MUSTAFA ALICI

The Idea of God in Ancient Turkish Religion

According to Raffaele Pettazzoni
A Comparison with the Turkish Historian of Religions
Hikmet Tanyu

This paper in a sense may be considered as audi alteram partem.

Here I have confined myself to the earlier stages of the ancient Turkish
Supreme Being as indicated in The All-Knowing God, by the
distinguished Italian historian of Religions, Raffaele Pettazzoni (18831959). In what follows, I shall compare Pettazzonis ideas about this
matter with those of Hikmet Tanyu (1918-1992)1, the founder of the
Turkish tradition of History of Religions in the republican era, especially
__________
1
Hikmet Tanyu, the founding father of the Turkish tradition of the History of Religions,
was born in Ankara in 1918. It was a difficult moment for Turkey, marked by wars, the
establishment of new socio-political institutions and the revolutionary Kemalist regime.
Tanyu graduated from the Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of Languages, History
and Geography in 1948. He was briefly jailed in 1946 because of the ideology of Turan (a
Turkish Ultra-nationalist ideology aiming at the political unity of Turks throughout the
world). Nonetheless, he continued to voice these nationalist ideas in his studies. Moreover, he
sought to convince his students to adopt Turkish nationalism. He especially concentrated on
religious subjects involving Turkish culture and history. He tried to shed light upon the
religious and cultural history of the Turks. Thus he combined in himself the Turkish
ethnological perspectives then in vogue in Turkey and the approach of the Marburg School as
personified by Annemarie Schimmel. Tanyu felt himself well equipped with the steadfast
approaches, and he integrated them in his own nationalist ethnological phenomenology. In
1955 he became the disciple and research assistant of Annemarie Schimmel, who came in
1953 to teach Religionswissenchaft in the recently established Faculty of Theology (1949). In
1959, under her supervision, Tanyu completed his Ph.D. thesis The Votive Practices and Altars
in and Around Ankara. After Schimmels return to Germany in that same year, Tanyu began to
study religion in connection with his specialization in national and religious issues, as well as
drawing attention to the missionary activities of groups such as the Jehovahs Witnesses and
Bahai in Turkey. He likewise encouraged his students to study such subjects. Tanyu visited
Germany to conduct research in 1960, and he went to Jerusalem in order to learn Hebrew in
1962-1963. In 1966 he became chairman of the History of Religions. In 1986 he became
emeritus, and he died in Istanbul in 1992. Among his works are: 1. Beliefs on Stone in Turks
(Trklerde Tala lgili nanlar, 1968, 1987). 2. The Researches on the History of Religions
(Dinler Tarihi Aratrmalar, 1973). 3. Jehoavists (Yehova ahitleri, 1973, 1980). 5. The Jews
and Turks in History (Tarih Boyunca Yahudiler ve Trkler, vol. I- II, 1976, 1979). 6. The
Religious History of Turks (Trklerin Dini Tarihesi, 1978). 7. The Belief of Monotheism
among Pre-Islamic Turks (slmlktan nce Trklerde Tek Tanr nanc, 1980, 1986). For
Hikmet Tanyu and Tanyu School surveyed in English see Ali Isra Gngr, The Turkish
Contribution to the History of Religions, in Numen 54(2007), pp. 7192.

SMSR 77(1/2011) 137-154

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MUSTAFA ALICI

his ideas exposed in his most influential works, The Religious History of
Turks and The Belief of Monotheism among Pre-Islamic Turks.
Introduction: A Retrospect on the Subject Matter
Prior to Hikmet Tanyu there had been no thorough work on the
religious history of the Turks that dealt with their early religious beliefs
and practices in all their dimensions and according to the
methodological framework of the history of religions. Even though
some of the great scholars of the last century did study primitive
cultures all around the world, their investigations into ancient Turkish
beliefs can be regarded mostly as fragmentary and partial2.
Naturally, there have been some concrete reasons for this
negligence. Briefly to say, on the one hand, though Turks were amongst
the most ancient peoples in the world, and even they have had rich
histories for every branch of Turkic peoples, history and to be
historic for them has only recently become meaningful. Yet,
ironically to say, Turkish unconscious can be reflected at best in a
proverb about that: Turks dont like writing down the history but they
like making it. On the other hand, there has been lack of a strong
academic substructure and unscientific ambiance for this research field
properly. Lastly, from the time of the conversion of Turks to Islam until
the present day all the ancient Turkish beliefs on the divinity had been
neglected or undervalued deliberately by the normative Turkish
(especially Ottoman) Muslim theologians in the medieval ages.
But in modern sense, in the republican era of Turkey, the first
serious attempts to sketch an outline of the early Turkish religion as a
whole were done by Turkish sociologist Ziya Gkalp, one of the
ideologists of the Kemalist regime in the first decades of the Republican
period. Gkalp, being under the influence of E. Durkheim, in his Trk
Tresi ve Trk Medeniyeti Tarihi (The History of Turkish Holy
Tradition and Turkish Civilization) deals at length with the ancient
beliefs and practices of the Turks. He claims that western scholars call
the ancient Turkish religion shamanism, but shamanism was in fact the
magical system of the ancient Turks.
Another scholar of Turkish ethnology, Fuad Kprl3, more

__________
2
Harun Gngr, nver Gnay, Balangtan Gnmze Trklerin Din Tarihi (The
Religious History of Turks from the Past to the Present), Istanbul 1997, p. 7.
3
Kprls books about that matter can be listed as: Trk Tarih-i Dinsi (The Religious
History of Turks, prepared by A.Aykn, Kayseri 1990, Trk Edebiyatnda lk Mutasavvflar (The
First Sufis in the Turkish Literature), Istanbul 1919, Influence du Chamanisme Turco-Mongol
sur les Ordres Mystiques Musulmans, Mmoires de lInstitute de Turcologie, Istanbul 1920.

