Türk Kültürü ve Hacı Bektaş Veli Araştırma Dergisi

29-42

Authors: Zeki GÜREL

The main aim of this article is to investigate the life and teachings of the wali known as Koyun Baba in Turkish-Islamic culture. The other aim of this study is to investigate the existence and effects of Koyun Baba in the Balkan region. The researcher personally visited most of the tombs that are believed to belong to Koyun Baba in Turkey during the study. In particular, tomb of Koyun Baba in Çorum Osmancik province was emphasized since all of the handwritten manuscripts of Koyun Baba usually point there. The researcher also visited tomb of Koyun Baba near the village of Sipkoviça, Kalkandelen in Macedonia twice in different years while investigating Koyun Baba’s traces in the Balkans. As a result of literature review, the identity, teachings and traces of Koyun Baba in the Balkans were tried to be uncovered.Ottoman Explorer Evliya Çelebi talks about Koyun Baba in his travelbook Seyahatname: “Koyun Baba, personally is the caliph of Haci Bektash Veli.” As a result of the legends about him, it is understood that Koyun Baba was born in Khorasan. His real name is Seyyid Ali and he is accepted as 12th son of the imam-sect leader Rıza. Koyun Baba left Khorasan and after visiting Karbala, he went to pilgrimage to Mecca after which he came to Anatolia and visited the city of Bursa. There he became a shepherd of a wealthy person called Abdullah and he made a deal with this wealthy man: when a sheep gave a birth to twins Koyun Baba had the right to obtain one of them. After a while, he came to Osmancık with forty sheep he had received in Bursa. Koyun Baba’s fame has reached the present day as a result of his 30 miraculous deeds and anecdotes. In so-called ‘velâyetname’ books which are about the lives of walis like Otman Baba and Piri Baba Koyun Baba was mentioned. In addition, the anecdotes about the Koyun Baba were written in both verse and prose which have reached the present day as manuscripts. One can find lots of Koyun Baba Tombs all over Turkey. However, there are two Koyun Baba tombs in the Balkans, one in Romania and the other inMacedonia. After mentioning Koyun Baba’s life, doctrine and research carried out on him, we will talk about sending his evlat (son) Erişti Ali for spiritual and ethic guide to the Balkans from Çorum, Osmancık and his influence in the Balkans. We will first talk about the Koyun Baba tomb in Romania and then the one in Tetovo, Macedonia, making comparisons with the narratives in Turkey.

65-88

Authors: İlkay ŞAHİN

Sıraç, known as an Aşiret, is a Kızılbaş/Alevi community of Beydili Turkoman living in villages of Tokat, Yozgat, Sivas and Amasya in central Anatolia. Most of the Siraçi villages in Tokat-Zile and Yozgat-Çekerek belong to the ocak of Anşa bacı that began to institutionalize a hundred and fifty years ago. Sıraç Turkmens set up a new ocak during the leadership of Anşa bacı at the end of the nineteenth century. The 19th century, when the ocak was founded, coincided with a transition period in which the Ottoman Empire implemented Westernization projects, underwent a process of rapid, radical and intertwined structural and cultural change and faced with crises related to it. This study aims to explore socio-political movements initiated by Sıraçis at the beginning of the nineteenth century against both Kızılbaş ocaks and central authority and resulting in schism and establishment of a new ocak as a process according to V. Turner’s approach of social drama. How the movement initiated by Sıraçis was structured as a separate and new ocak is tried to be pointed out. The institutionalization of the ocak of Anşa Bacılı was analysed according to the data obtained from the Ottoman archival documents and the ethnographic fieldwork carried out in villages in the Zile/Tokat and Çekerek/ Yozgat between 2010 and 2012. As a result, it was concluded that Sıraç sociopolitical movement was institutionalized as a new and separate ocak through the stage of breach, crisis and redress.

107-146

Authors: Ferudun Hakan ÖZKAN

The apothegms of Hz. Ali, who is loved, respected and taken as a role model by Turkish nation because of his being a member of Ahl-i Bayt (the family of the Prophet), have been translated into Turkish as both poetry and prose by a total of fifty different writers some of whom are unknown. Among them, Terceme-i Nesrü’l-Le’âlî Min Kelâmi Alî Ebî Tâlib, written by Mâtemî who is known to live in the 16th century, is the subject of this study. In the first part of the study, the selected collected works about the apothegms of Hz. Ali and their Turkish translations were concisely presented; then, by giving information about Mâtemî, it was pointed out that Mâtemî, the poet of the above-stated work, was a different person from the poet who firstly used the pseudonym Mâtemî and then changed it to Hâtemî. In this study, it was also revealed that the poet whose work was focused in this study lived in the sixteenth century and that his real name was Yâr Alî Tebrîzî who migrated to Anatolia and lived in Bursa after the collapse of the Akkoyunlu State. It was also found out that he presented a literary work to Selim the Resolute and had three literary works. Afterwards, the content, language and style of the above-mentioned work was analysed and then the copies of the work were introduced. Hz. Ali’s 252 apothegms were listed on the basis of elifba and each one was translated into Turkish with two couplets. These educative and guiding statements are important in terms of enlightenment of society and maturation of individuals. While translating the Mâtemî apothegms,it was aimed to contribute to the vocabulary and poetic quality of the Turkish language by using Turkish words as much as possible.

169-192

Authors: Yusuf BENLİ

This work endeavors to reveal the presence of music and literature in the ritual of the last voyage of ‘Living soul/can’ that is also known as ‘The Convention ruling the way people walk to God/Truth’ in Alevi-Bektashi teachings. It highlights the historical process of Alevi-Bektashi society concerning this issue. Data is gathered using the methods of literature reviews, observation, participation and interviews. It examines the traditional context of this process, points out the place and importance of music in it, and elaborates on the ‘cem (gathering) ritual of dardan indirme (releasing burden)’ that is arranged for the one who ‘walked to God’.In this context, and in the light of data in the historical process, various examples are presented from these Conventions and from death hymns [nefes] performed by Alevi-Bektashi minstrels [aşıks] and poets, and their perception of death is presented. It stresses once again how Alevi-Bektashi minstrels and poets became illuminating sources in their society. It draws attention to various studies conducted on the issue of Urbanization by its respective institutions. The findings are chronologically organized, the cross-cultural context of cultural environment, perception of death and the quest for immortality is dwelled upon, and their reflections on the social life are pointed out with domestic and international examples. In conclusion, this work includes the observations that this social structure affiliated with Anatolian Alevi-Bektashi teachings has been in the effort to protect, maintain, sustain its cultural identity, traditions, customs and conventions and transfer them to next generations in every social space it has inhabited , and that it carries on these efforts by instututionalization through the Urbanization process. It’s ascertained that their death rituals reveal the way of life and belief systems of Anatolian Alevi- Bektashi teachings.

207-212

Authors: İsmail GÜLEÇ

In this study, Rıza Yıldırım’s book titled Hacı Bektaş Veli’den Balım Sultan’a Bektaşiliğin Doğuşu (The Birth of Bektashism from Hacı Bektaş Veli to Balım Sultan) will be evaluated and the place of this study between Alevism and Bektashism studies will be tried to be determined.