View source for Alp Er Tunga

{{Short description|Legendary Turkic Khan}}
'''Alp Er Tunga''' or '''Alp Er Tonğa'''<ref>{{cite book|editor=Besim Atalay|title=Divanü Lügati't - Türk|volume=1|publisher=Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi|year=2006|ISBN=975-16-0405-2|page=41|language=tr}}</ref> ('''Alp'''  "brave, hero, conqueror, warrior",<ref>[http://tdkterim.gov.tr/dlt/sozluk/?kelime=Alp&kategori=dltbul&hng=ltn&ayn=bas Divanü Lugati't-Türk Veri Tabanı] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724104733/http://tdkterim.gov.tr/dlt/sozluk/?kelime=Alp&kategori=dltbul&hng=ltn&ayn=bas |date=2011-07-24 }} ([[Turkish Language Association]])</ref> '''Er''' "man, male, soldier, Tom",<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://tdkterim.gov.tr/dlt/sozluk/?kelime=er&kategori=dltbul&hng=ltn&ayn=bas |title=Divanü Lugati't-Türk Veri Tabanı |access-date=2010-06-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724104749/http://tdkterim.gov.tr/dlt/sozluk/?kelime=er&kategori=dltbul&hng=ltn&ayn=bas |archive-date=2011-07-24 |url-status=dead }}</ref> '''Tonğa''' "[[Siberian tiger]]") is a mythical [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] hero who was mentioned in [[Mahmud al-Kashgari]]'s ''[[Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk]]'', [[Yusuf Balasaguni]]'s [[Kutadgu Bilig]] and in the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] manuscript of [[Book of Dede Korkut|Oghuznama]] by an unknown writer.<ref name=osman />

In Turkic literature he is considered to be the same character as [[Afrasiab]] in the Persian Epic [[Shahnameh]].<ref>Emel Esin, ''Antecedents and Development of Buddhist and Manichean Turkish Art in Eastern Turkestan and Kansu'', The Handbook of Turkish Culture, supplement to volume II, section of the history of art, Milli Eğitim Basimevi, 1967, p. 11.</ref><ref>M. Öcal Oğuz, ''Turkey's Intangible Cultural Heritage'', Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey Publications, 2008, {{ISBN|975-17-3369-3}}, p. 23.</ref> He is sometimes mentioned as a khan of [[Saka|Saka (Scythia)]].<ref>William M. Clements, ''The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife: Southeast Asia and India, Central and East Asia, Middle East'', Greenwood Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0-313-32849-8}}, p. 432.</ref>

The [[Karakhanids]] claimed to have descended from Alp Er Tunga.<ref name=osman>{{cite book|author=Osman Aziz Basan|year=2010|title=The Great Seljuqs: A History|page=177}}</ref>

== Alp Er Tunga Epic ==
{| border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1"
|-
! style="background:#eee;"|Original [[Middle Turkic languages|Middle Turkic]]<br>with Turkish transliteration
! style="background:#eee;"|Translation<ref>{{cite book|author=Sabir Rustamkhanli|year=2005|title=My Road of Life|page=369}}</ref>
|- e&771
|Alp Er Tunga öldi mü?
|Did Alper Tunga die?
|-
|İsiz ajun kaldı mu?
|Did poor (world) remained unheaded?
|-
|Ödlek öçin aldı mu?
|Did the fate (time) took its revenge?
|-
|Emdi yürek yırtılur.
|Now the heart is breaking.
|-
|Ödlek yırag közetti,
|The fate defended him, his weapon,
|-
|Ogrı tuzak uzattı,
|Added strength to his strength,
|-
|Begler begin azıttı,
|Made the bey of beys go astray
|-
|Kaçan kalı kurtulur.
|How he could find rescue had he stayed there,
|-
|Ulşıp eren börleyü,
|The brave men would howl like a wolf,
|-
|Yırtıp yaka urlayu,
|Tear their collars and cry loudly,
|-
|Sıkrıp üni yurlayu,
|Scream and shout,
|-
|Sıgtap közi örtülür.
|Shed tears and the tears will dim their eyes.
|-
|}

==Sources==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/36222/rec/1 ''A king's book of kings: the Shah-nameh of Shah Tahmasp''], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF),Which includes the name of the Turks at the time of the formation of the Western and Eastern Khaganates and said of the inter-ethnicity of the Iranians and the Turanians that Tor or Touraj is the son of Fereydoun and Iraj's brother, and shows that the Turks are not Turanians.

[[Category:Turkic mythology]]
[[Category:Heroes in mythology and legend]]
[[Category:Mythological kings]]
[[Category:Shahnameh]]

{{Mythology-stub}}