THE IDEA OF GOD IN ANCIENT TURKISH RELIGION

139

prominent and significant than the former, with his social historian
skillfulness, talks about the Islamic period (from the time of the
conversion to the Ottoman Period) of Turkish people, analyzing the
subject by trying to find the equivalent values with those of the ancient
ones. In the later period especially after 1950s there have come about
other recent ethnologists namely Abdulkadir nan, Bahaddin gel,
Osman Turan, brahim Kafesolu and of course Hikmet Tanyu.
Apart from these modern Turkish attempts, some serious scholars in
the West have given a place to the subject in their works. Amongst
these4 figure Wilhelm Schmidt and Pettazzoni in the line of the
Religionswissenchaft. In Ursprung der Gottes, Schmidt writes about the
Tengri of Turks and Tartars in Volume IX (1949), as well as the concept
of Turkish god (Tengri) in ethnically related peoples such as Mongols,
Buriats and Tungus in Volume X (1952). Schmidt observes that Tengri
was transmitted as a singular form throughout history in Turkish
sources, and claims these are evidence for his theory of
Urmonotheismus. Even Pettazzoni cites it in his book and reminds us
that Schmidt evaluated the term Tengri as an originally monotheistic
deity belonging an Urkultur as expressed in accordance with his theory
of Urmonotheismus5.
Alongside these western studies we have also some historical
references coming from Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Persian and Indian
literatures. The main Turkish historical sources for ancient Turkish
conceptions of divinity are the inscriptions of Yenisey and Orhun and,
subsequently, monuments such as that of Kara Balsagun. They
specifically refer to certain religious concepts, such as the deity/Tengri,
and to other spirits, such as Iduk (the spirit of sacrifice), Yir-Sub (the
spirit of earth-water) and Umay (the protecting spirit)6.

__________
4
Other western scholars writing in European languages include Jean Paul Roux and
Mihaly Hoppal. Of course, mention should also be made of those Russian scholars active
before the revolution of 1917, especially on the Turkish peoples living in Siberia: I. A.
Hudyakov, N. Ustashevsky, V.M. Ionov and E. K. Pekarski. After the Revolution, on the
other hand, there were figures such as A.E.Kulakovski, A.A.Popov, I.S. Gurvich and G.U.
Ergis. Scholars dealing with Altaic Shamanism in the Soviet era include L.E. Korunovskaya,
N.P. Drenkova, S.A. Tokarev, L.P. Potanov, V.I. Diyakonova, F.A. Satlayev and L.V.
Chanchibayev.
5
Raffaele Pettazzoni, The All-Knowing God. Researches into Early Religion and
Culture, tr. H.J. Rose, London 1956, p. 272.
6
Durmu Ark, Trkiyede Geleneksel Trk Dini Konusunda Yaplan almalar (The
Studies on the Traditional Turkish Religion), Ali sra Gngr-Asife nal (eds.), Trkiyede
Dinler Tarihi (The History of Religions in Turkey), Ankara 2010, p. 465 f.

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Pettazzonis Tengri versus Tanyus God-Tengri

In order to arrive at an accurate and precise picture of the Supreme
Deity of the ancient Turkish peoples, not only must we study the parts
separately, but we must also have clear views of the subject matter in
question. In this respect, Pettazzoni claims that, in the study of early
cultures such as those of Ural-Altaics (Turkish peoples), we must begin,
not with myths just approved by the anthropologists, but with historical
developments and traditional usages in particular. In fact, in his work on
early cultures and myths, Pettazzoni showed that religions in early times
were not merely systems of belief with practical applications, but rather
bodies of fixed traditional practices.
In the treatment that follows this subject matter will be divided into
sub-categories, namely the classification, the definition, and the
complex procession in the development of the idea of Tengri according
to Pettazzoni and Tanyu, along with a short evaluation of other scholars
on this matter.
1. Ethnological Classifications
First of all, in The All-Knowing God, which Tanyu knows in its
Italian edition too7, Pettazzoni mentions the deity of the Turks in the
section Turko-Mongols and Related Peoples occurring in Chapter
Fifteen, Ugro-Finns, Uralo-Altaics, Siberians. In this same chapter
Pettazzoni also lists the Mordvins, the Voguls and Ostiaks, the
Samoyeds and Koryaks as other peoples thought to be related to the
Turks8. In addition, aware that this group culturally interacted with the
Slavs and Chinese, Pettazzoni placed the Turko-Mongols between these
two peoples.
The linguistic aspect shows us that the Altaic stock has three main
divisions namely Turkish, Mongolian, and Tungus-Manchu, covering
most of northern and central Asia and even some portions of Europe.
The Turks are the only linguistic group that within recent history has
gained appreciable territory at Indo-European expense. The other
branch, i.e. the Uralic (mainly Finno-Ugric) family, has eastern Europe
and northwestern Asia as its home, and is represented primarily by the
Finns and Hungarian Magyars. This is a geographically scattered stock.
Like Pettazzoni, most scholars of early cultures class the three Altaic
divisions together with Finno-Ugric and Samoyed within an even larger
__________
7
Hikmet Tanyu, slamlktan nce Trklerde Tek Tanr nanc (The Belief of
Monotheism among Pre-Islamic Turks), stanbul 1986, p. 205.
8
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., pp. 56- 272.

THE IDEA OF GOD IN ANCIENT TURKISH RELIGION

141

Ural-Altaic family characterized by certain structural similarities9.

