In ancient times, when Islam had not yet spread among the Kyrgyz, they worshipped the Sun. However, with the penetration of Islam, the Sun became only a part of what belongs to Allah:
All is a command from God,
The shining Sun in the sky
At the end of the night, the moon and stars
All are creatures of the Creator,
Rejoicing in His power.
Everything comes from God -
The bright sky and the Sun,
The beautiful night, the moon and stars, —
All living things are inspired by Him.
Poyarkov wrote: "The Sun appears to them (the Kyrgyz) as a mirror of God, into which they look at night." They considered the blue sky to be the abode of God, the celestial bodies as messengers of God or lamps created by God to adorn the sky, and the world (the Universe) supposedly created by God for man.
The answer to the question that has long occupied the ancient Kyrgyz, why the sky is blue during the day, has been provided by science. We now know, for example, that the volume of the Sun is 1 million 300 thousand times greater than the volume of the Earth. Astrophysical research has shown that in outer space there are stars whose mass is 2500 times greater than the mass of the Sun. To people living on Earth, they appear as small glowing dots in the sky.
The rays of the visible part of sunlight, passing through the atmosphere, scatter on the smallest particles of impurities and air molecules, the sizes of which are comparable to the wavelengths of blue light perceived by the eye. Because of this, the sky appears blue during the day, and the Sun appears red, with its color becoming more intense at sunrise and sunset, when the rays pass through the thickest layer of the Earth's atmosphere. At this time, rays with short wavelengths (violet, blue, cyan) scatter, and the observer sees red, orange, and yellow hues. Of course, the concentration of air molecules decreases very quickly with altitude. Therefore, the intensity of scattered light decreases with increasing height. At a certain height, the molecules become so few that they cannot cause noticeable scattering even of the shortest waves. Thus, the color of the sky, according to aeronauts, is already black at an altitude of just over 23 kilometers, like at night.
Throughout history, humans have constantly needed spiritual nourishment of two kinds — both rational and emotional. And beauty, more than anything else, is capable of evoking strong emotions. Numerous myths, legends, and riddles about Venus, the Pleiades, the Big Dipper, the Belt of the Three Kings of the Orion constellation, and others testify to the enduring interest of people in them:
Every day I see a huge lake,
Two swans love it like their homeland.
In the middle are seven chicks.
(Sky, Moon, Sun, Big Dipper.)
A fire flying in the night sky,
Tired, goes out.
This interest is also reflected in oral folk creativity. In the epic "Manas," the people compare their beloved hero to the Moon and the Sun:
Created by Heaven and Earth,
Born of the rays of the Sun and Moon, —
He is like the radiance of the Moon and the Sun.
Since ancient times, the Kyrgyz have compared a beautiful girl to the Moon and the radiant morning star Venus.
It is quite possible that some astronomers, admiring the celestial bodies, were also akyns-improvisers, virtuoso komuz players, or kyl kyakchi — violinists. The essence of human aesthetic needs lies in his constant dissatisfaction: he never stops at existing aesthetic values, always striving to express himself.
The beauty of the Sun inspired poets and was celebrated by them. Prominent folk akyns (Toktogul, Togolok Mold, Barpy, Zhenizhok, etc.) sang the beauty of the Luminary in a deeply realistic manner.
In "Manas," there are lines where the defeated enemies in battles are compared to falling stars:
On this day, the infidels,
Fleeing from their heads,
Their stars fell to the ground.
In these days, pride
Of the enemies is trampled,
And their stars have fallen.
It is known that the culture and astronomical knowledge of the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians spread among the Arabs, Greeks, and other peoples of the world, and through them this knowledge reached the population of Central Asia. This hypothesis is confirmed by archaeological excavations in Tajikistan conducted in 1982. The nomadic Kyrgyz became aware of this information partly through neighboring settled peoples — Tajiks, Uzbeks, Azerbaijanis, etc.; in the IX-XIII centuries, in the cultural and scientific centers of Central Asia (Khorezm, Samarkand, Bukhara, etc.) and Azerbaijan (Marat, etc.) lived famous poets-thinkers and encyclopedic scholars (Al-Khwarizmi, Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi, Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Ulugh Beg, etc.). At that time, trade caravan routes, for example, to China, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and India passed through Kyrgyz lands, which contributed to the influence of these peoples on the worldview of the Kyrgyz; this is mentioned in passing in the epic.
One should not forget that the well-known Maamyt Al-Kashkari and Kojo Jusup Balasaguni were originally from Kyrgyzstan (the first was born in Barskoon on Issyk-Kul, and the second — south of the city of Tokmak) and had a significant influence on the people. The well-known ancient proverbs in the folk tradition: An educated person will defeat thousands, while a strong one will defeat one; A wise person is respected and deeply revered, etc., were said in honor of these outstanding individuals of their time.
The Kyrgyz's ideas about the beauty of the sky, determined by the special arrangement of stars that influence the fates and souls of people, somewhat echo the natural philosophical teachings of Plato (4th century BC).
And although the correct interpretation of the processes occurring in the Universe, the level of knowledge of the Kyrgyz at that time excluded, nevertheless, their pre-scientific views represent undeniable interest as part of the spiritual heritage of the people, as an initial stage in the formation of an understanding of the surrounding reality, as a source of its aesthetic comprehension.
