Literature and folklore of the ancient Turks of Central Asia

The problem of the relation between the oral and the literary tradition is the most important in the history of the Turkish literatures. The oral tradition elements resembling the inherent stylistic devices for the epics of the Turkic people of the Central Asia and Siberia can be found in the ancient Turkish inscriptions. Though the question concerning the folk elements in the texts of those runic inscriptions is still unsettled, one can observe a definite succession of a number of literary forms in the latter Turkish literatures and folklore (particularly in the epic of the Oghuz Turks).