For this cultural classification, we observe easily that Tanyu has
some details complementary to those remarked by Pettazzoni, saying
that Ural-Altaic peoples are the close relatives and they are the
representatives of Turanian nations. Even for Tanyu Ural-Altaic nations
consist of Turks, Mongols and Tunguz-s10. Moreover, in order to
explain the correlation and somehow the division between Turks and
Mongols, Tanyu has provided some background information; for him
the historical existence of Turks dates back as far as 2500 years ago and
since then, Turks have evidently had their clear identity and own states.
When Mao-Tun (or Mete khan in modern Turkish sense) emerged in
241 B.C., in the same years two huge ethnic groupings appeared in the
northern sides of Chinese people too: on the one hand, Turks (or Hungnu-s from whom Gokturks, Uygurs emerged as stated by Chinese sources)
living in the hinterlands of the Tola and Orhun rivers and , on the other
hand, Mongols (or Tungh-hu from whom Mongolian tribes such as HienPi, Juan-Juan emerged)11. To complete the matter, Tanyu cites a story told
about the origin of the Turkish people. The father of the proto-Turks was
believed to be one of the sons of Noah. The title of Turk (explained as
meaning faithful Turuk) was given to him by God himself, and Turuk
was also made the ruler of the world by the Divine Will12.
Therefore, like Pettazzoni, he believes in a strong relationship
between Turks and Mongols, pointing to the kinship between them. 13
Furthermore, if we look deeper, Pettazzonis own statement of their
commonality of using same Altaic languages14 seems to have existed
as a historical phenomenon according to Tanyu. He also adds the
following: Turks and Mongols are two sibling nations, and Mongolian
and Turkish languages complement each other in the progressive history
of the Altaic languages15. Furthermore, Tanyu mentions that
Mongolian language of the present day has existed as of the period of
Chengiz Khan. In conclusion, ancient Turkic peoples such as the
Gokturks and Tokuzoghuz-s historically influenced the Mongolian
language deeply, and, as a result of this influence, many Turkish words
crept into the Mongolian language. On this subject, Tanyu gives some
__________
9
A.L. Kroeber, The Anthropology. Race Language Culture Psychology Prehistory, New
York 1948, p. 214.
10
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 98; H. Tanyu, Trklerin Din Tarihesi (The Religious History of
Turks), stanbul 1978, p. 17 f.
11
H. Tanyu, slamlktan nce Trklerde Tek Tanr nanc (The Belief of One God of
Turks in Pre-Islamic Period), p. 1.
12
H. Tanyu, op. cit., pp. 2-4.
13
H. Tanyu, op. cit., pp. 96- 98.
14
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 261.
15
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 96.

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examples of Turkish words that still exist in modern Mongolian, e.g.

Tengiz, Tengri-su, bata, kutula, oku, yurt, Bozkurt,
and Aina16. Consequently, Tanyu claims that tengri in particular is
not a Mongolian term in origin, but Turkish17.
As for the historical precedence of Turks over Mongols; Tanyu
maintains that all the dates about the Mongolian people were seen so
long after Khun (Turks) and Gokturks and therefore all the sources
considered must be evidence for the fact that originally the ancient
beliefs, especially the beliefs about Tengri, had Turkish ethnic roots. As
a result, Tanyu believes that 2500 years ago Mongols were more closely
related to the Turks than at present18. Nevertheless, despite the existence
of some strong historical establishments, the other contemporary
Turkologists such as Ibrahim Kafesoglu and Bahaeddin Ogel are the
opponents of Tanyu and therefore of Pettazzoni in so far as they believe
that the Mongols had no serious relationship with the Turks in the past19.
Then as a well-oriented historian of cultures, Pettazzoni explained
why he classified such groupings, pointing out two reasons. Firstly, the
point of view of language is a fact according to him. The philological
unity of the Ural-Altaics is his preferred thesis20. Even though
linguistically any connection between Indo-European and Altaic appears
at present as dubious, a tendency among the some western scholars like
Max Mller had appeared and they found many sources to prove the
connection between Indo-European and the Ural subgroup21. Here
Pettazzoni shows us that the dialects of Ural-Altaics are so closely
related to one another that their affinity with each other can be
recognized easily.
Secondly, from the point of view of culture, Pettazzoni thinks that
both Ural and Altaic peoples, amongst which the Turks belong, share
the same type of civilization though in different ways and degrees. This
cultural system for him is based upon pastoral activity and breeding of
animals. Their economic life for him corresponds to social life with all
its uniformity. In conclusion, for him they are fundamentally patriarchal
in terms of social structure. Therefore, these socio-cultural conditions
have affected them in later times so that their religious life has turned
into the worship of spirits and, of course, the supreme sky-god22.
In conclusion, Pettazzoni shows us that it is clear that, like the
__________
16

H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 97.

H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 19.
18
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 97 f.
19
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 103.
20
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit, p. 264 f.
21
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 265.
22
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 265.
17

