Oral Epics Along the Silk Road: The Turkic Traditions of Xinjiang

Abstract

Along the Silk Road(s) from north-western China (Xinjiang) to western Anatolia we find a number of shared oral epic traditions. For many oral epics a continuous line from the Uyghurs of Xinjiang to the Turks of Turkey can be established. The main creators and bearers of this oral tradition are both Turkic-speaking and Iranian-speaking ethnic groups. When studying the oral epics that have flourished along the Silk Road, a number of theoretical questions arise: the interaction of oral and literate traditions; the crossing of language borders and the concomitant transformations; and the contrast and mutual enrichment of nomadic and urban civilizations. In this article the focus is on the Turkic-speaking peoples of Xinjiang and their rich oral epic heritage. Despite the considerable negative effects of the period of the Cultural Revolution, the performance of oral epics has continued into the twenty-first century among the Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, and Uyghurs of Xinjiang. While in many areas of post-Soviet Central Asia the oral epic has become an “endangered species,” the Turkic ethnic groups of Xinjiang have tenaciously preserved their oral traditions. These traditions therefore play an important role in the study of the epic as a living form of oral verbal art.

Keywords:

• Oral epics
• orality and literacy
• Kyrgyz
• Kazakh
• Uyghur
• Xinjiang

Notes on Contributor

Karl Reichl is Professor Emeritus of the University of Bonn, Germany (Institute of English, American and Celtic Studies), a member of the North-Rhine Westphalian Academy of Sciences, and Honorary Professor of the University of Nukus (Uzbekistan). He has had visiting professorships at Harvard University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, and the University of Madison at Wisconsin. His main research interests lie in medieval oral literature and in contemporary (or near-contemporary) oral epic poetry, especially in the Turkic-speaking areas of Central Asia.

Notes

1 See https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/unesco-silk-road-online-platform (last accessed 27 June 2018).

2 There is a sizable literature on the Silk Road(s); many publications have maps. For a useful bibliography, see Nathan Light, “Annotated Bibliography of the History and Culture of Eastern Turkistan, Jungharia/Zungaria/Dzungaria, Chinese Central Asia, and Sinkiang/Xinjiang (for the 16th–20th Centuries CE, Excluding Most Travel Narratives),” The Silk Road 3 (2005): 28–49.

3 Also spelled “Uighur” or “Uigur.” For my transliteration of the Turkic and other languages, see the note at the end of this article.

4 For a detailed account, see Omeljan Pritsak, “Das Neuuigurische” (Modern Uyghur), in Philologiae Turcicae Fundamenta. I (Foundations of Turkic Philology), ed. Jean Deny, Kaare Grønbech, Helmuth Scheel, and Zeki Velidi Togan (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1959), pp. 525–63.

5 Also spelled “Kirghiz;” in Turkological works also spellings with q instead of k, ġ or γ instead of gh, and ï or ı instead of y are used (“Qyrghyz,” “Qïrġïz,” “Qırγız,” etc.).

6 “Composition in performance” or “composition by formula and theme” are the terms A. B. Lord preferred to the term “improvisation.” See Albert B. Lord, The Singer of Tales, ed. S. Mitchell and G. Nagy, with audio and video CD, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000). On orality and literacy in Uyghur, see Ildikó Bellér-Hann, The Written and the Spoken: Literacy and Oral Transmission Among the Uyghur (Berlin: Das Arabische Buch, 2000).

7 For a comprehensive survey, see Prosimetrum: Crosscultural Perspectives on Narrative in Prose and Verse, ed. Joseph Harris and Karl Reichl (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1997); on prosimetric narratives in Turkic oral poetry, see my chapter on Turkic oral epics, ibid., pp. 321–48.

8 For a more detailed argumentation, see Karl Reichl, Singing the Past: Turkic and Medieval Heroic Poetry (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000), pp. 21–36.

9 On medieval romance, see The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, ed. Alex Preminger and T. V. F. Brogan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 751–54; on romance as a genre in the Arabian Nights, see Peter Heath, “Romance as a Genre in ‘The Thousand and One Nights,’” Journal of Arabic Literature 18 (1987): 1–21; 19 (1988): 1–26.

10 See Osman Isamayil Tarim, Uyghur xälq eghiz ädäbiyati häqqidä omumiy bayan (A general introduction to Uyghur oral folk literature; Ürümchi: Shinjang Universiteti näshriyati, 2009), pp. 625–69. See also the detailed study by Abdulhakim Mehmet, Uygur Halk Destanları ve Destancılık Geleneği Üzerine Araştırmalar (Uyghur folk dastans and studies on the dastan tradition; Uşak: Elik Yayınları, 2010).

