MANAS DESTANI’NDA İSLAMİYETLE İLİŞKİLİ URANLAR / SAVAŞ NARALARI* BATTLE CRYS RELATED WITH ISLAM IN THE MANAS EPIC

Manas epic contains a thousand-year epic tradition, history, culture and world view of the Turkic world in itself. The Manas Epic also reveals information on the beliefs of Kyrgyz and other Turkish people. This information is given directly in the epic texts, as well as indirectly within the features such as the name of the person, the proverb, the idiom etc. The religious beliefs of the Kyrgyz people, which began to accept Islam in the end of the Talas War in 741, took place in the Manas Epic which is an example of folk and heroic literature. Manas, the main hero of the epic, fights for the sake of Islam, and the the campaign to Chine is called “Çoŋ Kazat (Great Gazavat)”. For this reason, the soldiers in the campaign use Islamic war cries. For example, the Turks in the battle use Caa Alda war cry to seek help and gain strength from Allah when the war is going on. The name of Bahâeddin Naqshibend, the founder of Nakshibendia, is used as a war cry in the form of “Baabedin”. The reason is that Bahâeddin Naqshibend’s followers fight with non-Muslim people to spread Islam similar to the Turks in the Manas Epic who also fights for Islam. The heroes in the Manas Epic ask for help from the Messenger Hz. Muhammed. In this article, we discuss the Islamic warfare such as this, what they are related to and what a characteristic of Islam reflects