Gender Relations Regulated by Customary Law as Reflected Through Legends and Historical Records in the Turkic Societies

History of Turkish women have generally been examined as before and after Islam. For these periods genaralizations are made as there was or was not any gender equality. Since there are very restricted historical sources for the pre-Islamic period, studies related to this period keep repeating each other. In this study, the legends of different Turkic societies are examined as historical sources in comparison under the light of some sociological and anthropological theories. Thus, I will try to show that parellel to different social, political and cultural formations in different times and different parts of Inner Asia before Islam, there were different gender relations among the Turkic societies.