11 See Rachel Harris and Rahilä Dawut, “Mazar Festivals of the Uyghurs: Music, Islam and the Chinese State,” British Journal of Ethnomusicology 11 (2002): 101–18.

12 In Wilhelm Radloff, Proben der Volkslitteratur der türkischen Stämme Süd-Sibiriens. III. Kirgisische Mundarten (Samples of the folk literature of the Turkic tribes of South Siberia. III. Kyrgyz [= Kazakh] dialects; St. Petersburg: Akademia Nauk, 1870), pp. 665–766 (text volume), 751–856 (translation volume).

13 See Tarim, Uyghur xälq eghiz ädäbiyati, pp. 661–63.

14 See Karl Reichl, “Hero and Saint: Islamic Elements in Uighur Oral Epics,” Journal of the History of Sufism 3 (2001): 7–24.

15 Uyghur xälq eghiz ädäbiyati qamusi (Treasury of Uyghur oral folk literature), general ed. Abduraxman Äbäy, 12 vols. (Ürümchi: Shinjang xälq näshriyati, 2005), hereafter Treasury.

16 See Wilhelm Radloff, Proben der Volkslitteratur der nördlichen türkischen Stämme. VII. Der Dialect der Tarantschi (Samples of the folk literature of the northern Turkic tribes. VII. The dialect of the Taranchi; St. Petersburg: Akademia Nauk, 1886) (text and translation volumes); G[ustav] Raquette, Täji bilä Zohra. Eine osttürkische Variante der Sage von Tahir und Zohra (Täji bilä Zohra. An Eastern Turkic variant of the legend of Tahir and Zohra; Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup and Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1930); Gunnar Jarring, Materials to the Knowledge of Eastern Turki: Tales, Poetry, Proverbs, Riddles, Ethnological and Historical Texts from the Southern Parts of Eastern Turkestan. With Translation and Notes, 4 vols. (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1946–1951).

17 See Raquette, Täji bilä Zohra, p. 5.

18 See Alimcan İnayet, Uygur Halk Destanları (Uyghur folk dastans), 2 vols. (Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu, 2004, 2013); Abdulhakim Mehmet, Uygur Halk Destanları, vol. 3 (Uyghur folk dastans; Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu, 2011).

19 The dastans Yachibäg and Seyit Nochi take their names from their main characters.

20 On the performance of Uyghur dastans, see Rahile Dawut and Elise Anderson, “Dastan Performance among the Uyghurs,” in The Music of Central Asia, ed. Theodore Levin, Saida Daukeyeva, and Elmira Köchümkulova (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2016), pp. 406–20. On Uyghur musical instruments, see Tursunjan Letip and Ilshat Tursun, Uyghur chalghuliri/ Uighur Musical Instruments (Kashgar: Qäshqär Uyghur näshriyati, 2006) (text in English and Uyghur).

21 It is very popular among the Uzbeks, linguistically and culturally so close to the Uyghurs. On this epic, see Karl Reichl, Turkic Oral Epic Poetry: Traditions, Forms, Poetic Structure (New York: Garland, 1992; rpt. London: Routledge, 2018), pp. 160–70, 333–51. The Chinese translation of this book incorporates revisions; see Tujueyu minzu koutou shishi: chuantong, xingshi he shige jiegou 突厥语民族口头史诗。传统，形式 和诗歌结构 (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2011).

22 On this cycle, see B. A. Karryev, Èpicheskie skazaniya o Ker-Ogly u tyurko-yazychnyx narodov (Epic narratives about Kör-Ogly among the Turkic-speaking peoples; Moscow: Nauka, 1968); Reichl, Turkic Oral Epic Poetry, pp. 151–60, 318–33.

23 According to the information given by Yüsüp Ishaq of the “Xinjiang Federation of Literary and Art Circles” in a letter from February 2017; Yüsüp Ishaq mentions all in all four dastanchis and the two editions discussed here.

24 It was first published in the journal Miras in 1983 and 1984 and republished in Ärshidin Tatliq, Ämir Göroghli. Uyghur xälq dastanliri, vol. 1 (Ämir Göroghli. Uyghur folk dastans, Ürümchi: Shinjang yashlar-ösmürlär näshriyati, 1986), pp. 1–280; this text is found, together with a Turkish translation, also in Mehmet, Uygur Halk Destanları, vol. 3, pp. 18–277.

