OUTSTANDING MYTHOLOGIST SERIKBOL KONDYBAY ON THE MYTHOLOGICAL PARALLELISM OF THE IMAGES TEMIR-BABA AND DOMRUL

Abstract

The outstanding son of the Kazakh people, Serikbol Kondybai (1968–2004), is undoubtedly a great scholar in the fields of mythology, linguistics, history, ethnology, and historical geography. In his short life, he managed to create such scholarly works as Introduction to Kazakh Mythology (1999), Kazakh Steppe and Germanic Gods (2000), Esen-Kazakh (2002), Hyperborea: The History of the Era of Dreams (2003), Mythology of the Pre-Kazakhs (2004), The Book of the Warrior Spirit (2006), and Kazakh Mythology: A Concise Dictionary (2005). Each of the scholar’s works is distinguished by a special scientific approach, a methodological foundation, a wealth of practical material, and a high level of scientific analysis. Serikbol Kondybai’s works are not limited only to the Kazakh folkloric and mythological domain; they also hold pan-Turkological significance and can shed light on many unresolved issues in Turkology. This is a consequence of Serikbol Kondybai’s broad scholarly interests: he was always fascinated by mythological archetypes that served as common roots, seeds for the traditional cultures of modern Turkic peoples. One of the many examples is the semantic parallelism between the images of Temir-Baba and Deli Domrul, examined in the fourth volume of his well-known four-volume series Mythology of the Pre-Kazakhs.