Holiness and sacred Elements in the Epic of Manas

In terms of religion, Manas is an epic in which traditional Turkish belief and Islam are synthesized. Turks reinterpreted their traditional beliefs from the perspective of Islam and perpetuated it as a culture. The result was a rich tradition. The fore mentioned tradition was also reflected in the epic of Manas. According to Turkish traditional belief, there is God in the heavens as absolute possessor, and on earth there are possessors as protectors of certain places. Researchers have divided this into two as "state religion" and "folk religion". The Turks' traditional concept of holiness was shaped according to the possessors. In our study, the concept of holiness in the epic of Manas has been investigated through holy beings, holy persons, holy times, holy places, and holy objects. This thesis entitled "Holiness and Sacreds in the Epic of Manas" consists of introduction, three chapters, result, and bibliography. In the first chapter, the concept of holiness is discussed as an introduction. The concepts that express holiness in the traditional Turkish belief and Islam are evaluated in order to understand the holiness in the epic. In the second chapter, the religions and religious communities mentioned in the epic of Manas are included. In the third chapter, the sacreds we have extracted from the epic of Manas are evaluated comparatively. Keywords: Manas, kut, possessor, sacred, traditional Turkish belief, Islam.