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Itbaraks (English: Shaggy Dog) or just Baraks are Turkic mythological creatures. They were "dog headed, dark coloured manly creatures". According to the Oghuz Khagan Narratives, their country was in the "unknown northwest". It can be assumed that it's around today's Siberia. Oghuz tried to invade them but couldn't succeed, so he had to retreat to a small island.
A huge part of Oghuz Khagan Narratives was about "invasions on dog-headed men". Turks called them "Itbaraks". "It" means "dog" and "Barak" means a dark, shaggy dog species. When Oghuz Khagan's invasion on Itbaraks failed and he retreated to a small island, one of his dead soldiers' widow wife (could be a beautiful Itbarak woman) gave birth. Oghuz Khagan and his people had no home or tent. So the woman had to give birth to his child in a hollow. Oghuz named this child "Kıpçak (Kipchak)", meaning "hollow" in Old Turkic.
When Oghuz Khagan had invaded Itbarak lands after 17 years, he gave the lands to Kıpçak to rule. Year after years, Kıpçak's lineage has believed to become the old Turkic tribe Kipchaks.
The text about Itbaraks in the Narratives:
Stories about "Dog-headed men" can be found on many other mythologies. Europeans called them "Borus" and believed they were living in northern parts of today's Northern Europe. The itbaraks were believed to live in the pretty much same area.
The Oghuz Turks were a western Turkic people who spoke the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family. In the 8th century, they formed a tribal confederation conventionally named the Oghuz Yabgu State in Central Asia. Today, much of the populations of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are descendants of Oghuz Turks. Byzantine sources call them Uzes. The term Oghuz was gradually supplanted by the terms Turkmen and Turcoman by 13th century.
Seljuk, variously romanized, was an Oghuz Turkic warlord. He was the eponymous founder of the Seljuk dynasty and the namesake of Selçuk, the modern town near the ruins of ancient Ephesus in Turkey.
The Kipchaks or Qipchaks, also known as Kipchak Turks or Polovtsians, were Turkic nomads and then a confederation that existed in the Middle Ages inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe.
The Kimek–Kipchak confederation was a medieval Turkic state formed by seven peoples, including the Yemeks and Kipchaks, in the area between the Ob and Irtysh rivers.
Ak Ana, the "Holy Mother", is the primordial creator-goddess of Turkic people and the Khanty and Mansi peoples of Siberia. She is also known as the goddess of the water. She was the consort and daughter of Kayra Han.
The Book of Dede Korkut or Book of Korkut Ata is the most famous among the dastans or epic stories of the Oghuz Turks. The stories carry morals and values significant to the social lifestyle of the nomadic Turkic peoples and their pre-Islamic beliefs. The book's mythic narrative is part of the cultural heritage of the peoples of Oghuz origin, mainly of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Turkmenistan. Only two manuscripts of the text, one in the Vatican and one in Dresden, were known before a third manuscript was discovered in a private collection in Gonbad-e Kavus, Iran, in 2018.
The Kayı or Kayi tribe were an Oghuz Turkic people and a sub-branch of the Bozok tribal federation. In his Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, the 11th century Kara-Khanid scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari cited Kayı as of one of 22 Oghuz tribes, saying that Oghuz were also called Turkomans. The name Kayı means "the one who has might and power by relationship" and the Turkmen proverb says that "people shall be led by Kayi and Bayat tribes".
Turkic mythology refers to myths and legends told by the Turkic people. It features Tengrist and Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic and warrior way of life of Turkic and Mongol peoples in ancient times. Turkic mythology shares numerous ideas and practices with Mongol mythology. Turkic mythology has also been influenced by other local Asiatic and Eurasian mythologies. For example, in Tatar mythology elements of Finnic and Indo-European mythologies co-exist. Beings from Tatar mythology include Äbädä, Alara, Şüräle, Şekä, Pitsen, Tulpar, and Zilant.
The Turkic migrations were the spread of Turkic tribes and Turkic languages across Eurasia between the 6th and 11th centuries. In the 6th century, the Göktürks overthrew the Rouran Khaganate in what is now Mongolia and expanded in all directions, spreading Turkic culture throughout the Eurasian steppes. Although Göktürk empires came to an end in the 8th century, they were succeeded by numerous Turkic empires such as the Uyghur Khaganate, Kara-Khanid Khanate, Khazars, and the Cumans. Some Turks eventually settled down into sedentary societies such as the Qocho and Ganzhou Uyghurs. The Seljuq dynasty settled in Anatolia starting in the 11th century, resulting in permanent Turkic settlement and presence there. Modern nations with large Turkic populations include Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and Turkic populations also exist within other nations, such as Chuvashia, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and the Sakha Republic of Siberia in Russia, Northern Cyprus, the Crimean Tatars, the Kazakhs in Mongolia, the Uyghurs in China, the and the Azeri in Iran.
Oghuz Khagan or Oghuz Khan is a legendary khan of the Turkic people and an eponymous ancestor of Oghuz Turks. Some Turkic cultures use the legend of Oghuz Khan to describe their ethnic and tribal origins. The various versions of the narrative preserved in many different manuscripts have been published in numerous languages as listed below in the references. The narratives about him are often entitled Oghuzname, of which there are several traditions, describing his many feats and conquests, some of these tend to overlap with other Turkic epic traditions such as Seljukname and The Book of Dede Korkut.
The Oghuz Yabgu State or Oghuz Il was a Turkic state, founded by Oghuz Turks in 766, located geographically in an area between the coasts of the Caspian and Aral Seas. Oghuz tribes occupied a vast territory in Kazakhstan along the Irgiz, Yaik, Emba, and Uil rivers, the Aral Sea area, the Syr Darya valley, the foothills of the Karatau Mountains in Tien-Shan, and the Chui River valley. The Oghuz political association developed in the 9th and 10th centuries in the basin of the middle and lower course of the Syr Darya and adjoining the modern western Kazakhstan steppes.
In Turkic mythology, Tepegoz or Tepegöz is a legendary creature who has only one eye on his forehead – a kind of cyclops. He is an ogre that appears in the Book of Dede Korkut, a famous epic story of the Oghuz Turks.
Ay Ata is one of the mythological entities in Turkic mythology and Tengrism. Ay Ata literally means Grandfather Moon God.
The Second Turkic Khaganate was a khaganate in Central and Eastern Asia founded by Ashina clan of the Göktürks that lasted between 682–744. It was preceded by the Eastern Turkic Khaganate (552–630) and the early Tang dynasty period (630–682). The Second Khaganate was centered on Ötüken in the upper reaches of the Orkhon River. It was succeeded by its subject Toquz Oghuz confederation, which became the Uyghur Khaganate.
In Turkic folklore, Korbolko is a firebird. He brought fire to earth and taught the people to burn the fire.
A Basty or Bastı is an evil spirit or goblin in Turkic mythology which rides on people's chests while they sleep, bringing on bad dreams.
Luwr, is a legendary female animal in Turkic and Nivkh mythologies. It is the creator wildduck.
Turkic history is the systematic documentation and study of events involving the Turkic peoples.
Barak, commonly referred to as Barak Turkmens, is a Turkoman tribe that mainly originates in the Barak Plain in the southeastern portion of the province of Gaziantep in south-central Turkey.