Originally Posted by
Yaglakar
Tariat inscriptions (Mongolia):
teηride bolmyš el etmiš bilge qaγan el bilge qatun qaγan ataγ qatun ataγ atanyp ötüken kedin učynta tez bašynta örgin…
I heavenly/sky born El Etmish Bilge Qaghan along with heavenly/sky born El Bilge Khatun accepted titles Kaghan and Khatun…
kök teηri jarlyqaduq üčün asra jaγyz jer igit(t)ük üčün elimim törümin etinti…
As the blue sky above condescended and the brown earth below nurtured me, my people and my laws were created…
teηride bolmyš el etmiš bilge qanym ičreki boduny alytmyš…
My heavenly/sky born El Etmish Bilge Qaghan went to subjugate all the tribes….
Later Uighur Buddhist sutra from Qocho:
Yır Täŋri törümishtä bärü bay ymä bar, yog chiğay ymä bar
Since the creation of earth and sky, the rich and the poor exist
Notice how Tengri (sky) and yır/yär (earth) are often used in context, simultaneously both in the steppe runes and urban texts, so according to your argumentation, the brown earth below is also a deity?
In regards to Kultigin translation “‘All human sons are born to die in time, as determined by Tengri’.” and “As Tengri (Sky) gave them strength, the army of Khagan my father was like a wolf, and his enemies like sheep”. They again prove my points I made earlier. Tengri in this context is used as ‘fate determined by sky’, as an ‘object’ from which power, strength is obtained and as an inevitability of events that are to come. Also we need to look at the translation from an academic publication as words might be placed in certain order to indicate something which is absent in the original.
Of course Tengri/sky/heaven is one, when you go outside do you see some kind of a crack or splitting of the sky? You are trying to find meaning where there is none. Mongols after conversion to Buddhism had 1000 Tengries flying in the sky, does it mean there were 1000 Tengries originally?
Descriptions of the Arab traveler about ‘bir tengri’ of the Oghuz Turks are to be evaluated cautiously. Arab/Persian sources about Turkic peoples are of little real academic value. For example Muslim sources dubbed Qocho Uighurs, Karakhanids, and many other differing Turkic tribes from Mongolia as far as Caspian Sea having Toquz Oghuz origin. Similar to terms Saracens and Franks during the Crusades. The absurdity went even further when medieval Muslim sources started calling everyone remotely resembling a man on horseback as ‘Türk’ including Mongols and many other unrelated peoples.