hundred columns. He is called by the epithet Alpar (Alper). In Iranian mythology his name appears as Afrasiyab."

Sources

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