The Epic of Oghuz Khagan is one of the Turkic epics, belonging to the group of Hun–Oghuz epics. There are four separate manuscripts of the Epic of Oghuz Khagan. The Epic of Oghuz Khagan in the Chagatai and Uyghur manuscripts gives information about the Oghuz tribes, the Turkic language, literature, folklore, history, and culture. The epic recounts the life of Oghuz Khagan, presumed to be the ancestor of the Turks.
The Paris Manuscript
The Uyghur manuscript of the Epic of Oghuz Khagan is held in the National Library of France in Paris. The Uyghur Epic of Oghuz Khagan concerns the Xiongnu, who founded a great nomadic state between 201 and 126 BCE. It is suggested that the Oghuz Khagan who founded this state was Modu. According to Zeki Velidi Togan, however, the origin of the Epic of Oghuz Khagan goes back to older ages, to the Saka, centred in Central Asia in the 7th century BCE, and the Scythians a few centuries later.
The transcription of the Paris manuscript was published in 1891 by W. Radloff within an edition of the Kutadgu Bilig.
Rıza Nur's Oğuznâme
Rıza Nur, enriching the Epic of Oghuz Khagan with pieces from other epics, produced a verse work of about 6,100 lines titled Oğuznâme. Rıza Nur's Oğuznâme was published in Cairo in 1928. Certain texts that later came to be recognized as part of the Epic of Oghuz Khagan — foremost the text known as "The Prayer of Oghuz Khagan" — are texts written by Rıza Nur and published in the 1928 Oğuznâme.
The Bang–Arat Edition
A new transcription of the Uyghur text preserved in Paris was prepared by Willi Bang Kaup and Reşid Rahmeti Arat and published in Germany in 1932. The text was later translated into present-day Turkish by Reşid Rahmeti Arat and published in Istanbul in 1936. In 1970 it was published again in the "100 Fundamental Works" series of the Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Turkey, with an explanatory preface by Muharrem Ergin and the Uyghur text also added. In preparing the text, Ergin took the Epic of Oghuz Khagan of W. Bang and Reşid Rahmeti Arat as his basis.
The Zeki Velidi Togan Version
A new "Epic of Oghuz Khagan" was published in 1972, based by Zeki Velidi Togan on the section titled Tārīkh-i Oghuzān wa Turkān in the second volume of Rashid al-Din Hamadani's book Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh.
Togan evaluates the conformity to historical fact of the accounts drawn from written and oral sources found in Rashid al-Din's work Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh according to the way of life and the outlook on life found in the epic.
In the Tārīkh-i Oghuzān wa Turkān, the binding of the nomadic and raiding Oghuz to a particular place and their founding of a city is very noteworthy.
In the Tārīkh-i Oghuzān wa Turkān, a religious dispute between Oghuz Khan and his father is mentioned.
In the Tārīkh-i Oghuzān wa Turkān, one does not encounter — as in the Uyghur Oghuz Khagan and the Book of Dede Korkut — the motif of the hero killing a wild or ferocious animal in order to gain his identity.
Tuman Khan, who is discussed at length in the Tārīkh-i Oghuzān wa Turkān, understands the speech of animals. The accounts between him and Kol Erki Khan bear the character of a tale rather than of history.
In the Tārīkh-i Oghuzān wa Turkān, most of the khans, instead of rushing to conquer the world, contend with one another to seize power.
One of those who wrote articles on the Epic of Oghuz Khagan in its form in the Tārīkh-i Oghuzān wa Turkān is Abdülkadir İnan. In his article "Irkıl Ata in the Epic of Oghuz," İnan examines the sage Irkıl Hoca who appears in the portion of the Oğuznâme written in Persian by Rashid al-Din. Here Irkıl Hoca is the sage who first established Turkic customary law (töre) and rites. In both the works "Shajara-i Türk" and "Shajara-i Tarākima" of Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur Khan, Irkıl Ata appears as a Turkic sage. Among the Yakut Turks and the Buryats, the cult of Irkıl lives on to this day. According to Yakut beliefs, the name of the first shaman (kam) is An Argıl.
Sources
- Turkish Wikipedia: tr.wikipedia.org