Traces of old Turkish beliefs in the Turkish understanding of Islam

Shamanism has been a subject that is considered very important in terms of world history and Turkish history, on which there are debates and which researchers are still curiously researching. The reason why this subject is discussed and researched so much is due to the whole of the applications it contains and the fact that we still feel its existence in some way today. Researchers' thoughts on Shamanism are generally divided into two parts. While some of them see Shamanism as the ancient religion of the Turks, the other part is of the opinion that the people with an important civilization and history like the Turks would not accept such a religion and could not have such a religion. The conclusion to be drawn from all these ideas is that the ancient religion of the Turks was the belief in One God, "Kök Tengri". In the historical process, however, Turks have come under the influence of different religions. Especially due to their geographical location, they interacted with different nations, and thanks to these interactions, they adopted religions such as Manichaeism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Judaism. However, since these religions do not fit the culture and life of the Turks, these adoptions did not occur in large masses and could not be permanent. Contrary to these religions, İslâm was accepted in large masses throughout history, spread over large areas and Turkish-İslâmic states were established. Along with all these, İslâm has managed to become stronger and permanent. Even though the Turks accepted İslâm, they managed to keep the practices in their old religions alive by hiding them in İslâm and by passing them down from generation to generation. Today, it is possible to encounter traces of the old Turkish religion within the Turkish-İslâmic understanding.