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The Book of Dede Korkut, also spelled as Dada Gorgud, Dede Qorqut, or Ata Korkut (Turkish: Dede Korkut Kitabı) is the most famous epic story of the Oghuz Turks (also known as Turkmens or Turcomans), which allows all of its direct descendant nations, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, as well as to a lesser degree Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, to claim heritage of.
The epic is believed to have originated from the ninth century,although
some scholars place it several centuries later, while scholars in
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan place it around eighth century. A precise
determination is impossible to come by due to the nomadic lifestyle of
the early Turkic people, where epics such as Dede Korkut were passing
from generation to generation in an oral form. This is especially true
of an epic book such as this, which is a product of a long series of
narrators, any of whom could have made alterations and additions, right
down to the two sixteenth-century scribers, who wrote the two
manuscripts that have been found so far.The majority of scholars which
specialized in ancient Turkic epics and folk tales, such as
Russian-Soviet academician V.V. Barthold and British scholar Geoffrey
Lewis, consider that the Dede Korkut text "exhibits a number of
features characteristic of Azeri, the Turkish dialect of Azerbaijan"
The epic tales of Dede Korkut is one of the best known Turkic dastans
from among a total of well over 1,000 recorded epics among the
Mongolian and Turkic language families by international scholars.
Origin and synopsis of the epic
Dede Korkut is a heroic dastan (legend), also known as Oghuz-nameh
among the Oghuz Turk people,which starts out in Central Asia, continues
in Anatolia and Iran, and centers most of its action in Caucasus and
specifically Azerbaijan.According to academician Barthold, "it is not
possible to surmise that this dastan could have been written anywhere
but in the Caucasus".For the Turkic people, especially of Oghuz stock,
it is the principal repository of ethnic identity, history, customs and
the value systems of the Turkic people throughout history. It
commemorates struggles for freedom at a time when the Oghuz Turks were
a herding people, although "it is clear that the stories were put into
their present form at a time when the Turks of Oghuz descent no longer
thought of themselves as Oghuz."Now it is known that the term 'Oghuz'
was gradually supplanted among the Turks themselves as Turkmen,
'Turcoman', from the mid tenth century on, a process which was
completed by the beginning of the thirteenth century. The Turcomans
were those Turks, mostly but not exclusively Oghuz, who had embraced
Islam and begun to lead a more sedentary life than their forefathers.In
the fourteenth century, a federation of Oghuz, or, as they were by this
time termed, Turcoman tribesmen, who called themselves Ak-koyunlu
established a dynasty that ruled eastern Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq and
western Iran.But even before that at least one of the stories (Chapter
8) of the Dede Korkut epic existed in writing, at the beginning of the
fourteenth century, from an unpublished Arabic history, Dawadari's
Durar al-Tijan, written in Egypt some time between 1309 and 1340.
Since the early eighteenth century, the Book of Dede Korkut has been
translated into French, English, and Russian.However, it was not until
it caught the attention of H.F. Von Diez, who published a partial
German translation of Dede Korkut in 1815, based on a manuscript found
in the Royal Library of Dresden, that Dede Korkut has become to be more
widely known in the West. The only other manuscript of Dede Korkut was
discovered in 1950 by Ettore Rossi in the Vatican Library. Until Dede
Korkut was transcribed on paper, the events depicted therein survived
in the oral tradition, at least from the ninth and tenth centuries. The
Bamsi Beyrek chapter of Dede Korkut preserves almost verbatim the
immensely popular Central Asian dastan Alpamysh, dating from an even
earlier time. The stories were written in prose, but peppered with
poetic passages. Recent research by Turkish and Turkmen scholars
revealed, that the Turkmen variant of the Book of Dede Korkut contains
sixteen stories, which have been transcribed and published in 1998.
The twelve stories that comprise the bulk of the work were written down
after the Turks converted to Islam, and the heroes are often portrayed
as good Muslims while the villains are referred to as infidels, but
there are also many references to the Turks' pre-Islamic magic and
shamanism, and it is clear that the stories originated in a pre-Islamic
past. The character Dede Korkut, i.e. "Grandfather Korkut", is a
widely-renowned soothsayer and bard, and serves to link the stories
together, and the thirteenth chapter of the book compiles sayings
attributed to him. "In the dastans, Dede Korkut appears as the aksakal
[literally 'white-beard,' the respected elder], the advisor or sage,
solving the difficulties faced by tribal members. ... Among the
population, respected aksakals are wise and know how to solve problems;
among ashiks [reciters of dastans] they are generally called dede
[grandfather]. In the past, this term designated respected tribal
elders, and now is used within families; in many localities of
Azerbaijan, it replaces ata [ancestor or father].The historian Rashid
al-Din (d. 1318) says that Dede Korkut was a real person and lived for
295 years; that he appeared in the time of the Oghuz ruler Inal Syr
Yavkuy Khan, by whom he was sent on an embassy to the Prophet; that he
became Muslim; that he gave advice to the Great Khan of the Oghuz,
attended the election of the Great Khan, and gave names to children.
The tales tell of warriors and battles and are likely grounded in the
conflicts between the Oghuz and the Pechenegs and Kipchaks. Many story
elements are familiar to those versed in the Western literary
tradition. For example, the story of a monster named "Goggle-eye"
(Tepegöz) bears enough resemblance to the encounter with the Cyclops in
Homer’s Odyssey that it is believed to have been influenced by the
Greek epic or to have one common ancient root. The book is also
describing in great details the various sports activities of the
ancient Turks: "Dede Korkut (A.D. 1000- 1300) clearly referred to
certain physical activities and games. In Dede Korkut's description,
the athletic skills of Turks, men and women, were described to be
"first-rate," especially in horse-riding, archery, cirit [javelin
throw], wrestling and polo which are considered Turkish national
sports."
UNESCO celebrations
In 1998, the Republic of Azerbaijan and UNESCO nominated, and in 2000
celebrated, the "One thousand three hundredth anniversary of the epic
Azerbaijani legend Kitab-i Dede Qorqud".In 2000, the General Director
of UNESCO remarked: "Epics - and I have in mind in particular that of
the Turkish-speaking peoples attributed to Dede Korkut, perpetuated by
oral tradition up to the fifteenth century before being written
down...are vectors of the historical, geographical, political, social,
linguistic and literary references of the peoples whose history they
relate. Although many of these epics have already been noted down, the
oral and gestural skills of the storytellers and griots who keep them
alive should also be immortalized without delay. The matter is
urgent."Since 1956, UNESCO participates in the commemorations of
historic events and in the anniversaries of eminent personalities
celebrated by Member States and Associate Members, in order to give
them worldwide significance.Azerbaijan announced the Kitab-i Dede
Qorqud as its first "Celebration of anniversaries" in 1998.The National
Bank of Azerbaijan issued special gold and silver coins in 1999 to
commemorate the 1,300th anniversary of the epic.
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