Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung. Volume 63 (2), 117–132 (2010) DOI: 10.1556/AOrient.63.2010.2.1 BABA TÜKLI AND THE SWAN GIRL. LEGITIMISING ELEMENTS IN THE TURKIC EPIC EDIGE DÁVID SOMFAI KARA Visiting Scholar, Department of CEUS, Indiana University, Bloomington Goodbody Hall 157, 1011 East 3rd Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7005, USA Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences H-1014 Budapest, Országház u. 30, Hungary e-mail:
[email protected] The present article deals with two legitimising elements to be found in the Turkic epic cycle Edige. According to oral tradition Edige’s genealogy goes back to Angšïbay who married a heavenly swan girl thus laying foundation to the Manghit clan. But in the same oral tradition Edige’s forefather is identified with a Muslim saint (walī or awliyā) called Baba Tükles. The article tries to analyse the process of linking the Muslim tradition of Baba Tükles, who in written sources appears as the Islam- iser of the Golden Horde, to a pre-Islamic tradition about the superiority of a clan originating form a heavenly swan girl. Similarly to folklore and oral tradition, modern religious traditions also dis- play the elements of Islamised folk belief and Central Asian Muslim (e.g. Sufi) traditions, where worshiping ancestor spirits is often intermingled with the respect for Muslim saints who were Islam- isers or Sufi practitioners. Some historical and ethnographical data are presented to elucidate the parallel processes that took place in folklore and religious traditions. Key words: Edige epic, Baba Tükli, oral tradition, religious traditions, Muslim saints, Sufism, heav- enly swan girl, legitimisation.