"Manas" - the Era of the Epic's Emergence
THE ERA OF THE EMERGENCE OF THE EPIC
This article is a revision of the article published by A. N. Bernshteyn in 1946 in the almanac "Kyrgyzstan".
What historical events are reflected in "Manas"? There are three groups (excluding the "Great Campaign"), which we will name according to the direction of the campaigns.
The first group consists of Siberian-Mongolian campaigns (including Altai): the confrontation with the Russians and Yakuts in the third campaign (the battle of Aylamor), which we attribute to the 17th century, with nine Kalmyks-Uyghurs in the 9th century, and seven Kalmyks, against whom the Kyrgyz act together with the Kipchak teams in the Altai period of their life. The themes of the resettlement of the Kyrgyz from Altai to Tian Shan also relate to this time; according to our periodization, this is the second stage of resettlement.
The second group of campaigns is Central Asian. They also vary in time and character. The marriage of Manas to Kanykey from Bukhara, as well as the cycle about Koketee, we attribute to Turkic-Sogdian connections (mainly of Western Turks) in the 7th-8th centuries, in which the participation of the Kyrgyz is not excluded. The fact that one of the representatives of the Western Turks from the Chuy Valley - Gyulokji was married to the daughter of a Sogdian ruler is confirmed by the corresponding entry in the Chinese chronicle. The struggle with Akhun-khan and the confrontation on the Amu-Darya precisely repeats the beginning of the struggle of the Karakhanids with various entities, rather Tugan-khan with Mahmud of Ghazni, and the outcome of this war - the marriage of Semetey with Ay-churek and the rich gifts that the hero Akhun-khan bestows, reproduce the episode about the relationships of the Karakhanid Tugan-khan with Mahmud of Ghazni, when the latter sends gifts to Uzgen, which is sufficiently fully narrated by the author of the 12th century, Utbi.
It should be noted that these events penetrated into the epic "Manas" based on traditions that existed in Northern and Southern Kyrgyzstan. The struggle of Manas with Panus-khan, the ruler of Tashkent, is of a completely different order: here there is a direct narrative about the joint campaign of the Kyrgyz with the Kazakhs in Sayram, Turkestan, and Tashkent in the 20s of the 16th century.
A more complex episode is from the second campaign of Manas in the region of Akbeshi and the city of Balakagun (Balakagun - in the epic). Judging by some data, the personality of Alooke-khan of Andijan in this battle appears as a generalized figure of the Khorezmian shakh Muhammad and Osman of Samarkand, who opposed Balakagun at the beginning of the 13th century. The position of the Kyrgyz, advancing from Altai, resembles more the movement of the Kyrgyz with the Mongols. In general, Alooke-khan, like Akhun-khan, is depicted more often, especially the first, as an epic symbol of Mavaranahr or Kokand.
The third and most historically clear group of campaigns is the campaigns in Eastern Turkestan, in which events related to Jaanrap-khan are conveyed with parasitic precision. A large number of names, relative accuracy in descriptions, detailed geographical indications testify to the great historical probability of the narrated events. In these episodes, the Kalmyk-Chinese danger is mainly characterized, i.e., in the period of the struggle of the 17th-18th centuries, and partly of the 19th century. Historical narratives usually end at the beginning of the 19th century. It is characteristic that there are no narratives about Yakub-bek, Khudoyar-khan, and Ormon-khan.
Kyrgyz heroic epic "Manas"
