Uygur, Qaqauz, Quzey Qafqaz turkl??rinin ?d ... - Folklor İnstitutu

LITERATURE OF KUMUK TURKS IN PAST
AND PRESENT
Abstract: The sources until the nineteenth century do not
contain the term “Kumuk literature”. After the occupation of the
Caucasus, Russia started making “traps” by dividing nations into
parts with the aim of strengthening its power. This policy resulted
in the creation of new literary language, new history of literature
and new history for each region inhabited by Turks who had
unique written literature for centuries.
The book “Noqayskie-Kumukskiye teksti” (Collection of
Nogay-Kumuk songs, proverbs, sayings) published by Muhammet
Efendi Osmanov in 1883 in Sankt-Petersburg is considered
to be the first book on kumuk dialect. “Minkullnun yiri” collected
from Kumuks reminds of Shumer epos “Bilgamish”; the tale
“Eniligim, Senligim eshkini ach!” reminds of the battle between
goat and wolf (or between goat and lion) in Shumer tale; the tale
“Bozoghlan” reminds of “Bamsi Beyrek” in “Dede Korkut”; the
fight between the hero in “Javat biy” with the angel of death
reminds of Deli Domrul in “Dede Korkut”; the tale “Koroghlu”
reminds of the epos “Koroghlu”. Such resemblances are
encountered not only in folklore but also in written literature.
The start of the history of written Kumuk literature is claimed to
begin with Kamal Ummu Nuri who lived in the fifteenth century.
His published poems bear similarity with Turkic of Azerbaijan and
Turkey rather than with modern Kumuk Turkic.
Some recent researchers associate Kumuk history and literature
with Shumers. They tend to include joint Turkic literary
works into the history of Kumuk literature and study them.
Although Russian-Soviet colonizers tried to create Kumuk
language and Kumuk literature for 150 years artifically, the
folklore samples collected from the Kumuks and even works by
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