Interconnection and interference of Turko-Buddhist and Turko-Islamic literary monuments of the Middle Ages

Abstract

This article can be perceived as one of the first works devoted to this issue in Bashkir literary studies, which indicates its novelty and relevance. The purpose of our research is to reveal the spiritual unity of common Turkic-speaking nations who have inhabited the vast territory of Eurasia since ancient times, using the example of the ancient common Turkic literature. We consider that it can be achieved in a comparative research of the poetics of the literature of the Buddhist and Islamic Turks. For this purpose, we chose the historical-genetic and comparatively comparable methods of philological researches that origins of two named groups of works are common and not typological, what were created in antiquity.

The article deals with the problematic idea and artistic features of the Turkic-Buddhist works of the Middle Ages. The ideological and aesthetic content of the Turkic written monuments Golden shine, Hikat about a hungry tigress is investigated. The poetic and compositional features of these works are analyzed from the standpoint of the concepts of Buddhist religion. The article examines the influence of Buddhist literature on the development of the literature of the Turkic peoples. The works of Eastern and Central Asian Turkic authors are considered in the article. The ideological and aesthetic content of the Turkic written monuments Golden Shine, The legend about a hungry tigress is analyzed in detail. The poetic and compositional features of these works are studied from the perspective of the concepts of Buddhist religion. Eastern Turkic Buddhist works have been translated from Chinese, Tocharian and Tibetan languages. They mainly traced the ideas of the Buddhist direction of Mahayana. In the Buddhist works of the peoples of the Eastern Khaganate of the Turkic Empire, the ideas of Buddhism are intertwined with the motifs of local pagan folklore. Ideas, motifs, images of Buddhist literature penetrate deeply into the Muslim literature of the peoples of Central Asia. Works on astronomy, medicine, mathematics, philosophy of Buddhist scholars and works of a didactic nature have been translated into Arabic and Persian. They served as a driving force in the development of Muslim scientific and artistic, edifying literature. And through the Arab-Persian literature, the traditions of Buddhist writings spread among the Turkic peoples of Central Asia and the Ural-Volga region.

In the artistic Turkic Muslim literature, the traditions of Buddhist religious literature were reflected in the motifs of the plot, composition, ideas-problems, in the ways of conveying the psychological state of the characters. Buddhist writings colorfully depict the process of spiritual development of the characters. These properties can also be traced in Islamic religious writings. We can see this in the depiction of the images of the prophets and saints in the works of the Persian authors Firdousi, Tabari, Ansari and the Turkic author Kul Gali. The poetic traditions of Indian Buddhist writings can be observed in Sufi treatises in ways of conveying the subtle complex psychological states of spiritual seekers. For such purposes, both Buddhist and Sufi poets used such artistic techniques as metaphor, allegory, and symbolism.

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