Ergenekon (sometimes spelled Ergeneqon, Mongolian: Эргүнэ хун, romanized: Ergüne khun) is a founding myth of Turkic and Mongolic peoples.[1][2]

Etymology

There are conflicting etymological theories about the origin of the word Ergenekon. According to Kazakh philologist Nemat Kelimebov and other Turkic-origin advocates, Ergenekon is a portmanteau derived from Old Turkic roots ergene "fording point, passage, mountain gorge" and kon "encampment, place of living" and can be translated as "encampment (of cattle breeders) in a mountain gorge".[3]

According to academics such as Russian linguist Zoriktuev, who attribute the myth originally to Mongolic peoples, the name was derived from the Argun River (Ergune) and kun, which in the Old Mongolian language meant a high plateau with steep slopes.[3]

Variants

Turkic version

Extent of the First Turkic Khaganate in AD 600

In the Turkic mythology, the myth aims to explain the foundation of the First Turkic Khaganate. The Ergenekon legend tells about a great crisis of the ancient Turks. Following a military defeat, the Turks took refuge in the legendary Ergenekon valley where they were trapped for four centuries. They were finally released when a blacksmith created a passage by melting the mountain, allowing the gray wolf Asena to lead them out. The people led out of the valley founded the Turkic Khaganate, with the valley functioning as its capital.[4][5][6][7][8][9] A New Year's ceremony commemorates the legendary ancestral escape from Ergenekon.[10]

Mongolic version

In the Mongolic version, Ergenekon was the refuge of the progenitors of the Mongols, Nekuz and Qiyan (according to Abulghazi Bahadur, nephew and son of Il-Khan respectively), as told in the 14th-century literary history Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh, written by Rashid-al-Din Hamadani.[1][11][12][13] It is a common epic in Mongol mythologies.

Abulghazi Bahadur, khan of the Khanate of Khiva (1643–1663), told of the Ergenekon Mongolian creation myth in his work, 17th-century "Shajara-i Turk" (Genealogy of the Turks).[12][13]

In Turkish literature

Ottoman Era

In the late Ottoman era, the Ergenekon epic enjoyed use in Turkish literature (especially by the Turkish nationalist movement), describing a mythical Turkic place of origin located in the inaccessible valleys of the Altay Mountains. In 1864 Ahmed Vefik Pasha translated Shajara-i Turk into the Ottoman language under the title Şecere-i Evşâl-i Türkiyye,[14] published in Tasvir-i Efkâr newspaper.[15]

Ziya Gökalp's poem put the Ergenekon epic in the context of Turkic history (Turkish text), published as "Türk An'anesi: Ergenekon" in Türk Duygusu magazine from May 8 to June 5, 1913,[16] Altın Armağan[17] in September 1913,[18] and under the title of "Ergenekon" in Kızılelma, 1914.[19] Ömer Seyfettin's poem on the topic was published in Halka Doğru magazine, April 9, 1914.[15][20] Rıza Nur translated Shajara-i turk into modern Turkish in 1925,[21] and mentioned Ergenekon in Oğuznâme, published in Alexandria, 1928.[22]

Foundation of the Turkish Republic

First issue of Ergenekon magazine, 1938

The first author to connect the mythology of Ergenekon to the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923 was Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu. Karaosmanoğlu was the author of several essays about the Turkish War of Independence. His interpretation of the myth bolstered its place in the founding mythology of the modern Turkish nation-state.[23]

The myth itself was a story about the survival of the Turkic people who, faced with extinction, were able to escape with the help of their totem god, the bozkurt "wolf".[24] The wolf remains a potent symbol of Turkish nationalism into the present day. Even the renowned Turkish dissident poet Nazim Hikmet lauded Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as a "blonde wolf" in the poem titled Kuva-yi Milliye. While the original Ergenekon myth was about the survival of the ancient Turkic people, in its Republican form it carried the symbolism of Turkey's national self-determination.[23]

During the early republican era of Turkey (especially in the 1930s, when ethnic nationalism held its sway in Turkey), the tale of the Bozkurt, Asena and Ergenekon were promoted[25] along with Pan-Turkism, and included in history textbooks as the Göktürk creation myth.[26][27]

In 1933, Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, a Turkish intellectual and a founder and key theorist of the Kadro movement, consubstantiated the Ergenekon epic with the Turkish revolution.[28] In the new Turkish version of the Egenekon Legend, the motif of the wolf was added[29] (Turkish text, version of Ministry of National Education of Turkey).

