Turkish folklore

Information about Turkish folklore

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Nasreddin Hoca


The tradition of folklore—folktales, jokes, legends, and the like—in the Turkish language is very rich.

Turkish folklore

Nasreddin Hoca

Perhaps the most popular figure in the tradition is Nasreddin (known as Nasreddin Hoca, or "teacher Nasreddin", in Turkish), who is the central character of thousands of jokes. He generally appears as a person who, though seeming somewhat stupid to those who must deal with him, actually proves to have a special wisdom all his own:
One day, Nasreddin's neighbor asked him, "Teacher, do you have any forty-year-old vinegar?"—"Yes, I do," answered Nasreddin.—"Can I have some?" asked the neighbor. "I need some to make an ointment with."—"No, you can't have any," answered Nasreddin. "If I gave my forty-year-old vinegar to whoever wanted some, I wouldn't have had it for forty years, would I?"
Similar to the Nasreddin jokes, and arising from a similar religious milieu, are the Bektashi jokes, in which the members of the Bektashi religious order—represented through a character simply named Bektaşi—are depicted as having an unusual and unorthodox wisdom, one that often challenges the values of Islam and of society.
Turkish Literature
Epic Tradition
Orhon
Dede Korkut - Kroğlu
Folk Tradition
Folk literature
Folklore
Ottoman Era
Poetry | Prose
Republican Era
Poetry | Prose

Karagöz ve Hacivat

Another popular element of Turkish folklore is the shadow theater centered around the two characters of Karagöz and Hacivat, who both represent stock characters: Karagöz—who hails from a small village—is something of a country bumpkin, while Hacivat is a more sophisticated city-dweller. Popular legend has it that the two characters are actually based on two real persons who worked for Osman I—the founder of the Ottoman dynasty—in the construction of his palace at Bursa in the early 14th century CE. The two workers supposedly spent much of their time entertaining the other workers, and were so funny and popular that they interfered with work on the palace, and were subsequently put to death.

Folklore from the Black Sea Region

Vine-breaking

In Çarşıbaşi town, near Trabzon, there is a way of testing whether a marriage is propitious: when the new bride enters the house, she is asked to break a vine into three pieces, which are then planted in the ground. If they sprout, this means the marriage will be successful.

Cutting the shoelace

On the Pontic coast of Anatolia in the Eastern Black Sea region (Giresun,Trabzon, Rize, Artvin), it is believed that there is an invisible lace between the feet of those children who have trouble walking when they're young. A lace is tied (mostly of cotton) between the feet of child and the lace is cut by the elder child of family or the first to leave the mosque after Friday prayer. It is believed that once the invisible lace has been cut, the child will walk.

Passing beneath a Blackberry Tree

In Turkish folklore (Trabzon region, Akçaabat town) Childless women, cows that don't get pregnant, and children wetting their beds are supposedly cured by passing under a blackberry bush known as "Avat" (West Trabzon). “Avat is believed to be a charm herb of paradise.?

Shown to the Moon

In Trabzon and Rize region folklore(Pontic coast of Anatolia). Desperate patients with incurable diseases are said to have been shown to the moon on a wooden shovel “If that continues I will put you on a shovel and show you to the moon”(İkizdere town. In Çarşıbaşı district of Trabzon province, weak and scrawny babies have been shown to the moon on a shovel and said: “moon! moon! Take him!, or cure him”. In this tradition, which is a sequel to the paganist beliefs before the monotheist religions, moon cures the patient or takes his/her life. Moon worship is very common among the Caucasian Abkhaz, Svans and Mingrelians ABS 18.

Tying someone

In Black Sea coast of Turkey's folklore (Trabzon, Rize, Giresun, Ordu, Artvin, Samsun)

1. v. To ensure bridegroom been bewitched and impotent for not able to have sexual intercourse with bride. There are several reasons of being tied: A person who wants to impede this marriage, blows into a knot, knots it and puts it on the way of bride or uses other sorceries. However, it is also deemed a reason for being tied if the bride nails, knots or locks a door with a key before the marriage. “While going to the house of bridegroom, way is always changed and the unlooked-for ways are followed to be saved from tie sorceries that could have been buried in the way? 2. n. To tie the animals such as wolfs and bears that harms the flock and named monster, and swine that damages the crop. Generally, an amulet is prepared by a hodja and buried to the places where flock grazes or to the corner of sown field. 3. n. To increase the amount and quality of meadow before the haymaking time, water is brought to the meadows in the plateaus in thin directions from rivers by the arcs. This process is called as to connect water.

