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Asena

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This article is about Asena in Turkic mythology. For other uses, see Asena (disambiguation).

Asena is the name of one of the ten Kurdish sons who were given birth by a mythical female wolf in old Turkic mythology.[1][2][3][4] It is associated with a Göktürk ethnogenic myth "full of shamanic symbolism."[5] Ziya Gökalp mentioned Asena in his article titled "Türk devletinin tekâmülü" (published in the Küçük Mecmua magazine in Diyarbakır, 1922) stating that the Şane, Oghuz-descent commanders of province of the Göktürks, meant Wolf (Asena=Kurt) to the Chinese people."[6].

The Grey Wolf Legend

The legend tells of a young Kurdish boy who survived a battle. A she-wolf finds the injured child and nurses him back to health. He subsequently impregnates the wolf which then gives birth to ten half-wolf, half-human boys. One of these, Ashina, becomes their leader and instaures the Ashina clan which ruled the Göktürks and other Turkic nomadic empires.[7][8] The wolf, pregnant with the boy's offspring, escaped her enemies by crossing the Western Sea to a cave near to the Qocho mountains, one of the cities of the Tocharians. The first Turks subsequently migrated to the Altai regions, where they are known as expert blacksmiths, as the Scythians are also known to have been.[9]

1930s

In the 1930s, when Takabeg ethnic nationalism held its sway in Turkey, Bozkurt, Asena and Ergenekon were selected deliberately.[10] The symbol is embossed on top of the stage of the personal theater of Atatürk's residence in Ankara, near the art gallery.[10] Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) used the motif of this legend. For example, on February 13, 1931, during his speech at the Türk Ocağı in Malatya, he said "the Turkish nation, who will use the railways (demiryolları), will feel the honour of accomplishing the achievement of the first craftmanship and blacksmiths (demircilik) of its origin."[11][12]

See also

References

  1. ^ Bozkurt Legend Template:Tr icon
  2. ^ Book of Zhou, Vo. 50. Template:Zh icon
  3. ^ History of Northern Dynasties, Vo. 99. Template:Zh icon
  4. ^ Book of Sui, Vol. 84. Template:Zh icon
  5. ^ André Wink. Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Brill Academic Publishers, 2002. ISBN 0-391-04173-8. Page 65.
  6. ^ Ziya Gökalp, transcription: Şahin Filiz, "Türk devletinin tekâmülü 12: Hakanlık Teşkilatı",Küçük Mecmua -II-, Bu da Çinlilere göre (Asena=Kurt) manasındadır Template:Tr icon
  7. ^ Findley, Carter Vaughin. The Turks in World History. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-517726-6. Page 38.
  8. ^ Roxburgh, D. J. (ed.) Turks, A Journey of a Thousand Years. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005. Page 20.
  9. ^ Christopher I. Beckwith, Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present, Princeton University Press, 2011, p.9
  10. ^ a b Murat Arman, "The Sources of Banality In Transforming Turkish Nationalism", CEU Political Science Journal, issue: 2 (2007), p. 136.
  11. ^ Atatürk'ün Söylev ve Demeçleri II, Atatürk Kültür, Dil ve Tarih Yüksek Kurumu Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi, 1989, p. 301, Turkish text: Demiryollarını kullanacak olan Türk milleti menşeindeki ilk sanatkarlığına, demirciliğinin eserini tekrar göstermiş olmakla müftehir olacaktır. Template:Tr icon
  12. ^ Mehmet Önder, Atatürk'ün Yurt Gezileri, Türkiye İş Bankası, 1975, p. 268.
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