Chingis Aitmatov - In Fond Memory of One of my Heroes...

Presented by Risbek
"Chingis Aitmatov and Modernity" Forum
October 25, 2008, Bishkek

Link to Russian Version

Chingis Aitmatov "Hero Writer"Speaking on this topic today is difficult, but I will because Chingis Aitmatov opened the way. He is a writer-hero. Many traits make him a writer-hero. Chingis Aitmatov, like Solzhenitsyn, brilliantly revealed duplicity within the USSR while writing from the inside. He also beautifully introduced the inner world of mountain nomads to me and the outside world. But there is one more heroic deed he accomplished for me and many others – one deed that many people want to forget. Chingis Aitmatov dared to present images from the world’s most quoted and critiqued book – a book forsaken by his own people.

The book Chingis Aitmatov searched is filled with life’s dramas and pains and joy. It has romance, and the world’s most famous love song. The book describes rape, adultery, murder, intrigue and God’s judgment. It describes the rising and falling of khans and their kingdoms; and the destructive hypocrisy of religious leaders, and crashing of world economies like those we see today. This ancient book also shows the nomadic faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with their sacrifices and mazars (holy sites). The holy writings are a collection of Solomon’s wisdom books, the parables of Jesus, the laws of Moses, and the tears of the prophets; all mixed with ancient history and visions of the end times. It is a literary masterpiece which many Kyrgyz are ashamed to read. Fortunately, Chingis Aitmatov stood against social taboos and opened his mind to new perspectives.

In his introduction to Ashim Jakypbek’s book “Tengiri Manas” Chingis Aitmatov openly writes:

… кыргыздар «Өңөр алды кызыл тил» деп макалдатса, Библияга тооп кылгандар ар нерсенин башталышы катарында «А дегенде Сљз болгон» деген түшүнүктү дайма туу тутуп келишет.¹

…the Kyrgyz proverb says “great skill is in the red tongue” – like the Bible’s summarized introduction “In the beginning was the Word;” such phrases lift the banner of understanding.²

Other hero-writers, like Chingis Aitmatov, also dared to lift the banner of understanding. Sagymbai’s version of the Manas Epic mentions a hero-writer – a mullah who definitely was not a “чала” (bad) mullah:

Инжил менен Тоорат

Жазуусун билип төбүрөөк

Ырайдын билип алибин

Окуган экен көбүрөөк.

Азирети Жебирейил

Айтып кабар салыптыр,

Ак байгамбар Мустапа

Айтканынын баарысын

Акылына алыптыр,

Ал сөздүн баарын молдо Осмон

Китеп кылып калыптыр…³

The Gospel and Torah's

Writings he studied well

Irai’s alphabet he knew

And read lots.

The Holy Gabriel

Spoke a message to him,

The white prophet Mustapa

All that was said

To his wisdom he gathered,

Every word Mullah Osmon

Left in the book he wrote…

Like Mullah Osmon from the Manas Epic, Chingis Aitmatov also presented us wisdom which he gleaned from holy sources. In response to his story “Place of the Skull” (“плаха” in Russian; “кыямат” in Kyrgyz), containing his portrayal of Jesus, Chingis Aitmatov wrote that no one but Jesus could fulfill the novel’s purpose. Then he added:

Иисус Христос мага азыркы адамдарга кандайдыр бир ыйык нерсени айтыщ үчүн мүмкүнчүлүк берет…

… the Jesus Christ figure gave me the opportunity to present that sacred topic (sacrifice and extreme suffering) to modern people… ⁴

Chingis Aitmatov was brave enough to mention Jesus within his Muslim context, without changing his religion. Look at this list of hero-writers from this part of the world who projected similar wisdom into their own writings or speeches: Mullah Osmon, Solzhenitsyn, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, Alisher Navoi, Chingis Aitmatov, and all the future writer-heroes who are brave enough to stand against the society’s duplicity. The men I mentioned did not change their faith or sell their religions; on the contrary, the expanded their religions and their faith, and brought unity where others seek division. They are the hero-writers.

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Presented at the Diylog Avrazia's "Chingis Aitmatov and Modernity" Forum on Oct. 25, 2008 in memory of Chingis Aitmatovby Risbek in English with Russian translation by Yevgeniy Akimenko.

Risbek, a post-graduate student at Kyrgzstan’s Arabaev University, published five books including his best known Ak Kalpak and Boz Ui.

Notes:

1 Aitmatov, Chingis: introduction to Tengiri Manas by Jakypbek, Ashim (Bishkek “Kyrgyzstan” 1995)

2 Loosely translated by the author.

3 Orozbakov, Sagymbai; edited by the Kyrgyz Republic’s Academy of Sciences: Manas, The Kyrgyz National Heroic Epic (Bishkek, Sham, 2006)

4 Aitmatov, Chingis; Chingis Aitmatov, (Bishkek, Sham, 1999), vol. 4, p. 350. Parentheses added by author.

Samaria, Samarkand, Samakai

Kyrgyz consider themselves an imperishable people. Some even think the name Kyrgyz is a variation of the Kyrgyz word Kyrylgyz, “indestructible”. Israelis have also earned a similar reputation over the years. Both nations seem to arise again and again from a unending series of trauma, genocide, and destruction.

