Türkmenlerin İslamiyet’i Kabulüne Dair Bir Kesit; Ersarı Bay ve Muinü’l Mürid

Abstract

The conversion of the Turks to Islam is considered as one of the main events that had an effect on shaping the world history. However, the adoption of Islam, i.e. the process of Islamization of theTurks is a multi-layered subject. There are still many questions that are not answered properly, thus waiting to be investigated. The nature of the political and military conditions of the period is very important in evaluating the process of Islamization of the Turks. The work titled Mu‘īn al-Murīd written by Ersari Bay’s request sheds an important light on this subject. The members of the ErsariTribe, mostly living in Turkmenistan and whose population is around one and a half million today, are still grateful for Ersari Bay’s leadership and the decisions he took, in terms of Islamization. In thisstudy, the conditions of the 12th century, the results of the Mongol raids and how Ersari Bay made his decision that affected the history will be examined. Subsequently, we will take a closer look at how Islam is explained to the nomadic Turkmens by means of Mu‘īn al-Murīd.