From Black Umay to Albasti and From Yellow Girl to Martu: Reflection of Evil Spirits in Uzbek Folklore

Abstract

Binary moral cosmologies—from Yin–Yang and Zoroastrian dualism to the God–Devil polarity—have long organized Eurasian thought. Uzbek oral literature participates in this horizon through persistent figures of benevolent and malevolent spirits that aid or obstruct heroic protagonists. To trace the historical development and literary functions of iyes (protective spirits) and yeys (harmful spirits) in Uzbek Turkic belief and narrative, and to identify their survivals in contemporary everyday practice. The study integrates close readings of canonical epics and folktales with comparative Central Asian and Islamicate folkloristics, supported by etymological analysis and targeted ethnographic notes. A diachronic typology is constructed to map motifs, domains, and moral valences. Uzbek narratives consistently encode a helper–harmer binary anchored in spatial domains (hearth, water, steppe, mountain) and ethical functions (protection, trial, sanction). These spirits traverse religious strata—pre-Islamic, Islamic, and modern—through syncretic resemanticization. Core attributes persist while roles are recalibrated to shifting social norms; vestiges remain visible in idioms, taboos, and household rituals. Iyes and yeys constitute a durable imaginative grammar through which communities negotiate risk, virtue, and social order. Their adaptability explains both longevity in texts and resilience in practice. The article standardizes terminology, proposes a typology linking domain and function, and demonstrates text-to-practice continuities, thereby furnishing a comparative framework for Turkic and broader Central Asian spiritologies.