Oghuz Khagan Epic
Also known as: Oğuz Kağan Destanı, Oghuzname, Oguz Kagan Epic, Oghuz Khan
Origin-legend of the Oghuz Turks recounting the wondrous birth, conquests, marriages, and six sons of Oghuz Khagan, culminating in the division of his people into Bozok and Üçok lineages and the naming of twenty-four tribes.
Description
The Oghuz Khagan Epic is a foundational Turkic origin narrative preserved in a 13th-century Uyghur-script prose text and in related Persian and Turkic Oghuznâmes. It tells how the prodigious child Oghuz matures, slays monstrous foes, marries maidens of celestial and arboreal origin, and sires six sons—Sun, Moon, Star, Sky, Mountain, and Sea. Guided at times by a sacred gray wolf, Oghuz campaigns across the horizons, subduing distant rulers, and convenes a great council to apportion lands and honors. In a climactic act of statecraft and symbolism, he divides the nation into Bozok and Üçok branches, establishing the eponymous ancestors of twenty-four Oghuz tribes. The tale blends hero-king ideology, totemic motifs, and genealogical ordering, providing an ethnogenetic charter for later Oghuz-descended polities.
Historiography
The epic survives in a Uyghur-script manuscript commonly dated to the 13th century, reflecting older oral strata, and in Islamicate historiography, notably the Oghuz section of Raşid al-Dīn’s Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh (early 14th c.). Subsequent Turkic chronicles (e.g., Abu’l-Ghāzī’s Shajara-i Turk) and Oğuznâme compilations reframe the narrative within Islamic genealogies. The tribal catalogue (twenty-four Oghuz) became a durable framework, transmitted with variant lists and tamgas across manuscripts and regional traditions.
Date Notes
Earliest surviving version in Uyghur script is generally dated to the 13th century; a related recension appears in Raşid al-Dīn's 14th-c. Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh. Later Oghuznâmes and chronicles expand the cycle.
Major Characters
- Oghuz Khagan
- Korkut Ata
- Uruz
- Ay Khan
- Gün Khan
- Yildiz Khan
- Kayi Beg
Myths
- Birth of Oghuz Khagan
- The Dragon-Slaying of Oghuz
- Conquest of the Four Corners
- Division of the Realm between Bozok and Uchok
- Marriages to the Sky Maiden and Water Maiden
Facts
- Core text survives in a 13th-century Uyghur-script manuscript reflecting older oral strata.
- Narrative centers on a hero-king whose six sons become eponymous ancestors of Oghuz lineages.
- The twenty-four Oghuz tribes are organized under Bozok and Üçok branches.
- A sacred gray wolf functions as a herald and guide for Oghuz’s campaigns.
- Islamicate recensions integrate Biblical and Qur’anic genealogies in later versions.
- Raşid al-Dīn included an Oghuz Khagan account in the Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh (early 14th century).
- Abu’l-Ghāzī’s 17th-century Shajara-i Turk reshaped the cycle for Khwarazmian context.
- The epic provided an ethnogenetic charter later cited by Seljuk, Aq Qoyunlu, and Ottoman traditions.
- Distribution of bow and arrows encodes precedence: Bozok (bow) and Üçok (three arrows).
- Tribal lists and tamgas vary across manuscripts and regional traditions.