THE IDEA OF GOD IN ANCIENT TURKISH RELIGION

143

various swarms ultimately hived off from the common stock, the
peoples with the same ethnological roots who formed the Ural-Altaic
peoples known to history, must have carried with them strongly marked
ethnological characteristics such as sharing common customs and ideas,
besides their common language. In any case, here Pettazzoni teaches us
that cultural and linguistic features help to perceive the unity and the
homogeneity of ancient peoples.
In this respect, thanks to the Pettazzonian approach, we learn that
various Turkish groups created the most ancient groupings in history.
As nomadic or semi-nomadic peoples they lived on the Eurasian steppes
with various climates and under widely varying cultural and economic
conditions. As time passed, they even yielded to laxness under the
influence of other civilizations, such as the Chinese, Indian,
Mediterranean and lastly European. But despite all the influences they
received, they managed to maintain their cultural identity by leading a
pastoral way of life, the breeding of animals (especially horse farming)
and urban life, having founded many small political units and various
gigantic empires23.
2. The Definition and Meaning of the Term Tengri
History teaches us that the term denoting the Supreme Being in
Turkish is Tengri. The most ancient records in the Turkish language
demonstrate that the word Tengri has a firm date going back to 3000
B.C.24. On this matter Pettazzoni cites the term tengri and its variants
such as tenri, tengeri, tangara, tingir and tegri as the keyword for the
subject. For him it is the term commonly employed to express the
Supreme Being in the majority of Altaic (Turkish) languages25.
Pettazzoni cites some variants of the term, giving their ethnological
backgrounds. For him the most ancient usage of the word can be seen in
the inscriptions of the ancient Orkhun monuments still existing in
Mongolia as the oldest evidence for Turkish. Tanr is the Anatolian
Turkish equivalent given in return. But the word tengri is transformed
into Tangara among the Yakuts (i.e. Turkish peoples living in northern
Asia) because of the phonological features of their dialect. Even for him
the term dingir (the most brilliant) in the Sumerian language presents
the same meaning, implying a Central Asian root. Tanyu claims this

__________
23
nver Gnay, Harun Gngr, Balangtan Gnmze Trklerin Din Tarihi (The
Religious History of Turks from the Past to the Present), Ankara 1997, p. 18 f.
24
Saadettin Gme, Eski Trk nanc zerine Bir zet (A Summary on the Faith of
Ancient Turks), p.103; http://dergiler.ankara.edu.tr/dergiler/18/29/208.pdf (06.12.2010).
25
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p.261.

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MUSTAFA ALICI

word cannot be of Persian or of Slavic origin, but rather must be Altaic26.

Furthermore Tanyu gives other variants of the term, such as
tengere, tanr, tangr, tangara, tengri, tenkri, and ture.
In addition to these, he observes that the Oghuz Turks sometimes used
the term alap in place of Tengri. According to him, alap must in
all likelihood have entered the Turkish language through Nestorian
Turks27. Along with the tengri of Huns and Gk-Turks, Uygur Turks
use Kn-Tengri (The God of Lightning) or Ay-Tengri (The God
being brilliant), Yakuts prefer the term tangara meaning the deity
alone, whereas Kazan Turks speak of Teri, Soyons talk of Ter, and
uva Turks employ the name Tora28.
As for the main term tengri; we can observe that the true meaning of
the Tengri is ascertained by each of the scholars. As Pettazzoni remarks that
the root meaning of tengri is the sky or the weather or the air29,
Tanyu, supporting Pettazzoni, points to its real human perception in the
Turkish cultural system and he makes clear that tengri comes from
tenk or tan which means daybreak or dawn in Turkish. From that
he concludes that tengri designates the one who exists in the sky or at
dawn/twilight (incidentally, we may add that his own last name Tanyu
means twilight or dawn in modern Turkish). Furthermore, he adds that
Mongols understood only its superficial meaning as sacred creatures in the
sky, and he claims that Chinese Tien/Tiyan is the same as the sky and
primal principle. From this fact he concludes that Tengri cannot have
originally been Altaic, which is one of the latest members of the Turkish
linguistic family, but was instead a word of the Khun, the most ancient of
Turkish peoples. Since the term originated in the Khun dialect, it has not
been adopted in other Turkish dialects, such as Altaic. In historical times,
the spelling of the word tengri was transformed into Tanr, as it is has
long been in modern Turkish usage30.
In this way, Pettazzoni maintains that various Altaic (Turkish) peoples
conceived the term tengri differently31. We can easily trace in this
instance how his passing remark was subsequently expanded by an idea of
Tanyu. Tanyu has given the other conceptions of Altaic peoples derived
from word tengri, such as teri (saint or holy, for the Kazan Turks),
tenriken (king), tengrii (priest), tengrilik (especially used by the
Kuman Turks to mean divine, signifying religiosity for the Uygurs)32.
__________
26

H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 102.

H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 9f.
28
. Gnay-H. Gngr, op. cit., p. 36.
29
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 264.
30
H. Tanyu, op. cit., pp. 11-13.
31
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 12.
32
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 18.
27

THE IDEA OF GOD IN ANCIENT TURKISH RELIGION

145

Lastly, Pettazzoni is also aware of the fact that Turco-Mongolian

Tengri is related to its Chinese counterpart Tien33. In point of fact,
the correlation between Tien and Tengri is very probable, since we
know from one of the ancient Chinese sources (Shi Ki) that the term
tengri is Turkish in origin. This is attested in a reference to the Turkish
monarch Mete Han (ca. 209-174 B.C.). Even many modern Turkish
scholars consider the Chinese Tien to be a term that was originally
borrowed from Turkish, and Chinese people had simply used it in the
form that was current in the ancient Turkish language34.
3. The Main Characteristics of Tengri
In what follows we can enumerate certain features and attributes of the
ancient Turkish deity that were observed by both Pettazzoni and Tanyu.
1. Pettazzoni views the Turco-Mongolian deity as the Supreme
Being, the creator, being of Uranian character, the heavenly principle
and the governing law of the universe35. Even for him, this god has
always had the constant attribute of omniscience, seeing and knowing
everything36.
Tanyu has the same view of the divine attributes of Tengri. Using a
wide range of sources that extends from ancient Chinese sources to later
Muslim accounts, he cites many passages mentioning Tengri as the
creator and the ruler of the universe, the omnipotent, the provider or
bestowing god, the omniscient, the all-wise, the granter of wisdom to
mankind, the everlasting one, the all living, the one who grants creatures
life. He is the first and He is the last, He kills, He is the determiner of
the human destiny, Granter of power, success and victory to the human
beings, the Beneficent, the Merciful, the Protector, the Incorporeal37, the
un-formed and the abstract38, having no sacred marriage or other
anthropomorphic features, but absolutely Uranian in character.
Therefore, neither statues nor images of this Turkish deity can possibly
be made39. For Tanyu, all religious concepts such as prayer, sacrifice,
soul, spirit, immortality, paradise, hell, the hereafter, angel, and devil
to cite the most important are directly related to the concept of the
Supreme Deity40.
__________
33

R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 261.

