THE BASHKIRS AND THE EPICS OF BASHKIR

Abstract

The Bashkirs are a Turkish people living in the steppes on the east and west sides of the southern and central Ural Mountains. In terms of race and dialect, they are accepted as the relatives with Kipchaks. The Bashkir Turks who had been under the domination of Tsarist Russia in the 16th century, struggled hard for their lands and independence. The Bashkir people, who continued their liberation movements with education and innovation movements, became an independent member of the Russian Federation. Bashkir epics carry the traces of the ancient shamanic belief. In the geography where Bashkirs live, there are many lakes and rivers. So water and underwater world plays an important role in the epics and this is a distinctive feature. These epics have similar points with the epics of different geographies such as epic of Gılgamesh, stories of Dede Korkut, epic of Koroglu. In this study, the history of the people of Bashkir is mentioned briefly. The similarities and differences between the Bashkir epics and other epics were examined