The Epic of Manas is the national epic of the Kyrgyz. It is an epic recounting the situation of the Kyrgyz in the struggle between the Manichaean Kara-Khitans and the Muslim Karakhanids, and the adventures of a man named Manas.
The renowned Turkologist Wilhelm Radloff (1837–1918) made the first compilation concerning the Epic of Manas in 1869 from a Manaschi (an oral narrator who has transmitted the epic from generation to generation down to the present) belonging to the Sarı Bağış tribe south of the town of Tokmok in Kyrgyzstan. Among the people, these oral folk-literature narrators were also called ırçı or comokçu.
Additions are still being made to the Epic of Manas, and the epic has more than 130 different versions. Prof. Dr. Gülzura Cumakunova is an important Epic of Manas researcher working in Turkey.
Accounts about Manas
Manas Khan's father is Yakup Khan. His mother's name is Çığrıcı. Manas was born fourteen years after Yakup Khan and Lady Çığrıcı married. Upon his birth, the envoys who came from the surrounding regions immediately understood that he would be a hero.
When he reaches the age of ten he becomes a complete hero. Attacking his enemies, he routs them. No horse can match his horse, no arrow can pierce his armor.
When Yakup Khan saw his son's daring and heroism, he placed beside him a man named Bakay to protect him and to be his companion.
Manas comes from the Nogay tribe. Against Kalmyk raids he preserves the unity and integrity of the Kyrgyz people and becomes a symbol of heroism and freedom.
Sources
- Turkish Wikipedia: tr.wikipedia.org
- English Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org