Zarlik and Munglik (German: Zảrlik und Munglik; Uzbek: Zorlik va Munglik) is an Uzbek folktale collected by Uzbek folklorist Mansur Afzalov and translated into German by Isidor Levin and Ilse Laude-Cirtautas. It is related to the theme of the calumniated wife and is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".Levin, Isidor; Laude-Cirtautas, Ilse. Märchen der Usbeken: Samarkand, Buchara, Taschkent. Eugen Didierichs Verlag, 1986. p. 268. .
These tales refer to stories where a girl promises a king she will bear a child or children with wonderful attributes, but her jealous relatives or the king's wives plot against the babies and their mother. Variants of the tale type are registered in Central Asia, in the Turkic languages and among the Turkic peoples that inhabit the region.
Publication The Uzbek tale was also translated to Russian as "Зорлик и Мунглик" ("Zorlik and Munglik")."Жемчужное ожерелье: Узбекские народные сказки" [String of Pearls: Uzbek Folk Tales]. Tashkent: Издательство литературы и искусства имени Гафура Гуляма, 1987. pp. 137-140 (text), 334 (source).
Summary A padishah has four wives, but has not fathered any child yet. One day, the youngest wife, named Gulbahra ("Rose-Beautiful") announces she is pregnant. The padishah rejoices in this fact. Gulbahra gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl. The other co-wives, however, see this as a threat to their position and bribe a sorceress named Mastan Kampir to get the children and replace them for puppies.
The sorceress takes the children and abandons them in the woods, hoping that the wild animals will devour the twins. Against her expectations, the children are nursed by a wild deer as their foster mother. Years later, a hunter kills the deer and the twins are all alone in the world. They are found by an old man, who named the boy Zarlik ("The sorrowful one") and the girl Munglik ("The sad one").
The boy becomes a mighty and fine hunter and one day encounters his father, the padishah. The padishah admires the boy and wishes he could have such a son. He goes back to his palace and the co-wives learn of the twins survival. To get rid of the children for good, they order Mastan Kampir to cook up some trick. So Mastan Kampir visits the twins' house and tells Munglik about a Weltenspiegel ("A World-Mirror"), so she can see the whole world.
Munglik tells Zarlik about the World-Mirror and goes on a quest. With the help of the Semurgh bird, he brings home the mirror. One day, Munglik peers into the mirror, and discovers their father is the padishah, and their mother is buried in a hole in the ground, joined with two hounds. The twins invite the padishah to peer into the mirror, and he discovers the twins are his children. He punishes the three co-wives and the sorceress, and restores Gulbahra as his queen.Levin, Isidor; Laude-Cirtautas, Ilse. Märchen der Usbeken: Samarkand, Buchara, Taschkent. Eugen Didierichs Verlag, 1986. pp. 182-186 (Tale nr. 36). .
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 242–243.Levin, Isidor; Laude-Cirtautas, Ilse. Märchen der Usbeken: Samarkand, Buchara, Taschkent. Eugen Didierichs Verlag, 1986. p. 277. . According to folklorist Erika Taube, the tale type is "widespread" in Turkic-Mongolian traditions,Сказки и предания алтайских тувинцев. Собраны Эрикой Таубе. Авторизованный перевод с немецкого Б.Е. Чистовой («Сказки и мифы народов Востока»). Мoskva: Издательская фирма «Восточная литература» РАН, 1994. p. 326. . a position also held by scholars Isidore Levin and Ilse Laude-Cirtautas, who assert its spread in Turkic traditions.Levin, Isidor; Laude-Cirtautas, Ilse. Märchen der Usbeken: Samarkand, Buchara, Taschkent. Eugen Didierichs Verlag, 1986. p. 268. .
The Central Asian epic The story also exists as an homonymous epic poem known among the Turkic peoples: according to Isidore Levin, Ilse Laude-Cirtautas and Kyrgyz scholarship, versions exist among the Karakalpak (), the Kyrgyz and the Kazakh.Levin, Isidor; Laude-Cirtautas, Ilse. Märchen der Usbeken: Samarkand, Buchara, Taschkent. Eugen Didierichs Verlag, 1986. p. 268. . In that regard, Turkish scholarship noted that the Kyrgyz epic Muňluk ve Zarlık shares motifs and plot structure with tales from Turkey, so much so it has been suggested they originate from a common cultural background of the Turkic peoples.Gümüş, Şule (2022). "“Muňluk ve Zarlık” destanıyla “Çember Has Güzel” ve “Üç Bacı” masallarındaki benzerlikler". In: Uluslararası Türkçe Edebiyat Kültür Eğitim Dergisi, 11 (2): 645, 652-654. http://dx.doi.org/10.7884/teke.5454 Similarly, Kyrgyz scholarship suggests its diffusion among the neighbouring Turkic peoples as an oral tale, and indicates an origin for the story among the Siberian Turco-Mongolian peoples.