25 Wahat Qadir, ed., “Göroghli,” Bulaq 13 (1984): 1–119.

26 Qadir, “Göroghli,” p. 53.

27 See Radloff, Tarantschi, pp. 168–74 (text volume), 221–29 (translation volume). A modern Uyghur version is edited in Abdukerim Raxman, Uyghur xälq dastanliri (Uyghur folk dastans; Ürümchi: Shinjang xälq näshriyati, 1981), pp. 21–44; this text is republished with a Turkish translation in İnayet Uygur Halk Destanları, vol. 1, pp. 143–66; for a German translation, see Karl Reichl, Märchen aus Sinkiang. Überlieferungen der Turkvölker Chinas (Folktales from Xinjiang. Traditions of China’s Turkic peoples; Cologne: Eugen Diederichs, 1986), pp. 82–100.

28 See Stith Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, 6 vols., rev. ed. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1955–1958), vol. 3, p. 227; vol. 5, p. 334.

29 See Tarim, Uyghur xälq eghiz ädäbiyati, pp. 663–69.

30 The name Hui (also Dungan) denotes the Chinese-speaking Muslims of Central Asia and China. It is an official term for one of China’s minorities.

31 From the biblical story of Uriah in 2 Samuel 11; see also Thompson, Motif-Index, vol. 4, p. 359 (motif K978).

32 Edited in Raxman, Uyghur xälq dastanliri, pp. 45–84, at p. 84. This text is republished, with a Turkish translation, in İnayet Uygur Halk Destanları, vol. 1, pp. 23–68; for another version see Ā. Bāqiev, Seit Nochi (Tashkent: Fan, 1972) (in Uzbek); this version is republished, with a Turkish translation, in İnayet Uygur Halk Destanları, vol. 2, pp. 27–58. On the historical background, see Anthony Garaut, “From Yunnan to Xinjiang: Governor Yang Zengxin and his Dungan Generals,” Études orientales 25 (2008): 93–125.; see also Alimcan İnayet, “Seyit Noçi Destanı ve Seyit Tipi Üzerine” (On the dastan Seyit Nochi and the character of Seyit), Türk Dünyası İncelemeleri Dergisi (Journal for research in the Turkic world) 5.2 (2005): 219–28.

33 At the moment of writing (end of 2018) a politically motivated “reeducation campaign” in Xinjiang is severely affecting the activities of traditional artists and the work of scholars in the fields of folklore and traditional art. All main Turkic-speaking groups of Xinjiang are suffering from these measures. See <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/world/asia/china-xinjiang-rahile-dawut.html>.

34 See H. W. Duda, Ferhād und Shīrīn. Die literarische Geschichte eines persischen Sagenstoffes (Ferhād and Shīrīn. The literary history of a Persian legend; Prague: Orientálni ústav, 1933), and G. Yu. Aliev, Legenda o Khosrove i Shirin v literaturakh narodov Vostoka (The legend of Khosrow and Shirin in the literatures of the peoples of the East; Moscow: Izd. Vostochnoy Literatury, 1960).

35 Metin Özarslan, Ferhat ile Şirin. Mukayeseli Bir Araştırma (Ferhat and Shirin. A comparative study; Istanbul: Doğu Kitaphanesi Yayıncıkık, 2006).

36 Radloff, Tarantschi, pp. 72–86 (text volume), 95–114 (translation volume).

37 Published in Abdurusul Ömer, ed. Uyghur xälq dastanliridin tallanma (A choice of Uyghur folk dastans; Ürümchi: Shinjang xälq näshriyati, 1998), pp. 1–96.

38 There is no space here for a comparative analysis; see Mansur Afzalov, “Farhād va Shirin dāstānining xalq varianti haqida” (On the popular versions of the dastan Farhād and Shirin), in Fāzil Shāir (The singer Fāzil Shāir), ed. Tora Mirzaev et al. (Tashkent: Fan, 1973), pp. 81–85; Mamatqul Joraev and Feruza Mamatqulova, eds., Tāhir va Zuhra. Ozbek xalq dāstāni (Tāhir and Zuhra. An Uzbek folk dastan; Tashkent: Muharrir nashriyāti, 2011), pp. 3–25.

39 See tale type 974 in Hans-Jörg Uther, The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson, 3 vols. (Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004), I, 608.