H. Gngr-. Gnay, op. cit., p. 34.
35
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 261.
36
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit.,p. 265.
37
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 33.
38
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 133.
39
H. Gngr, Trk Bodun Tarihi Aratrmalar, stanbul 1997, p. 25 f.
40
H. Tanyu, Trklerin Dini Tarihesi, (The Religious History of Turks), p.15.
34

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MUSTAFA ALICI

2. For both Pettazzoni and Tanyu, the residence of Tengri is situated

in the sky itself. He lives in the sky41. Pettazzoni supports this view with
a Turkish statement, namely, za [Uza] kk tengri, which he
interprets as meaning blue Tengri on high42. The statement which
Pettazzoni quotes may be probably the statement transmitted by the
Orhun Monuments, which were erected in central Asia in A.D.720-725
and constitute one of the most important historical sources for the
ancient Turkish people. This phrase is significant precisely because it
expresses the main characteristic of the ancient Turkish idea of God.
Tanyu considers it and cites that in the monuments of Orhun with its
long forms as Uza kk tenri, asra yaz yer klndkta ekin ara kii oglu
klnm. He gives the meaning of this statement as above there is allmajestic God, below there is the dark earth. In conclusion, Tanyu
maintains that for the ancient Turks space was boundless, whereas the
earth was the bottomless deep or tpsiz tering, pretending to give
space limitless dimensions43..But here they both explain the term
tengri as first and foremost meaning god. However, the probable
verse in long form might show us the second meaning of the term as the
sky as we gaze it: Uza kk tengri, asra yaz yer klndkta ekin ara kii
oglu klnm (when the blue heaven above and the darkened earth
were created, the human being was created between them)44. Therefore
tengri in this inscription literally means only heaven/sky and the
statement refers to the ancient Turkish cosmogony.
In this sense, Tanyu also mentions that for the ancient Turks Tengri
lives not in the sky seen by naked eyes, but in the heaven far beyond the
stars and the Sun, in the limitless heights. For that reason they call the
boundless space zeliksiz (the highest and eternal limitlessness) or
stnki (the almighty)45.
In addition to this, Tanyu explains that in ancient Turkish usage GkTengri was a unified word consisting of both sky and god
respectively. But Tanyu, like Pettazzoni, thinks that in this unification of
words of gk and tengri gk is meant blue. However, the
symbolic meaning of the word can show multi-dimensional attributes, such
as infinity boundlessness, majesty, greatness or loftiness. In
conclusion, Tanyu claims that the ancient Turkish peoples always used

__________
41

R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., 261: H. Tanyu, slamlktan nce Trklerde Tek Tanr nanc
(The Belief of One God of Turks in Pre Islamic Period), p. 28 f.
42
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 264.
43
H. Tanyu, slamlktan nce Trklerde Tek Tanr nanc (The Belief of One God of
Turks in Pre Islamic Period), p. 44.
44
Hseyin Namk Orkun, Eski Trk Yaztlar (The Ancient Turkish Inscription), vol. I.
Ankara 1994, p. 28 f.
45
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 134 f.

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147

the term Gok-Tengri in its unified form, giving it profundity, and that it
cannot be construed as meaning merely sky. Otherwise, the term
would have been repeated. In support of this interpretation, Tanyu
provides some examples. For instance, he quotes a verse from the
Oghuz Khan, one of the ancient Turkish epics: Kn /tu bolgil kk
kurikan (May the sun be the standard made of horsetail, and the sky be
the tent). To buttress his claim, he also cites other passages wherein
gk designates only the physical sky46.
Tanyu adds that the term kayragan/kayrakan/ kayran or the
saver/the protector as used by Altaics refers not to the deity himself,
but rather to an attribute47. In this context he also brings out some other
divine attributes of Tengri, such as Bayat or Bay lgen (His
Majesty Creator), and concludes that Bayat or Bay lgen is
misunderstood by some Turkologists when they interpret it to mean a
lower god rather than the higher god Tengri48.
3. We see that the sky as the residence of other celestial beings is
like a planisphere in the belief-system of the ancient Turks. Pettazzoni
states that in the Altaic vision there are seventeen heavens, and the
omniscient being named Mergen tengere, or the sharpshooter god, lives
there49. He also acknowledges that according to Yakuts, Tengri was
named as the White Creator and lives in the seventh or the ninth heaven.
As a result, for Pettazzoni, the sky in the Turkish belief-system usually
consists of a series of planes, one above another, such as three, five,
seven, nine, twelve, sixteen, or even thirty-three and more. According to
Altaic and Ural peoples, the seventh heaven or plane is very significant.
The Supreme Being lives in the highest heaven, supposedly the seventh,
and in each of the other planes or heavens there is generally one of his
sons50. Like Pettazzoni Tanyu is aware of these astrological strata, and
admits that, imagining the physical sky as a tent, Turks divided the sky
into sacred strata such as seven, nine and fourteen and they called it the
universe of the nine planes51 Yet, in accordance with Pettazzoni, Tanyu
says that among the Altaics the sky has the planes one above another as
twelve, sixteen, seventeen, but they preserve the ninth or seventh plane
for the Supreme Being52.
In conclusion, we can see that these myths are very popular,
especially in the vast ordinary populations. Just as Pettazzoni observes
__________
46

H. Tanyu, op. cit., pp. 15- 26.

H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 12.
48
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 176.
49
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p.262.
50
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 262 and p. 266.
51
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 178 and p. 185.
52
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 135.
47

