Edige
Edige is the hero of the great Turkic heroic epic that bears his name, one of the most widely diffused epics of Inner Asia and a central work of the Karakalpak jıraw tradition, memorably recorded from the singer Jumabay Bazarov. Behind the epic lies the historical Manghit emir Edigü (d. 1419), founder of the Nogai Horde and rival of the Golden Horde khan Toqtamys, whose struggle forms the narrative's political core. In the mythic genealogy that legitimizes the hero, Edige descends from the Muslim saint Baba Tükti Shashty Aziz and a peri who appears in the form of a swan or dove maiden; sources differ on the intervening generations, some tracing the line through an ancestor Angshïbay who wed the heavenly swan-girl. This fusion of Islamic sanctity with a pre-Islamic marriage to a spirit-bride marks Edige as a figure of doubled, numinous charisma.
Parentage
- parent: Baba Tukti Shashty AzizDescended, in the epic genealogy, from the saint and a peri; sources differ on the number of intervening generations.Devin DeWeese, Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde (1994). (secondary)
Domains
- war
- sovereignty
Powers
- carries the numinous descent of a peri and a saint
Epithets
- әziy tuqımınan Edige — Edige of saintly stockDevin DeWeese, Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde (1994). (secondary)
Relations
- parent: Baba Tukti Shashty AzizDescended, in the epic genealogy, from the saint and a peri; sources differ on the number of intervening generations.Devin DeWeese, Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde (1994). (secondary)
- enemy: ToqtamysKarl Reichl (ed.), Edige: A Karakalpak Oral Epic (2007). (secondary)
- ally: Sypyra ZhyrawThe aged bard-sage Sypyra jıraw counsels Edige.Karl Reichl (ed.), Edige: A Karakalpak Oral Epic (2007). (secondary)
Sources
- Edige is the hero of the widespread Turkic epic Edige, performed among the Karakalpaks (notably by Jumabay Bazarov); the epic dramatizes his conflict with Toqtamys Khan and roots his legitimacy in descent from the saint Baba Tükti Shashty Aziz and a peri swan-maiden.: Karl Reichl (ed.), Edige: A Karakalpak Oral Epic as performed by Jumabay Bazarov, FF Communications No. 293 (2007). (secondary); Devin DeWeese, Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde: Baba Tükles and Conversion to Islam (1994). (secondary)