Motifs
According to Erika Taube, these tales show variation in the number of the khan's wives (none, at first, or 1, 2, 3, 12 and even 108); the number of children (a son, two sons, a son and daughter pair, or three sons), and their attributes (golden chest, silver backside, or legs of gold or silver).Сказки и предания алтайских тувинцев. Собраны Эрикой Таубе. Авторизованный перевод с немецкого Б.Е. Чистовой («Сказки и мифы народов Востока»). М.: Издательская фирма «Восточная литература» РАН, 1994. p. 326. . In addition, a feature of tales of the Turkic-speaking world is the occurrence of polygamy, practiced by men who marry many wives and who cannot have children. The number of wives in the fairy tales vary, numbering 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 30, 40, 41 or 60.
Variants Uzbekistan Hasan and Zuhra Similarities have been noted between tale type 707 and the Uzbek tale "Хасан и Зухра" ("Hasan and Zuhra").Oranskij, I. M. "A Folk-Tale in the Indo-Aryan Parya Dialect (A Central Asian Variant of the Tale of Czar Saltan)". In: East and West 20, no. 1/2 (1970): 175. Accessed August 27, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29755508. In a version of the tale, published by Uzbek author , despite being married to 40 wives, the shah still hasn't fathered a son. In his wanderings, he finds three sisters, daughters of a shepherd, talking among themselves: Nasiba, Gulbahor and Sulfiya. The youngest, Sulfiya, promises to give birth to twins, a boy named Hasan and a girl named Zuhra, both beautiful and smart. The midwife replaces them with two goats, puts the twins in a bag and abandons it on the road. Thankfully, they are saved by a coming caravan. Twelve years pass, and Hasan, now a youth, meets his father, the shah, during a hunt. The shah convenes with a wise old woman, who discusses with the monarch the truth of what happened to his twin children.Нурмухамедов, Марат Коптлеуич. Сказки А. С. Пушкина и фольклор народов Средней Азии (сюжетные аналогии, перекличка образов). Ташкент [Tashkent]. 1983.Yur'evna, Khemlet Tat'yana. "ФОРМУЛА НЕБЕСНОЙ СВЕТОНОСНОЙ КРАСОТЫ ДЕТЕЙ СКАЗОЧНОГО СЮЖЕТА 707 ЧУДЕСНЫЕ ДЕТИ КАК НАИБОЛЕЕ УСТОЙЧИВЫЙ, ТИПИЧНЫЙ ЭЛЕМЕНТ ПОЭТИКИ" [HEAVENLY LIGHTFUL BEAUTY FORMULA OF CHILDREN FROM FABULOUS PLOT 707 WONDERFUL CHILDREN AS THE MOST STABLE, TYPICAL ELEMENT OF POETICS]. In: Philology: Theory & Practice. Tambov: Gramota, 2013. nº 10. p. 195. ."Узбекские народные сказки" [Uzbek Folk-Tales]. Составители: М. Афзалов, Х. Расулов. Tashkent: Госиздат УзССР, 1951. pp. 125–134. In a review of Sheverdin's book, scholar classified the tale as type ATU 707."VII. Besprechungen [Uzbekskie narodnie skazki (Usbekische Volksmärchen), Red. M. J. Schewerdin]". In: Fabula 7, no. Jahresband (1965): 247, 249 (classification for tale nr. 44). (in German)
A Shining Pottery Bowl Uzbek author Mikhail I. Sheverdin published another Uzbek tale titled in ("A Shining Pottery Bowl"). In this tale, a tsar has 40 wives, but no son yet. His viziers suggest he take another wife. He marries another maiden. One day, she announces she is expecting a son. The other 40 wives feel threatened by the newcomer and bribe the midwife to get rid of the child as soon as they are born. The 41st wife gives birth to a pair of twins, a boy and a girl. The midwife takes the royal children, replaces them for puppies and abandons both in the wilderness to die. The youngest queen is banished to the steppe with the puppies, while her children are raised by a she-bear in a cave. Years later, the tsar's co-wives learn of their survival and order the midwife to get rid of them. The midwife visits them and sets them on a quest for a shining pottery bowl and a magic mirror. To get the second item, the boy saves a nest of Simurgh birdlings and takes a journey to another kingdom on its back.Afzalov, Mansur. "Узбекские народные сказки" [Uzbek Folk Tales]. Tom 1. Tashkent: Издательство литературы и искусства им. Гафура Гуляма, 1972. pp. 107-109 (Tale nr. 54). In a review of Sheverdin's book, scholar classified the tale as type ATU 707."VII. Besprechungen [Uzbekskie narodnie skazki (Usbekische Volksmärchen), Red. M. J. Schewerdin]". In: Fabula 7, no. Jahresband (1965): 247, 249 (classification for tale nr. 57). (in German) Professor Selami Fedakar considered it a Russian-language variant of the Uzbek tale he collected, "Parıldama Sırlı Tabak".
Glittering Enamelled Plate