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MUSTAFA ALICI

in Turkish religious practices, one of the most interesting kind of myths

existed in Altaic cosmogony. Altaic peoples find their religious archaic
elements in their transmitted practices lived dynamically, having been
influenced deeply by the external cultures of neighboring peoples.
4. Pettazzoni believes that the root of the divine attribute of
omniscience therefore lies in Tengris uranic nature itself. In agreement
with Wilhelm Schmidt53, Pettazzoni claims that the nomadic and seminomadic character of the ancient Turkish peoples strongly influenced
their conception of deity54 In this respect, he cites some practices of the
Turkish peoples. First, he remarks that the Uralic branch believes in the
notion of the all-seeing omniscience of the deity, which finds its nave
expression in the imagery of many faced beings55. Secondly, he gives
another example from Altaic people: for them some shamans contribute
to the divine omniscience of Tengri with their help. For instance, they
are used to travel in the heavens and have office there in order to
observe what men are doing on the earth, and inform the Supreme God
about these events56. In the end, Pettazzoni concludes that in inner Asia
the worship of the spirits also existed and was based on the patriarchal
model of life57. For this development of the belief system Tanyu has
some definite points of view. For instance, like Pettazzoni, Tanyu points
to the nomadic and sedentary lives of ancient Turkish religion led in
cities and in the countryside. In his view, they prayed on the mountains
and in the caves as well as in the temples built for the Supreme Being58.
In addition, Tanyu acknowledges that shamans can travel through the
various planes, but can ascend only as far as the fifth plane59.
4. The Historical Development of the Ancient Turkish Supreme Being
During the last century, there emerged certain scholars who took
into consideration the concept of the Turkish Tengri in history in their
own perspectives. Here we may briefly cite some of those who defend
ancient Turkish totemism. They include J. P. Roux, Z. Gkalp, F.
Kprl and brahim Kafesolu. There are others, such as Salamon
Reinach, who believe in the existence of some kind of dualism, making
Erlik the evil god and the opponent of Tengri who occurred in later
times under the impact of Mongols. There are yet others, like Eliade,
__________
53

R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 272.

R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 265.
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 267.
56
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 262.
57
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 265.
58
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 16.
59
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 135.
54
55

THE IDEA OF GOD IN ANCIENT TURKISH RELIGION

149

Radloff and Abdlkadir nan, who claim the existence of a kind of

shamanism. Lastly, more recent scholars, such as Harun Gngr (the
prominent disciple of Tanyu), depict shamanism as the traditional
Turkish religion and believe that its roots are still flourishing in the
present-day religion of modern Turkish peoples60.
Unlike these scholars, both Pettazzoni and Tanyu adopt an approach
of the historical development of the term accepting the existence of the
spirits in the progressive belief system belonging to Turks, and none of
them considers these spirits as separate gods alongside Tengri. In a
broader sense, Tanyu concludes that there are certain spirits, such as
Umay (the Protector), Ana Maygn, Akana (White Mother) and Bay
lgen (the Great Spirit), that have been claimed as the goddesses of the
ancient Turks by various modern scholars, but in fact were considered
protector spirits. Tanyu also mentions the existence of other, evil spirits,
such as Erlik or Arsan Dolay (amongst the Yakuts). He frequently repeats
that these were misconstructed as malignant gods by some modern
Turkish and Western ethnologists. However, for Tanyu all of these spirits,
good or evil, might be considered as angels or demons or even devils, if
we want to resort to Muslim theological terminology. In this context,
among many Turkish peoples some spirits have been revered and have
received devotion, but they cannot be regarded as gods worshipped
separately61. In this matter we must remember that, unlike Pettazzoni and
Tanyu, there are some modern Turkologists, such as Saadettin Gme,
Abdlkadir nan, W. Radloff and brahim Kafesolu, who claim that in
the Altaic tradition Bay lgen and Erlik are conceived as two gods, good
and evil respectively, reigning alongside the Supreme God62.
Both Pettazzoni and Tanyu are aware of the later developments of
Turkish ideas of divinity due to the new religious systems adopted by
the Turks. Pettazzoni says that from the basic meaning of tengri
develops a complex one that goes far beyond the simple sense of sky
god and evolves into a full-fledged divine being or even divine
image such as those present in more complex religions. In other words,
he recognizes that Tengri was also refashioned as God in the
absolute, monotheistic sense. He claims that this is a clear case of
influence by the more complex traditions that have from time to time
and in various ways made inroads among the Turko-Tartars. Therefore,
__________
60

. Gnay-H. Gngr, op. cit., pp. 90-104.

H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 177 f.
62
Saadettin Gme, Trk Mitolojisi (Turkish Mythology), Ankara 1971, p. 446,
Abdlkadir nan, Tarihte ve Bugn amanizm (Shamanism in History and Today), Ankara
1972, p. 72, W. Radloff, Sibiryadan Semeler (The Selects from Siberia), tr. A. Temir,
Ankara 1975, pp. 214-216, brahim Kafesolu, Eski Trk Dini (The Ancient Religion of
Turks), Ankara 1980, p. 22 f.
61

