As in other cultures, Turkish Folk Tales, as a

step between epic and novels, are the fruit

of oral tradition and even today there are

still some folk tales which have not been

written down, yet. Historically, Turkish Folk

Tales appear following the heroic epic tra-

dition as one of the early fruit of settled life

after the nomadic life style. They take their

roots from legends and fairy tales as well as

carrying some characteristics of epics as a

genre. Although the genres that constitute

the oral Turkish literature differ in form and

theme, Turkish folk tales embody texts and

characteristics of such various genres.

However, there are still some basic charac-

teristics that differ the Folk Tales from other

oral literary genres.

Dede Korkut Mevlana

Nasrettin Hoca Karagöz & Hacivat

Keloğlan

Dede Korkut is a Central Asia legend, the principal

repository of ethnic identity, history, customs and the

value systems of its owners and composers which

were passing from generation to generation in an

oral form and written first at the sixteenth century.. It

commemorates struggles for freedom at a time

when the Oghuz were a herding people who lived in

tents.

A TALE FROM THE BOOK OF DEDE KORKUT:

The story of Boghach Khan, Son of Dirse Khan

Dirse Khan is upset when Bayindir Khan,

leader of the Oghuz Turks, relegates

him to a black tent. He is informed that

the order is that men with sons are en-

titled to a white tent, men with only da-

ughters to a red tent, and men with no

offspring to a black one. Dirse Khan

exchanges poetry with his wife about

their desire to alter their childless state. He offers sacrifice of stallions,

rams and he-camels.

When Dirse Khan's son is fifteen, he's playing knuckle bones and Bayindir

Khan's prize bull attacks him. His fellow gamers flee, but the son of Dirse

Khan stands his ground. The boy gave the bull a merciless punch on the fore-

head and the bull went sliding on his rump. Again he came and charged the

boy. Again the boy gave him a mighty punch on the forehead, but this time he

kept his fist pressed against the bull's forehead and shoved him to the end of

the arena.

They struggle for a while, until at last the boy decapitates the bull, obtaining

thus his name, Boghach, Bull-man. He's richly rewarded, but his father's forty

warriors are jealous and resentful. They tell tales to Dirse Khan, falsely sa-

ying Boghach plans to commit patricide. Dirse Khan strikes first. As the boy

lies there bleeding, the crows and ravens being kept at bay by Boghach Khan's

two dogs, his mother comes upon him. They exchange poetic concern about his

wound and assurance that he'll recover. He does and the villains seize his fat-

her. He rides with his men to the rescue. He led his forty men, he charged, he

faught and gave battle. Some he beheaded, some he took prisoner, and he

freed his father.

“Come, Come again !

Whatever you are...

Whether you are infidel,

idolater or fireworshipper.

Whether you have broken

your penitence a hundred

times

Ours is the portal of hope,

come as you are.”

Mevlana was born in the city of Balkh in Afghanistan and

he lived most of his life in Konya , seat of the Selçuk Empi-

re, located in present day Turkey. Mevlana Celalettin Rumi,

was a philosopher and his doctrine advocates unlimited

tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and

awareness through love. To him and to his disciples all reli-

gions are more or less truth. Looking with the same eye all

of the religions, his peaceful and tolerant teaching has ap-

pealed to men of all sects and creeds

A TALE WRİTTEN BY MEVLANA

The Grammarian And The Boatman

A grammarian once embar-ked in a boat. Turning to the boatman with a self-satisfied air he asked him: ‘Have you ever studied grammar?’

‘No,’ replied the boatman. “I am just a simple boatman” ‘Then half your life has gone to waste,’ the grammarian replied. The boatman thereupon felt very depres-sed, disturbed in his heart from burning sorrow, but kept silent from answering at that moment. Presently the wind tossed the boat into a whirlpool. The boatman shouted to the grammarian: ‘Do you know how to swim?’ ‘No’ the grammarian replied, ‘my well-spoken, handsome fellow’. ‘In that case, grammarian,’ the boat-man remarked, ‘the whole of your life has gone to waste, for the boat is going to drown in these whirlpools.’

Nasrettin Hoca is Turkey's

(and perhaps all of Islam's)

best-known trickster. His le-

gendary wit and droll tric-

kery were possibly based on

the exploits and words of a

historical imam. “He was

born in 1208 in Hortu village

near town Sivrihisar (near Af-

yon in Turkey) in the west

part of Central Anatolia. He

moved in 1237 to Akşehir

town to study under notably

scholars of the time as Seyid

Mahmud Hayrani and Seyid

Haci Ibrahim. He served as

Kadi, Muslim judge, from ti-

me to time till 1284 which is

the date of his death.

A HOCA’S STORY

Eat, My Coat , Eat

The Hoca was invited to a banquet. Not wanting to be pretentious, he wo-re his everyday clothes, only to discover that everyone ignored him, including the host. So he went back home and put on his fanciest coat, and then returned to the banquet.

