Considered the pinnacle of the heroic epics of the Kyrgyz Turks, the Epic of Manas is considered one of the few epic stories not only of the Turkish epic tradition, but also of the world. Research on the epic, which is the literary expression of the legendary past of the Kyrgyz Turks, still continues. Researchers interested in the epic evaluated the information about the narrators who created and transmitted the epic, apart from the content and shape characteristics of the epic. On the other hand, it is observed that studies examining various problems of the Epic of Manas mostly focus on a few variants. In these studies, especially the variants of Sagımbay Orozbakov and Sayakbay Karalayev were based, scientific discussions and comments on the epic were made on these variants. Studies based on different variants of the Epic of Manas are hardly coincidental. However, there are many variants of the Epic of Manas that were written down by various narrators. These variants are preserved as manuscripts in the Manuscripts section of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences. In recent years, many variants that were not published in Kyrgyzstan during the Soviet Union period for various reasons have begun to be published; Thus, resources that will enable comparative studies have been reached. One of the variants that was not published during the Soviet Union period belongs to the folklore compiler and manasist Iberiyim Abdırahmanov. The variant belonging to Ïbrayïm Abdïrakhmanov, who is one of the leading names who contributed significantly to the writing of the products of Kyrgyz folklore, especially to the recording of various variants of the epic of Manas, was published in two volumes in 2018. Abdırahmanov, who was likened to Elias Lönnrot because he created a concise text by making use of the variants of other manasists, reproduced the epic in this way. The variant, which includes the Manas, Semetey and Seytek sections, is close to the manasci Sagımbay Orozbakov's variant when compared with other variants, but it also has differences in terms of the processing of some episodes and motifs. On the other hand, the variant in question was written in the shadow of the ideological debates carried out during the Soviet Union period. In this respect, it has the quality of a text that has been separated from the Pan-Islamist and Pan-Turkist elements, which are claimed to have ideas contrary to the Soviet ideology and which have been criticized. For this reason, the examination of the variant exhibiting remarkable features is very important in terms of understanding the effect of the period on the variant. This study aims to examine the variant of the Kyrgyz folklore researcher and manasist Ïbrayïm Abdïrakhmanov from various perspectives.

Kyrgyz folklore, epic, Epic of Manas, Ïbrayïm Abdïrakhmanov, Soviet Union.