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Paper abstract:

I am honored to submit to your attention the proposal dealing with the role of Sufism body of religious practices and Hanafi madhhab that hold a special place within the historical, cultural values of Uzbekistan in shaping Uzbek identity. Although these two systems belonging to Islam are rooted in the Early Middle Ages, they have been projecting special positive influence on the development of the Muslim world. Also, in the history of Uzbekistan that is an important part of the Central Asia, Sufism and Hanafi madhhab have established the principils of interconnection tying, enhancing relation between the state governance, economic life, and culture of citizens. The Sufi tariqas and Hanafi madhhab served to provide social justice in the state governance mechanism, strenthening humanism, contributing to the spiritual improvement of people. While based on the Islam Hanafi grounded the legal and economic mechanisms, Sufism developed cultural and spiritual aspects society.

Here, the special attentions is to be given to utilization of the logical rational method of the Ashab-ul-Rai school for analysis of the Islam Shari’a bases of Sufism and Hanafi. Rai – Ashab-ul-Rai – were adepts of independent thinking, the logical comparative thinking method was the lead in their discourse. Mastering of the methods secured the high clarity, impartiality, and deep observational approach in the sahih (authentic) parts of Hadiths. In the Central Asia, the methodological unity of Hanafi and its rational school Maturidia shaped the scientific, systemic institute in approaching the sources of Islam religion in this region. In the Hanafi madhhab, the logical methods are present allowing to prevent turning the bases of religion towards fanaticism and radicalism under human inflience, that secured progressive features of the religion of Islam in such areas as knowledge, economy, and gender relations. In the paper, the epistemological methods of cognition of Sufism and the Hanafi madhhab will be studied as a central problem.

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The paper discusses the challenges female manaschis face in receiving recognition in Kyrgyz society.

Paper abstract:

The paper discusses the challenges female manaschis face in receiving recognition in Kyrgyz society. Although many papers have been written on epic tale singers, the life stories of female manaschilar and their recitation practices has received little scholarly attention. The dominant views on epic reciters are based predominately on the experiences of male bards. A. Lord, who investigated European epic tale singers, identified three stages of becoming a bard: 1) Listening and absorbing, 2) individual practices, 3) first public performance. N. van der Heide supplemented Lord’s stages by highlighting the significance that blessing and vocation dreams play in becoming an epic reciter or manaschy. Notwithstanding the merits of their scholarship on the performative skills and spiritual connection of the male bards with their ancestors, both Lord and van der Heide have missed to recognize the specific requirements for female reciters. In a society where traditional patriarchal norms are strong, female epic tellers need not only to master and improve their recitation skills but also to accept male dominance and to “bargain with patriarchy” (to borrow D. Kandioty’s terms), in order to be recognized as manaschy. This paper discuss personal accounts, archival materials, and interviews collected in 2022 in Kyrgyzstan. Recognition theory (A. Honneth) is applied for data anlysis. Furthermore, the sources are analyzed with regard to the key aspects of family support (“love field”) and “solidarity field”. It is shown how interactions between female manaschilar, on the one hand, and male-dominated society, on the other, serve as a good example for “bargaining with patriarchy”. In particular, the paper reflects upon the role male members play in a society (father, husband, father in law, tribal man) in bestowing recognition upon female manaschilar. Ultimately, this paper contributes to the studies of epic recitation practices.

Keywords: epic, epic reciter, female manaschi, recognition, bargaining with patriarchy.

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Paper abstract:

This article attempts to review the version of the epic “Manas” by the narrator Janybai Kojek uulu. Janybai learned "Manas" from his father Kojek and started reciting it at the age of 16. Janybai's father, Kojek, was known as semeteichi, the narrator of "Semetei", the second part of the trilogy. Janybai Kojek uulu recited the episodes "The memorial feast for Kokotoy", "The great campaign" (Chon Kazat) from the first part of the trilogy – “Manas” and the second and third parts of the trilogy, called "Semetei" and "Seitek", respectively. The total volume of the epic recorded from Janybai consists of 19,445 poetic lines.

The main argument of the article concerns the peculiarity of the Janybai’s version inherited the epic narration from his father Kojek. This epic version and narration are considered as family tradition that was orally passed down to seventh generation from Aidarbek, Suyunbai, Sakochuk, Tenirbay Sary, Zhamankary, Kojek to Janybai. This hereditary tradition is a rare phenomenon among the narrators of the Kyrgyz epic. The article will discuss the particularities of Janbayi’s version in comparison with other epic versions.

The article uses the manuscript version of the Semetey the second part of the epic trilogy narrated by Janybai Kojek uulu, recorded by Kayum Miftakov in 1936-1941 in Latin script with Kyrgyz transcription from the collection of the Manuscript and Publication Department of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic. Among modern recordings, classical editions by S. Orozbakov and S. Karalaev (S. Orozbakov's version, published in four volumes, as well as a complete 9-volume edition and S. Karalaev's version in five volumes) are used.

Keywords: Epic Manas, narrator, manaschy, semeteichi, epic tradition