Itbarak


Itbaraks or just Baraks are Turkic mythological creatures. They were "dog headed, dark coloured manly creatures". According to the Oghuz Khagan Narratives, their country was in the "unknown northwest". We can say it's around today's northern Russia. Oghuz tried to invade them but couldn't succeed, so he had to retreat to a small island.

Dog-headed men

A huge part of Oghuz Khagan Narratives was about "invasions on dog-headed men". Turks called them "Itbaraks". "It" means "dog" and "Barak" means a dark, shaggy dog species. When Oghuz Khagan's invasion on Itbaraks failed and he retreated to a small island, one of his dead soldiers' widow wife gave birth. Oghuz Khagan and his people had no home or tent. So the woman had to birth his child in a hollow. Oghuz named this child "Kıpçak ", meaning "hollow" in Old Turkic.
When Oghuz Khagan had invaded Itbarak lands after 17 years, he gave the lands to Kıpçak to rule. Year after years, Kıpçak's lineage has believed to become the old Turkic tribe Kipchaks.

Oghuz Khagan Narratives

The text about Itbaraks in the Narratives:

Similarities to other mythologies

Stories about "Dog-headed men" can be found on European, Indian, Chinese Greek and other mythologies. Europeans called them "Borus" and believed they were living in northern parts of today's Russia and Finland. The itbaraks were believed to live in the pretty much same area.
Also Indians believed that dog-headed men were noble. And some Mongols thought that they were their ancestors.

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