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MUSTAFA ALICI

this notion of deity became synonymous with the Zoroastrian and

Manichaean Khormuzda (Ahura Mazda), the Buddist Burkhan (Buddha)
and, in later times, the God of Nestorian Christianity and the Allah of
Islam63. He even goes so far as to assert that Tengri has a connection
with neighboring peoples such as the Ugro-Finns and the LithuanoSlavs, especially as regards similarities in their weather-aspects64. Tanyu
is silent on these aspects of Tengri in its complex itinerary. On the other
hand, Pettazzoni rightly affirms that Turkish Tengri has preserved its
real character as the sky (in the central and the northern steppes of Asia,
for example) despite the terms complex evolution65.
As for the belief in spirits and other celestial beings occurring in
ancient Turkish religious systems, Pettazzoni also presents some other
historical conclusions. In the final analysis, he seeks their roots
primarily in the Near East, such as the Babylonian system of the seven
planets, Iranian (Zoroastrian) eschatology (about three superimposed
heavens of the stars, sun and moon and above them the abode of Ahura
Mazda), and Mithraism, especially in its doctrine of the seven planetary
spheres through which the soul passes first when descending to earth
and then in the opposite direction when mounting up to heaven66.
For his own part, Tanyu investigates the later development of Tengri
in the new traditions that the Turkish people formed in historical times.
Like Pettazzoni, Tanyu gives a wide spectrum for the usage of Tengri to
be found in some later religions, such as Buddhism, Manichaeism,
Nestorian and Orthodox (Karaman-s and Gagavuz-s respectively)
Christianity, Hazari Karaism (Judaism) and Islam (Oghuz-s, especially
Seljuk-s and Ottomans)67. Clearly, Tanyu gives many examples of use
of the word tengri to designate the deities of these new faiths. For
instance, some Buddhist Uygur manuscripts contain expressions such as
Tangri tangrisi burkhan yarlkam (holy god Buddha judged). Tanyu
reports that tengri is cited in the inscriptions of Turkish Buddhist
statues, thereby making them the divine image of Buddha (Burkhan)68.
Tanyu also mentions that in some Turkish texts dealing with
Manichaeism there is evidence for the use of tengri as a synonym for
Ahura Mazda, e.g. Tang Tengri keldi (Tengri the Dawn has come)69.
He cites examples from some Nestorian Turkish (Christian) texts for

__________
63

R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 261 f.

R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 267.
65
R. Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 262.
66
Pettazzoni, op. cit., p. 266.
67
H. Tanyu, Trklerin Dini Tarihesi (The Religious History of Turks), stanbul 1978, p. 29.
68
H. Tanyu, slamlktan nce Trklerde Tek Tanr nanc (The Belief of One God of
Turks in Pre Islamic Period), p.48 f.
69
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 56 f.
64

THE IDEA OF GOD IN ANCIENT TURKISH RELIGION

151

expressions such as Tengri and Miha Tengri Oglu (the Christ, The
Son of God)70. Lastly, he reports the term Tengri being used in the sense
of God in classic and modern Muslim Turkish texts. In conclusion, he
proves that Tengri has been always used as a synonym for Allah, the
God of Islam71.
In the end, Tanyu observes that if one takes into consideration early
Turkish concepts of one god, especially with reference to the divine
attributes and their belief in the hereafter in the context of divine
providence as well as of their noble ethical systems, it can be said that
ancient Turkish peoples could be considered as muslims in minuscule
letters72, that is to say, as some kind of believers in an Abrahamic Faith
(that means a kind of haniflik)73. In short, Tanyu does not accept
shamanism or totemism as correct definitions of ancient Turkish
religion. On the contrary, he insists at length that the ancient Turkish
religion can only be called the Religion of Gktengri74.
Conclusion
Both Pettazzoni and Tanyu, respectively the founders of the Italian
and Turkish schools of religious studies, cast light upon the historical
development of the functions of the Turkish Supreme Being despite its
structural stability in its later manifestations.
It is observed that the traditional Turkish belief in the Supreme-God
or Gk Tanr represents some abstract structure of deity whose origin
and morphology are difficult to observe. However, we may trace its
nature by referring to archetypical elements appearing in historical
evidence represented by inscriptions, religious texts or epics belonging
to various Turkish peoples.
Unlike other scholars surveying the origin of the early religions of
humanity, Pettazzoni focusses upon the concept of the All-Knowing
God in his research and consequently emphasizes concrete historical
facts more than do other theorists. In his production, Pettazzoni shows
us the omniscience character of the Turkish tengri as a sky god too. By
his work, Pettazzoni demonstrates the omniscience of the deity as a
universal found in the perception of all human beings as well as in
particular systems such as that of the Turko-Mongolian peoples. Turkish
__________
70

H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 61.

H. Tanyu, op. cit., pp. 62-215.
72
H. Tanyu, op. cit., p. 184 and p. 198.
73
H. Tanyu, Trklerin Din Tarihesi (The Religious History of Turks), p. 12.
74
See for instance H. Tanyu, slamlktan nce Trklerde Tek Tanr nanc (The Belief of
One God of Turks in Pre Islamic Period), p. 42 and p. 201; H. Tanyu, Trklerin Din
Tarihesi (The Religious History of Turks), p. 12 and p. 30.
71