Despite the “divine favor” both nations may flaunt, they also uplift narratives that reveal humiliating national sins. The Manas Epic records the following slaughter: an enemy khan, Alookei, attacked the Kyrgyz and scattered them from Samarkand. The epic concludes they were destroyed because of sin:

…The poor people who came to Altay,
And the heroes who were exiled
Survived their hardships,
Were separated from their people,
And endured this on account of their sins.

Manasseh’s biblical tribe and their heroes were destroyed for similar reasons.

“The members of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land. They were very numerous … But they broke faith with the God of their fathers, and whored after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, the spirit of Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and he took them into exile, namely, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river Gozan, to this day.”

This historic battle ended with Samaria’s capture about 721 B.C.E. The captives were deported. Eventually Israel and Manasseh’s scattered masses disappeared from history somewhere beyond the Euphrates. The tribes are now known as the mythological “Lost Tribes of Israel” who, according to biblical prophecy, are supposed to reappear in “the last days.”

Samarkand and Samaria
The Manas Epic presents enemy khans deporting Jakyb and his brothers from the cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, Andijan, and Talas. Samarkand deserves some attention in this analysis. The city’s origins date back to about 700 B.C., which correlates with Samaria’s deportation to areas on the Silk Road. A casual observer might think Samaria’s deported captives brought the toponym of their capital with them. But the prevalent view on Samarkand’s etymology states “asmara,” an old Persian word for rock or stone, and the suffix “kand,” meaning city or fort, break down Samarkand to mean “City of Rock,” not “City of Samar,” or “City of Samaria.” On that basis, Samarkand probably has no connection to Samaria or Israel’s lost tribes. Nonetheless, Samaria and Samarkand’s deportation stories deserve comparative analysis.

From the Manas Epic:
As for Alööke and Molto's
Dreadful demands:
They took large quantities of gold.
If one couldn't give gold to them,
They took their grazing livestock.
If the numbers did not tally,
They beheaded and killed the owner.
Those Kyrgyz who fought back
They paid with blood
and sent to their ancestors (to the dead) those who talked back
They caught and made them slaves.
They destroyed everything,
They brought on a great calamity.
From the Altï-Shaar to Margilan,
All the way to Kokand,
And the sheikh with his soldiers wearing blue coats,
In the lands of Bukara and Samarkand,
Were reduced in numbers and destroyed.

Ashym Jakypbek also mentions Samarkand in his version, Tengiri Manas:

Khans Alooke and Molto, conquering from the beginning – they came and attacked Samarkand and Anjiyan, then killed the hero Orozdu. When that was known they attacked Talas and left no man to lead the people. Bent elders and nursing babies were left. Pretty girls and ladies were taken. Ripped from life and livestock, only beggars remained.

The biblical chroniclers also note that only the poorest of the poor remained in the land after Samaria was attacked and deported.

The Manas Encyclopedia states that many versions of the epic refer to Samarkand as Manas’ fatherland. The mountains of Samaria, on the other hand, represent Manasseh’s fatherland.

The Scattered Ten
According to Ashym Jakypbek the ten orphaned sons of Orozdu were scattered from Samarkand in ten different directions.

Jakyb told Manas about the Kitai, Kalmak, and Manjuu attacking the Ala Too, destroying the pillars of the palace in Talas, felling the flag and scattering the 10 young sons of the Hero, Orozdu, in 10 directions when they didn’t have a chance to fight…

Jakyb’s history starts with ten brothers being scattered from Samarkand. Biblical Jacob’s northern kingdom ends with the ten tribes scattered from Samaria to the Silk Road, in the direction of Samarkand.

Samaria, Samarkand, Samakai
Later we will analyze a tribal people in Northeast India called the Kuki, who claim descent from Israel’s tribe, Manasseh. They sing about the time they were parted from their brothers on the Samakai Mountains. Dr. Khuplam, a Kuki scholar, told me he believes Samakai (or Somakai) may be in Tibet because Kuki prayers mentioned Samakai in conjunction with Tibet, but Khuplam has not been able to locate the exact place of this “parting.”

Where were these brothers separated from one another? Could this place of parting for three ethnic groups be the same place? Kuki descendants of Manmasi (Manasseh) call it “Samakai.” Kyrgyz descendants of Manas call it “Samarkand.” The biblical record refers to Manasseh and “Samaria.” Or, if history really does repeat itself, could Samakai and Samarkand be historical repeats of Samaria? Or perhaps the descendants of Jacob remember a place of parting that sounds like sama-something and a father like Manase or something. Putting all the pieces of this historical puzzle together will not be accomplished quickly, and may require revisiting some traditional perceptions; like the etymology of Samarkand, and the overall role of the Bible in the Manas Epic, and the prevalent opinion about the disappearance of Jacob’s ten northern tribes.

by Risbek
Author of five books including Boz Ui and Ak Kalpak
Post graduate at Arabaev University in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Russian Version and English Version with notes may be viewed on the Manas Epic webpage