Book of Omens: Irk Bitig

Fortune telling and divination still have a big part in our society, since the hope is what keeps us alive and some of us utilize these aspects of spiritualism because of that. There are plenty of schools, methods, books, documentaries, etc. about fortune telling, and it has been like that for thousands of years. Dating back to the 9th century, Irk Bitig is a mysterious Uyghur book on divination discovered in Mogao Caves, China. The book has many unique aspects and mysteries, for example, it is the only full manuscript written in old Turkic script, and it is a very important source for old Turkic culture and mythology, even though it is originally a divination and fortune-telling book. Therefore, it is a good representation of the spiritual and religious life of shamanic Turkic peoples, with the influence of Buddhism and Manichaeism. The book was written while the Uyghur Khanate was flourishing both culturally and economically after the downfall of Göktürk Khanate and the domination of the Silk Road trade. With the influence of Manichaeism, a big portion of Uyghur people left their ancestral lifestyles to get settled and found great cities, which gave them enough resources to spare time and create detailed manuscripts and artworks, expressing their spiritual inner sides. Therefore, it is only logical that we get to find many well-preserved Turkic manuscripts from that era. 

The book is used in divination ceremonies and consists of 65 well-written poetic sections with alliteration and rhyme, providing interpretation of different scenarios in a symbolic way. Each entry has different future outcomes, from very bad fortune to very good, and sometimes bad at first, but good in the end. Each entry is headed by three groups of between one and four circles with red ink. To get the said outcomes, four-sided dice would be thrown three times. There are 64 possible combinations of three groups of one to four circles, with some errors and missing sections. As mentioned before, these sections provide valuable hints about the lifestyle of Turkic people during that time. The Sky God Tengri is featured in many of these sections, along with many different wild and domesticated animals from horses to tigers. The sections about animals giving birth are good omens, and when domestic animals are mistreated, it is a bad omen. We can see how old believers valued animals and nature with these hints. At the end of the sections, the book ends with the passage, “Now, my dear sons, know thus: this book of divination is good. Thus, everyone is master of his own fate.” 

Here are some examples of the interpretations: 

We mentioned that the book consists of shamanic traditions Turkic peoples who worship Sky God Tengri and maintain a strong connection with nature, animals and Sky God Tengri, but it also contains a strong presence of Buddhist and Manichean ideas, the common religions of Uyghur society. Thanks to the cross-cultural interactions in the land of Uyghurs, the Book of Omens is a very rich artifact both spiritually and literary. The book helps us to understand the multicultural environment of Central Asia at the time, when Persians, Chinese and Turkic peoples interacted with each other extensively. Therefore, we can say that it is a spectacular document that reflects religious syncretism and the influence of different rich civilizations within a single book, and I believe this is why it stands as one of the most important pieces of Turkic literature, with its spiritual and cultural significance.