40 Three different Uyghur versions have been edited; see (1) Raxman, Uyghur xälq dastanliri, pp. 237–97; this text has been republished and translated into Turkish in İnayet, Uygur Halk Destanları, vol. 1, pp. 167–233; (2) Batur Ärshidin, “Gherip vä Sänäm” (Gherip and Sänäm), Bulaq 11 (1984): 212–85; (3) Ömer, Uyghur xälq dastanliridin tallanma, pp. 180–260. On the Turkish romance, see the study and edition of Fikret Türkmen, Âşık Garip Hikayesi. İnceleme –Metin (The hikâye of Âşık Garip. Study and texts; Ankara: Baylan Matbaası, 1974).

41 On the Uyghur “Twelve muqam” see Rachel Harris, The Making of a Musical Canon in Chinese Central Asia: The Uyghur Twelve Muqam (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008); Nathan Light, Intimate Heritate: Creating Uyghur Muqam Song in Xinjiang (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2008); Rachel Harris, “The Uyghur Muqam,” in Levin et al., eds., The Music of Central Asia, pp. 344–53.

42 Abdushukur Muhämmät Imin, Uyghur xälq kilassik muzikiy «On ikki muqqam» häqqidä (On the Uyghur classical folk music “Twelve muqam”; Beijing: Millätlär näshriyati, 1980), pp. 176–77.

43 Uyghur On ikki muqami. 1 Rak (The Uyghur Twelve muqam. 1. Rak), eds. Shinjang Uyghur Aptonom Rayonluq On Ikki Muqam tätqiqat ilmiy jäm’iyiti, Shinjang Uyghur Aptonom Rayonluq Uyghur klassik ädäbiyat tätqiqat jäm’iyiti (Ürümchi: Shinjang Qamus näshriyati, 1997), pp. 41–42 (text section), 71–77 (music section). On the editorial method, see pp. 30–32 of Tomur Dawamat’s introduction.

44 Ömer, Uyghur xälq dastanliridin tallanma, pp. 195–96.

45 Junggo Uyghur On Ikki Muqami Ilmiy muhakimä yighini xatirisi (A souvenir of the conference on the China-Uyghur Twelve muqam), edited by the Ministry of Culture, The People’s Republic of China, and The People’s Government of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China (2002), VCD 1.

46 See Harris, Making of a Musical Canon, pp. 109–36.

47 See Linda Benson and Ingvar Svanberg, China’s Last Nomads: The History and Culture of China’s Kazaks (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998).

48 Babalar sözi (The words of the forefathers), ed. S. Qasqabasov et al., 100 vols. (Astana, Kazakhstan: Foliant, 2004–2014). Strictly speaking only sixty-six volumes are devoted to epic and romance. For a survey of Kazakh oral and written literature (up to the middle of the twentieth century) in English, see Thomas G. Winner, The Oral Art and Literature of the Kazakhs of Russian Central Asia (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1958). See also Huang Zhongxiang 黄中祥 Hasake yingxiong shishi yu caoyuan wenhua 哈萨克英雄史诗与草原文化 (Kazakh epics and grassland culture; Beijing: Central Compilation and Translation Press, 2007).

49 There are some earlier book publications from the 1960s before the Cultural Revolution.

50 Edited in Qasqabasov et al., Babalar sözi, vol. 23 (2005), pp. 128–35; the tale was first published in Shalghïn 1980.3: 1–5; as narrator Aday Aqtaylaq ulï and as collector Asqar Asghat ulï are mentioned.

51 Both epics are edited with Russian translation and commentary in the series “Epics of the Peoples of Eurasia”: Kozy-Korpesh i Bayan-sulu. Kyz-Zhibek. Kazakhskiy romanicheskiy èpos (Qozï Körpesh and Bayan Suluw. Qïz Zhibek. Kazakh love epics), ed. S. S. Kirabaev, E. A. Potseluevskiy (Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura RAN, 2003).

52 Published in Mura 1982.1: 37–75.

53 See Reichl, Singing the Past, pp. 75–86, 181–88.

54 For a Karakalpak version, close to the Kazakh epic tradition, see Karl Reichl, ed. and trans., Edige: A Karakalpak Oral Epic as Performed by Jumabay Bazarov (Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2007).

55 Qasqabasov et al., Babalar sözi, vol. 29 (2006), pp. 106–240; Shalghïn 1980.4: 1–33 and 1981.1: 48–78. A version of the epic was edited in 1935 and reprinted in volume 58 of Babalar sözi (2008). It was written down from the Kazakh singer Qusayïn Müsäpir-ulï in eastern Kazakhstan.