Comparisons

According to Ergün Candan, there are some similarities between the mythologies of other cultures in their symbolism. The she-wolf Asena showed the Turks the way through the labyrinth of valleys and mountain passes. According to Ergün Candan, the she-wolf may be seen as a symbol of the "dog star" Sirius.[30]

References

  1. 1 2 Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh
  2. ↑ Abulghazi Bahadur, "Genealogy of the Turk"
  3. 1 2 Zoriktuev, B. R. (2015-09-01). "The Turkic Version of the Origins of the Ergene-Kun Legend: Mistakes and Delusions". Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia. 43 (3): 107–115. doi:10.1016/j.aeae.2015.11.011. ISSN 1563-0110.
  4. ↑ Oriental Institute of Cultural and Social Research, Vol. 1–2, 2001, p. 66
  5. ↑ Murat Ocak, The Turks: Early ages, 2002, pp. 76
  6. ↑ Dursun Yıldırım, "Ergenekon Destanı", Türkler, Vol. 3, Yeni Türkiye, Ankara, 2002, ISBN 975-6782-36-6, pp. 527–43.
  7. ↑ İbrahim Aksu: The story of Turkish surnames: an onomastic study of Turkish family names, their origins, and related matters, Volume 1, 2006, p. 87
  8. ↑ H. B. Paksoy, Essays on Central Asia, 1999, p. 49
  9. ↑ Andrew Finkle, Turkish State, Turkish Society, Routledge, 1990, p. 80
  10. ↑ Michael Gervers, Wayne Schlepp: Religion, customary law, and nomadic technology, Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, 2000, p. 60
  11. ↑ Jiexian Chen, Guoli Taiwan daxue, Proceedings of the Fifth East Asian Altaistic Conference, December 26, 1979 – January 2, 1980, Taipei, China, National Taiwan University, 1980. According to Reshideddin's record original Mongols, historically, were divided into two parts. They are: 1. Those branches descended from the Original Mongol Tribes, which had been in ارکننه قون Ergenekon… Those tribes are: The origin of Mongols were descendants from these two persons, Nekuz and Qiyan and their wives who escaped to Ergenkon. (in English)
  12. 1 2 Bahaeddin Ögel, Türk Mitolojisi Vol. I, Milli Eğitim basımevi, İstanbul, 1971, Türk Mitolojisi I: 'Kaynakları ve Açıklamaları İle Destanlar, Tütk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara, 1989, pp. 14–15. (in Turkish)
  13. 1 2 Dursun Yıldırım, "Ergenekon Destanı", Türkler, Vol. 3, Yeni Türkiye, Ankara, 2002, ISBN 9756782366, pp. 527–43. (in Turkish)
  14. ↑ Abu'l-Gâzî, Şecere-i Evşâl-i Türkiyye, [Ahmed Vefik Pasha neşri], Dersaadet, 1864.
  15. 1 2 İsa Özkan, "Ergenekon Destanı Hakkında", Türk Yurdu, Cilt: 29, Sayı: 265, Eylül 2009, pp. 43–47. (in Turkish)
  16. ↑ Mehmed Ziya, "Ergenekon", Türk Duygusu, no. 1, pp. 7–10.
  17. ↑ "Ergenekon", Altın Armağan, no. 1 (Türk Yurdu, no. 24's supplement, Istanbul, 1328), p. 20.
  18. ↑ Beşir Ayvazoğlu, "Ziya Gökalp'ın Ergenekon'u" Archived September 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, Zaman, August 6, 2009, Retrieved July 24, 2010. (in Turkish)
  19. ↑ Ziya Gökalp, Ziya Gökalp Külliyatı I: Şiirler ve Halk Masalları, haz. Fevziye Abdullah Tansel, Türk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara, 1989, s. xlii, 78–83. (in Turkish)
  20. ↑ Ali Duymaz, Ömer Seyfettin'in Kaleme Aldığı Destanlar Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme", Balıkesir Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisicilt:12, sayı: 21, Haziran 2009, p. 415. (in Turkish)
  21. ↑ Abu'l Gâzî, Şecere-i Türk, [Rıza Nur neşri], İstanbul, 1925.
  22. ↑ Metin Özarslan, "Oğuz Kağan Destanı'nda Tarihî, Dinî, Beşerî ve Tabiatüstü Unsurlar", Prof. Dr. Dursun Yıldırım Armağanı, Ankara, 1998, p. 426. (in Turkish)
  23. 1 2 Göknar, Erdag (2013-02-15). Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemy: The Politics of the Turkish Novel. Routledge. p. 6. ISBN 9781136164286.
  24. ↑ Halman, Talah. A Millennium of Turkish Literature. pp. 5–6.
  25. ↑ Murat Arman, "The Sources of Banality In Transforming Turkish Nationalism", CEU Political Science Journal, issue: 2 (2007), p. 136.
  26. ↑ Türk Tarihinin Ana Hatları, Kaynak Yayınları, 1999, ISBN 975-343-118-X; p. 380. (first edition: 1930) (in Turkish)
  27. ↑ Tarih II: Kemalist Eğitimin Tarih Dersleri (1931 - 1941), Kaynak Yayınları, 2001, ISBN 975-343-319-0, p. 44. (first edition: 1931) (in Turkish)
  28. ↑ İlhan Tekeli, Selim İlkin, Kadrocuları ve Kadro'yu anlamak, Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı, 2003, ISBN 9789753331708, p. 219. (in Turkish)
  29. ↑ Beşir Ayvazoğlu, "Ergenekon yurdun adı" Archived February 29, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Zaman, January 31, 2008, Retrieved July 24, 2010. (in Turkish)
  30. ↑ Candan, Ergun. (2002). Türklerin Kültür Kökenleri, Sınır Ötesi Yayınları, Istanbul, pp. ?113–14, ISBN 975-8312-11-1

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