Umay

Umay is the goddess of childbirth and the guardian of infants, the one female divinity named alongside Tängri in the earliest Turkic writing. Her name is that of the placenta, and her sphere is the fragile passage of birth: she confers the soul upon the newborn, brought as a drop from the heavenly Milk Lake, and shields mother and child through the dangerous first days against the demons of the birth-chamber. The Tonyukuk inscription likens the ruler's mother, the katun, to Umay, and later Turkic queens were held to embody her. Beneath Islam her figure endures in Uyghur and wider Turkic birth-customs and protective charms.

Domains

• childbirth
• protection of children

Powers

• gives the newborn its soul
• guards mother and infant from harmful spirits

Epithets

• Umay Ana — Mother UmayRoux, La religion des Turcs et des Mongols (1984), 174 (secondary)

Relations

• companion: TängriNamed beside Tängri and the sacred Earth-Water among the powers granting victory to the Turks.Tonyukuk inscription, joint invocation of Täŋri and Umay, ed. Tekin 1968 (primary)

Sources

• Umay is the sole named goddess of the Old Turkic runic inscriptions, protectress of women and children.: Tonyukuk and Kül Tigin inscriptions, 8th c. CE, ed. Tekin 1968 (primary)
• The Umay birth-cult survives among Turkic peoples including the Uyghurs as guardian of childbirth.: Roux, La religion des Turcs et des Mongols (1984), 174-180 (secondary); Erkoç, 'Pre-Manichaean Beliefs of the Uyghurs I', Harvard Theological Review 116, no. 1 (2023) (secondary)