Now he was greeted cordially by everyone and invited

to sit down and eat and drink.

When the soup was served to him he dunked the sleeve

of his coat into the bowl and said, "Eat, my coat, eat!"

The startled host asked the Hoca to explain his strange

behavior.

"When I arrived here wearing my other clothes," explai-

ned the Hoca, "no one offered me anything to eat or

drink. But when I returned wearing this fine coat, I was

immediately offered the best of everything, so I can

only assume that it was the coat and not myself who

was invited to your banquet."

Karagöz and Hacivat is a

Turkish shadow play ta-

king its name from its main

character Karagöz . Accor-

ding to a legend, they were

working as construction

workers in a mosque in

Bursa. Although their sati-

ric jokes entertained other

workers it also held up the

building of the mosque by

their constant joking toget-

her. As a result it made the

As a result it made the sultan very angry and anxious

about whether Karagöz and Hacivat could encourage

rebellion in others, so they were executed. The const-

ruction of the mosque was completed without them, but

their comrades did not forget them and kept their jokes

alive, telling them over and over. In time, the adventures

of Karagöz and Hacivat gained a new dimension and

the traditional Turkish shadow puppet theatre was born.

Their monumental tomb stands in Bursa today.

A REPRESENTATIVE KARAGÖZ SCENARIOS

The Pleasure Trip To Yalova

Çelebi, the dandy, wishes to take a trip with his sweethe-art to the Spa of Yalova. He therefore buys a large sack and a jar in which to put provisions for the journey. While he is making last minute preparations, Karagöz appears and teases her with stupid, nonsensical stories the young woman who has remained behind with the sack and the jar. For instance he tells her that her boy friend is dead and somebody has set fire to the sea and that Çelebi has been burnt, or that somebody though that he was a mo-uthful of food and has swallowed him, and so on. Taklits appear, all of whom wish to go on the same trip and are hidden one after the other by the obling girl in the sack and the jar. Among them is the girl’s other lower. When Çelebi comes, he puts all these people out of the jar and sack where they had been concealed, hopping to travel without paying their fare.

Keloğlan is a very well-

known Turkish folk sto-

ries hero. He is a poor

and an orphand boy

who lives with

his elderly mother. He is

a lazy boy who works

unwillingly with the for-

ce of his mother and ke-

eps the job grudgingly,

because of his stupidity

and forgetfulness to

work hand side is one of

the propagator.

Unexpectedly, the power

status remained in a human

or animal for helping them

with the support of the

extraordinary power of for-

tune turns. Keloğlan chop-

per's fate, ruthless, cunning

in the face of injustice to

those who had gained the

temperament and intelligent

behavior may also change.

A KELOGLAN STORY

Keloğlan And Magical Bowl

Once there was a bald boy, named Keloğlan. His old, poor mother was addressing him as “Bald son, cute son”. One day Keloğlan went fishing to catch some fish. “I can catch a few fish for me and my mother and shall be full up that evening”, he thought. On the edge of the river he threw his fishing-line to the water, soon he caught a very big fish in the afternoon. Its eyes were as light as a glass, and its scales were as brilliant as silver, it was a very beautiful fish. Keloğlan carved its scales, and went to cut its belly and clean it. It’s was then he saw a big bowl inside the fish. He felt very happy “I shall take both the bowl and the fish to my mother”, he said. He wanted to wash the fish by the bowl of water and pour the water in the bowl on the fish but at that time he saw that gold was flowing from the bowl instead of water. He tried a few times to be sure.He saw again that gold was flowing .

“I think it is a magical stone, I should tell my mother right away”, he said and he ran all the way home as fast as he could. Keloğlan soon became very very rich, even the king of the country was poorer than him. He built a wonderful palace and he had a lot of servants and he was eating the most delicious me-als. After sometime, Keloğlan started to be spoiled by richness, he wasted a lot of gold unnecessarily. He even did not listen to his mother’s warnings about it. “I have a magical copper bowl and I can do anything and everything I want” he said. People started to lose their interest in him because of his pride and ambitions. People have now commented that ‘Keloğlan was better in his old days, now we cannot know him, he is a spoiled and very ambitious person at present’. One day Keloğlan came to the edge of the river “Gold does not finish, I can bu-ild a palace here too” he thought and at that moment his magical copper bowl in his hand fell into the water. Keloğlan jumped into the river to catch it, but Ke-loğlan was not a good swimmer and he nearly drowned. He was able to rescue himself after sometime, but during this time, thieves have stolen all the gold. Keloğlan cried and went back to his home, he told his mother what hap-pened on the edge of the river and how he lost the magical copper bowl and the thieves stolen all his gold. “Don’t worry, my dear son, that magical copper bowl was not your right. You did not gain it by your work and effort. Besides, you were very spoiled and proud. Leave it. You will be rescued of looking down people like that” his mother said. Keloğlan was comforted by his mother and found what mother said was right .

Selin UGURLU

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