Baba Tukti Shashty Aziz

Baba Tükti Shashty Aziz, 'the hair-bodied, long-haired holy one', is a legendary saint of Inner Asian Islam whose name recurs across the Turkic epics, including the Karakalpak Edige and Alpamıs. In the historical conversion narrative studied by DeWeese he is the Sufi who, in a fiery ordeal, brings the Golden Horde khan Özbek to Islam. In epic tradition he takes as wife a peri who appears in swan or dove form, and from this union of saintly sanctity and spirit-descent flows the charismatic lineage of Edige. Sources differ on whether he is directly the hero's father or a more distant forefather. He thus stands at the meeting point of Islamic hagiography and older steppe myths of descent from a heavenly bird-maiden.

Children

• Edige

Domains

• sanctity

Powers

• weds a peri swan-maiden and fathers a saintly line

Epithets

• Baba Túkti Shashtı Áziz — the hair-bodied holy elderDevin DeWeese, Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde (1994). (secondary)

Relations

• child: EdigeAncestor and, in some Karakalpak/Nogai versions, father of Edige.Devin DeWeese, Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde (1994). (secondary)

Sources

• Baba Tükti Shashty Aziz is the legendary Muslim saint who, in historical tradition, converted khan Özbek of the Golden Horde, and who in epic tradition marries a peri swan-maiden and becomes the saintly ancestor of Edige.: Devin DeWeese, Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde: Baba Tükles and Conversion to Islam in Historical and Epic Tradition (1994). (secondary); 'Baba Tükli and the swan girl: Legitimising elements in the Turkic epic Edige'. (secondary)