Alp Er Tunga or Alp Er Tonğa (Alp "brave, hero, conqueror, warrior", Er "man, male, soldier, Tom", Tonğa "

Siberian tiger The Siberian tiger or Amur tiger is a population of the tiger subspecies ''Panthera tigris tigris'' native to the Russian Far East, Northeast China and possibly North Korea. It once ranged throughout the Korean Peninsula, but currently inhabit ...

") is a mythical Turkic hero who was mentioned in

Mahmud al-Kashgari Mahmud ibn Husayn ibn Muhammed al-Kashgari, ''Maḥmūd ibnu 'l-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Kāšġarī'', , tr, Kaşgarlı Mahmûd, ug, مەھمۇد قەشقىرى, ''Mehmud Qeshqiri'' / Мәһмуд Қәшқири uz, Mahmud Qashg'ariy / М ...

Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk The ' ( ar, ديوان لغات الترك, lit=Compendium of the languages of the Turks) is the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages, compiled in 1072–74 by the Turkic scholar Mahmud Kashgari who extensively studied the Turkic ...

, Yusuf Balasaguni's

Kutadgu Bilig The ''Kutadgu Bilig'' or ''Qutadğu Bilig'' (; Middle Turkic: ), is an 11th century work written by Yūsuf Balasaguni for the prince of Kashgar. The text reflects the author's and his society's beliefs, feelings and practices with regard to quit ...

and in the Vatican manuscript of Oghuznama by an unknown writer. In Turkic literature he is considered to be the same character as

Afrasiab Afrasiab ( fa, ''afrāsiyāb''; ae, Fraŋrasyan; Middle-Persian: ''Frāsiyāv, Frāsiyāk'') is the name of the mythical king and hero of Turan. He is the main antagonist of the Persian epic Shahnameh, written by Ferdowsi. The mythical king ...

in the Persian Epic

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' or ''Shahnama'' ( fa, شاهنامه, Šāhnāme, lit=The Book of Kings, ) is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,00 ...

. He is sometimes mentioned as a khan of Saka (Scythia).William M. Clements, ''The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife: Southeast Asia and India, Central and East Asia, Middle East'', Greenwood Press, 2006, , p. 432. The

Karakhanids The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek ...

claimed to have descended from Alper Tonga.

Alp Er Tunga Epic

Sources

External links

''A king's book of kings: the Shah-nameh of Shah Tahmasp''
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF),Which includes the name of the Turks at the time of the formation of the Western and Eastern Khaganates and said of the inter-ethnicity of the Iranians and the Turanians that Tor or Touraj is the son of Fereydoun and Iraj's brother, and shows that the Turks are not Turanians. Turkic rulers Turkic mythology Heroes in mythology and legend Mythological kings Shahnameh {{Mythology-stub