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tengri fits with his concept of the All-Knowing God as a sky god,
comparable to the Greek Zeus, the Vedic Dyaus, and the Roman Jupiter.
He also investigates Tengris relationship with Numun of the Samyoeds,
Tien of the Chinese, and even Torem of the Slavs. In addition, he traces
the historical roots of Tengri in later times into Buddhist, Nestorian,
Babylonian, Zoroastrian and Mithraic and Islamic God. Therefore,
evidently Tanyus nationalist researches on the ancient Turkish god
confirm Pettazzonis understanding of the All-Knowing God.
Moreover, having considered the term Turkish as an important
introduction to all of his research, Tanyu traces an early Turkish deity
by his ethnological studies on a restricted area such as the religious
history of the Turks. He believes that the supreme being of the Turks
was Gok-Tengri, or High God. In character and its various aspects,
the term tengri is neither Chinese nor Mongolian, but Turkish. Even
for Tanyu, the Turkish deity may have influenced Chinese and
Mongolian conceptions of divinity once upon a time. So, for him, the
ancient and traditional religion of Turkish peoples is to be defined as
belief in Gok-Tengri. This belief constitutes the centre of all Turkish
traditional religion as a monotheistic system. Gk (the Sky) is a strong
attribute giving sublimity to the deity. The concept of Gok-Tengri has
the character of deus otiosus and this concept had acquired various
names or personifications over the centuries. The bluecolor of the sky
makes clear his hierophany and loftiness. Thus, Gk-Tengri unifies all
his attributes in both concrete and abstract forms.
In the last analysis, we can see that Tanyu has a more specific and
considerably narrower approach than Pettazzoni, who has a global, welldesigned and composite paradigm. Tanyu looks upon the belief in GokTengri as a somewhat monotheistic system of ancient Turks that existed
long before Islamic monotheism. He terms this system the Religion of Gok
Tengri. Furthermore, Tanyu maintains that early Turkish belief in god was
very similar to the Abrahamic concept of monotheism and therefore the
ancient Turks could be called muslims with a lower-case m.
Unlike Turkish ethnologists who indulge in absolute reductionist
and superficial comparisons, both Pettazzoni and Tanyu have strong
paradigms for the History of Religions and believe that the ancient
Turkish conception of god has preserved its main features across
history. So, it is possible to see the influence of this belief within later
traditions shared by various Turkish peoples. Furthermore, each
believed that in spite of the complexity of Turkish religious history,
Tengri had preserved its own original form of supreme god. By his great
methodological ability, Pettazzoni presents us with the History of
Religions as a discipline that is, in a sense, the story of the Supreme
Being and his worship across cultures.

THE IDEA OF GOD IN ANCIENT TURKISH RELIGION

153

ABSTRACT
Lo storico delle religioni italiano Raffaele Pettazzoni (1883-1959) ,
insieme ad altri come E.B. Tylor, R.R. Marett, A. Lang, W. Schmidt, N.
Sderblom, sulla strada della ricerca della religione e della cultura
originarie del genere umano. Pettazzoni ha sostenuto che la forma
idealizzata dellEssere supremo celeste pu essere rinvenuta in quasi
ogni religione e cultura e che questi potrebbe essere definito come
Onnisciente. In The All-Knowing God, Pettazzoni si occupato anche
dellEssere Supremo dei Turchi antichi che indicato come Tengri nel
XV Capitolo (Ugro-finnici, Uralo-Altaici, Siberiani) con il sottotitolo
Turco-mongoli e popoli affini. Per Pettazzoni, Tengri vive in cielo, e
come una divinit personificata, sa e vede tutto. Allo stesso modo esso era
pensato da Hikmet Tanyu (1917-1992), discepolo della fenomenologa
tedesca Annemarie Schimmel e considerato il fondatore della Storia delle
Religioni turca in epoca repubblicana con la cattedra di Ankara
Universit 1959-1985. Come Pettazzoni, Tanyu, specialmente nella The
Religious History of Turks e anche in The Belief of Supreme God of
Turks in Pre Islamic Period, ha sostenuto che lantica religione turca
era fondata sulla fede in un Essere Supremo celeste chiamato Gok
Tengri (Dio del Cielo). Egli ha inoltre liberato il campo da due errori
comuni che si riscontrano nelle opere degli studiosi che discutono
lantica idea turca di Dio: un primo errore stato quello di considerare
le credenze spirituali dei popoli Altaici e Yaquti come parte costitutiva
di unantica religione turca nel suo complesso; il secondo errore stato
quello di considerare lantica fede turca come una sorta di
sciamanesimo. Inoltre, egli ha difeso nelle sue opere lidea che lantica
religione dei Turchi avesse avuto un carattere monoteistico. Sia
Pettazzoni sia Tanyu possiedono alcune opinioni comuni che appaiono
sotto certi aspetti estremamente differenti rispetto a quelle di altri
studiosi che si occupano della originaria divinit turca. Questo articolo
cerca di confrontare le idee di questi due studiosi intorno a questo tema
con quelle di altri studiosi.
Italian historian of religions Raffaele Pettazzoni (1883-1959) is,
along with others such as E.B. Tylor, R.R. Marett, A. Lang, W. Schmidt,
N. Sderblom, on the way to search the early religion and culture of the
humankind. Pettazzoni has maintained that the idealized God of Heaven
could be traced in almost every early religion and culture and could be
concluded as the All Knowing One. In The All-Knowing God Pettazzoni
also dealt with Supreme God of the Ancient Turks named Tengri in the
Chapter XV (Ugro-Finns, Uralo-Altaics, Siberians) under the subtitle of
Turko-Mongol and Related Peoples. For him Tengri lives in the sky,

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and as a personified deity, knows and sees everything. As for Hikmet

Tanyu (1917-1992), the disciple of German phenomenologist Annemarie
Schimmel, is considered as the founder of the Turkish History of
Religions in the Republican era, having the chair in Ankara University
from 1959 to 1985. Like Pettazzoni Tanyu, especially in The Religious
History of Turks and also in The Belief of Supreme God of Turks in Pre
Islamic Period, has maintained that the ancient Turkish religion was
based on the faith of Heavenly Supreme Being called Gok Tengri (Sky
God). Yet he cleared out two common mistakes found in the works of the
scholars discussing the ancient Turkish idea of God: one mistake was to
consider the spiritual beliefs of Altaics and Yaquts to constitute the
similar ancient Turkish religion as a whole; the other mistake was that
ancient Turkish faith could be called Shamanism. In addition, he
defended in his works the notion that the ancient religion of the Turks
had had a monotheistic character. Both Pettazzoni and Tanyu have
common and in some respects very distinctive opinions from those of
other scholars dealing about early Turkish God. This paper tries to
compare the ideas of these two scholars about that along with those of
other actual scholars on the subject.