Book of Dede Korkut, The

(Kitabi Dada Gorgud)

(14th century)

   The Book of Dede Korkut is generally regarded by the Turkish people as their national epic. The text is not an epic in the general sense of a unified heroic narrative. It does, however, in 12 separate and self-contained stories, illustrate the values, character, and identity of the Turkish nation. The written text originated in the oral traditions of the Oghuz tribes, which had migrated to the area around the Caspian Sea from somewhere in East Central Asia in the ninth and 10th centuries. The book bears the name of its narrator, Korkut; “Dede” is a title meaning “grandfather” or “white-bearded one,” that is, a wise and respected member of the community. He is a sage and storyteller who inserts a moral summation at the end of each story.

   The Book of Dede Korkut survives in two 16thcentury manuscripts. One is in the Royal Library of Dresden and the other in the Vatican. But the original tales seem to have been composed at a time when the Orghuz people had very recently been converted to Islam, and thus the tales reflect an earlier period, and although they allude to Islamic beliefs, they reflect a pre-Islamic era. For example, the text generally invokes Allah, but occasionally the ancient sky-god Tanri is referred to. The 12 tales are connected to members of the family of the Great Khan Bayinder. The tales are typically composed of prose passages alternating with poetic speeches. They include a variety of genres, from realistic tales of the Great Khan to philosophical meditations (in the “Dali Domrul”) to fantastic folktales like “Basat and Tapagoz,” which tells the story of the aristocratic Basat and his battle with the one-eyed monster Tapagoz—a tale that is likely derived from an ancient analogue of Odysseus’s battle with the Cyclops Polyphemous. There are also tragic stories of rebellion and internal conflict within the tribes, so that treachery becomes a common motif in the stories. Still, Dede Korkut ends each tale on a note of hope and benediction.

   Bibliography

   ■ The Book of Dede Korkut. Translated with an introduction and notes by Geoffrey Lewis. Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1974.

   ■ Nerimanoglu, Kamil Veli. The Poetics of “The Book of Dede Korkut.” Maltepe, Ankara: Atatürk Culture Center Publications, 1999.