The change and the transformation of the tatarian image from the folklore through the “fake”lore of the chuvashes

Abstract

As the written literature of Chuvash Turks emerged very late, Chuvash folklore is quite rich in terms of oral tradition. They have preserved their traditional religious beliefs using oral transition and they weren’t educated systematically, which reflected on the richness of their oral folk literature. In this rich folk literature, nations they were in political and cultural contact like Tatars, Russians, Maris, Mordvins were also reflected with their different aspects. Particularly, Tatars were often mentioned in various genres of the folk literature. Besides the Tatar image in the proverbs and idioms, a different Tatar image based on the contradictory contents is also seen in the historical narratives. In some works as compiled sagas which were originated from folklore materials, we come across with a Tatar image mistaken for Mongols, which is the scope of this paper, © 2018 Hacettepe University 1. All rights reserved.