56 See on this: Z. Seytzhanov, “Kazakhskiy real’no-istoricheskij èpos” (The Kazakh realistic-historical epic), Sovetskaya Tyurkologiya 1990.5: 33–39.

57 See Reichl, Turkic Oral Epic Poetry, pp. 81, 107–108, 266.

58 The study by Huang Zhongxiang is not specifically concerned with Kazakh singers from Xinjiang. Huang Zhongxiang 黄中祥, Chuancheng fangshi yu yanchang chuantong: Hasakezu minjian yanchang yiren diaocha yanjiu 传承方式与演唱传统 。哈萨克族民间演唱艺人调查研究 (Transmission patterns and performance tradition: a study of the Kazakh folk singer; Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 2009).

59 The literature on Kyrgyz oral epics is mostly in Kyrgyz and Russian; a detailed survey of the kenje epos and Manas is given in volumes 2 and 3 of the multi-volume history of Kyrgyz literature: Qïrghïz adabiyatïnïn tarïxï. II “Manas” jana manschïlar (A history of Kyrgyz literature. II Manas and manaschïs) and III Kenje epostor jana poemalar (III Kenje epos and verse narratives), ed. A. Aqmataliev et al. (Bishkek: Manastaanu, 2002). For a short introduction to Manas in English, see Elmira Köchümkulova, “The Kyrgyz Epic Manas,” in Levin et al., eds., The Music of Central Asia, pp. 52–68. The Manas epic collected by Radloff has been reedited and translated into English: The Manas of Wilhelm Radloff, reedited, newly translated, and with a commentary by Arthur T. Hatto (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1990).

60 For Er Töshtük a French translation exists (combining two versions): Aventures merveilleuses sous-terre et ailleurs de Er-Töshtük, le géant des steppes. Épopée du cycle de Manas, trans. Pertev Boratav (Paris: Gallimard, 1965). For Qurmanbek there is only a Russian translation: Kurmanbek. Geroicheskaya poèma (Qurmanbek. A heroic verse narrative), trans. A. Tarkovskiy (Frunze: Kirghizskoe gosudarstvennoe uchebno-pedagogicheskoe izdatel’stvo, 1961).

61 See Reichl, Turkic Oral Epic Poetry, pp. 85–86. See also Lang Ying, “The Bard Jusup Mamay,” Oral Tradition 16.2 (2001): 222–39; Toqtobübü Ïsaq qïzï and Adïl Jumaturdu uulu, Zalqar Manaschï Jüsüp Mamay (The great manaschï Jüsüp Mamay; Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 2007; republished in Bishkek: Print Ekspres, 2014). For Mamay’s autobiography, see “Men ‘Manastï’ qanday aytïp qaldim?” (How did I become a manaschï?), in “Manas” eposu jönündö. Ilmiy iliktöölör jana maqalalar (About the epic Manas. Studies and articles), ed. Kengesh Qïrbashev (Bishkek: Sham basmasï, 1994), pp. 5–12.

62 Two volumes of my translation of Mamay’s Manas into English have appeared; a third is in print; see Manas. In the Version of Jüsüp Mamay, trans. Karl Reichl, vols. 1 and 2 (Xinjiang “Manas” Research Centre Publications 4, “Manas” translations 3; Beijing: China Intercontinental Press, 2014–2015).

63 Adil Zhumaturdu [Adili · Zhumatu’erdi 阿地里 · 居玛吐尔地], Manasi shishi geshou yanjiu 玛纳斯史诗歌手研究 (A study on the singers of the Manas epic; Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 2006), pp. 203–16.

64 See Adil Jumaturdu, “A Comparative Study of Performers of the Manas Epic,” Journal of American Folklore 129.513 (2016): 288–96.

65 See also Karl Reichl, “Oral Epics into the Twenty-First Century: The Case of the Kyrgyz Epic Manas,” Journal of American Folklore 129.513 (2016): 327–44.

66 In 2009 the Xinjiang-Kyrgyz Manas was inscribed in UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, which provoked protests in Kyrgyzstan. On the problems of the revitalization of the Yakut oral epic with UNESCO support, a comparable case, see Robin P. Harris, Storytelling in Siberia: The Olonkho Epic in a Changing World (Champaign, IL: The University of Illinois Press, 2017), esp. pp. 89–107, 135–55.