Ergenekon Legend

Ergenekon Legend

The Legend of Ergenekon, or the Epic of Ergenekon, is, according to the sources, the story of the rebirth of the Göktürks.

The Epic of Ergenekon in historical works

The legend, recounted as the creation epic of the Mongols in the "Bāb-i Awwal" (First Chapter: the history of the Turkic and Mongol tribes) of the "Mujallad-i Awwal" (First Book: the history of the Mongols) of the Jami' al-Tawarikh written by Rashid al-Din Hamadani in the 14th century, is also recounted as the creation epic of the Mongols in the Shajara-i Türki written in the 17th century by Abu'l-Ghazi Bahadur, a descendant of Shiban and khan of the Khanate of Khiva; according to some sources, however, it is a Turkic epic. In the two aforementioned historical sources, the brothers named Neküz (Nüküz) and Qiyan (Kıyan) and their wives, having been defeated by the Tatars, first went to a narrow and steep place called Ergene Kon (Persian: ارگنه قون; Ergene Qon), and when in 400 years their lineage had multiplied and could no longer fit there, they came out of Ergenekon. When they came out of Ergenekon their guide is thought to have been Börteçine (Börte Chino). According to other sources, the Göktürk people living in the region of Ergenekon were oppressed by the country that owned that region. It was impossible for the people of Ergenekon to leave the region where they were, because they were surrounded by mountains. To get out from there, the people of Ergenekon lit a great fire, melted these mountains, and were saved.

However, there are also researchers who argue, on the grounds of its similarities to the creation epic of the Göktürks, that it is an epic belonging to the Turks. Moreover, according to Talât Sait Halman, it is an expanded version of the grey-wolf epic; he argues that it tells the story of a Turkic community that, saved from the danger of extinction thanks to the protection of the grey wolf — a mythological being — likewise emerged, thanks to the grey wolf, from the valley of Ergenekon surrounded by impassable mountains. According to other views, similar legends are told among both the Turks and the Mongols. The legend has sometimes also been associated with Nowruz.

Ergenekon

The legendary homeland of the Turks in Central Asia. According to the description of the Russian historian Gumilyov, it means "steep slope".

Although various claims have been put forward as to where Ergenekon actually was, there is no definitive evidence on the matter. According to descriptions found in old works, Ergenekon is said to be at Mount Belukha in the Altai Mountains.

Origin of the epic

The legend, at first oral, was later put into writing as it was mentioned in various sources. Because there is no consensus about it as a whole and because it appears only in the form of a short summary in the written texts, it is also called the "Legend of Ergenekon". The story known as the Epic of Ergenekon consists of two main parts:

the continuation of the lineage secured through the aid and protection of a grey wolf;

settlement in a valley surrounded by impassable mountains, and the later emergence from it.

The first story is told as the Turks' story of origin in three separate Chinese chronicles. A summary of the second story likewise appears in Chinese sources. In various works written between the 13th and 17th centuries — such as the Jami' al-Tawarikh of Rashid al-Din Hamadani and, secondly, the Shajara-i Türki of Abu'l-Ghazi Bahadur Khan — the valley in the legend is given the name "Ergenekon"; but in these sources the protagonists of the legend are not the Turks but the Mongols.

Historical sources

In Chinese chronicles written in the period between the second half of the 6th century CE and the beginning of the 7th century, it is related how a child — the sole surviving member of his people after a war — was raised by a wolf, saved from death, and continued his line. According to Chinese sources, the Göktürks descend from this line. This story was later told within the framework of the Epic of Ergenekon. Chinese sources of the 6th century likewise relate the story of the Turks' deliverance from a cave in which they were held captive, or from a valley surrounded by mountains. But the name "Ergenekon" does not appear in these accounts.

The story of the "Exit from Ergenekon" is told at the end of the 13th century in the Jami' al-Tawarikh (volume I, chapter I) of Rashid al-Din Hamadani, one of the court officials of the Ilkhanate. But the protagonists of the story told in this text are not the Göktürks but the Mongols. In this text the story of the exit from the valley of Ergenekon predominates, and the "child born of a wolf" motif does not appear.

In later periods, in works written in Chagatai Turkic and Persian in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Epic of Ergenekon appears as a Mongol legend. The legend of Ergenekon is related in texts such as the Shajarat al-Atrak (Genealogy of the Turks), a work written in Persian in the 15th–16th centuries; the Tawarikh-i Güzide-i Nusretname, written in Turkish at the beginning of the 16th century; the Zubdat al-Athar, written in Turkish in the mid-16th century; and the Abdullahname, a Persian book from the end of the 16th century. According to the account of İsa Özkan, professor of Turkish Language and Literature, the same story is told in the 17th century in the Shajara-i Türki of Abu'l-Ghazi Bahadur Khan. In this work too, written drawing on the Jami' al-Tawarikh, it is seen that the Mongols are the subject.

Summary of the epic

In the Mongol land, during the reign of Il Khan, of the line of Oghuz Khan, Sevinç Khan, ruler of the Tatars, made war on the Mongol country. Taking aid also from the Kyrgyz and other tribes, he defeated the army under Il Khan's command. They killed everyone in Il Khan's country. Only Il Khan's youngest son Kıyan, his nephew Nöküz, and their wives managed to escape and survive. They decided to go to a place where the enemy could not find them.

Sources

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