Tree Worship

In Trabzon folklore, the swinging of tree branches and leaves symbolised worship. It is believed that oak trees do not worship God because their leaves do not swing as much as those of other trees.

Şakir Şevket says that Akçaabat society believed in an idol and worshipped a tree called platana, and that is how the city was given this name. Although the platana (Platanus Orientalis in Latin) was a plane tree he had confused this tree with the poplar.

The words of Lermioglu “today peasants love trees as their children.There were several events which people kill someone for a tree” and a story from 19th century show us that this love comes from very old days. A hunter from Mersin village cut a tree called kragen which was idol of Akcaabat society (Since 1940). Then the peasants called the pollice and said that the hunter cut the Evliya Turkish and Arabic Evliya “Saint”).This event can only be explained with the “paganist” beliefs comes from “Caucasia”. At first the police undersood that the hunter killed a man called Evliya (Saint) but later they saw that the “saint” was a tree so they let the hunter go.It was an example of Colchis culture that can be seen today which was mixed with Islam in Trabzon under the name of saint and common before one God religions that people used to believe in nature.

It is possible to see same things in Hemsheen region of Rize “the branches are praying three days before and during bairam,so we do not cut live branche during bairam, the branches are praying”.

Important Figures in Black Sea Folklore

Beings and Creatures in Turkish folklore

See also

References

Turkish (Türkçe, ] (help info )
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The Bektashism (Turkish: Bektaşilik) is an Islamic Sufi order (tariqat). It was founded in the 13th century by the Islamic saint Hacı Bektaş Veli.
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Turkish literature (Turkish: Türk edebiyatı or Türk yazını) is the collection of written and oral texts composed in the Turkish language, either in its Ottoman form or in less exclusively literary forms, such as that spoken in the Republic of Turkey
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Orkhon script
Child systems Old Hungarian script

Unicode range Not in Unicode
ISO 15924 Orkh

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
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The Book of Dede Korkut, also spelled as Dada Gorgud, Dede Qorqut, or Ata Korkut (Turkish: Dede Korkut Kitabı, Azerbaijani: Kitabi Dədə Qorqud, Russian:
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Turkish folk literature is an oral tradition deeply rooted, in its form, in Central Asian nomadic traditions. However, in its themes, Turkish folk literature reflects the problems peculiar to a settling (or settled) people who have abandoned the nomadic lifestyle.
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Ottoman Empire or Ottoman Caliphate (1299 to 1922) (Old Ottoman Turkish: دولت عالیه عثمانیه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish:
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poetry of the Ottoman Empire, or Ottoman Divan poetry, is fairly little known outside of modern Turkey, which forms the heartland of what was once the Ottoman Empire.
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The prose of the Ottoman Empire can, roughly, be divided along the lines of two broad periods: early Ottoman prose, written prior to the 19th century CE and exclusively nonfictional in nature; and later Ottoman prose, which extended from the mid-19th century Tanzimat period of
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Motto
Yurtta Sulh, Cihanda Sulh
Peace at Home, Peace in the World
Anthem
İstiklâl Marşı
The Anthem of Independence
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Poetry of the Republic of Turkey covers the "Turkish Poetry" beginning with 1911 with the national literature movement.

National Literature (1911-1923)

  • Mehmet Emin Yurdakul (1869-1944)
  • Ziya Gökalp (1876-1924)

Garip Movement


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Prose of the Republic of Turkey covers the "Turkish Prose" beginning with 1911 with the national literature movement.

National Literature (1911-1923)

  • Ömer Seyfettin, short story author (1884-1920)
  • Halide Edip Adıvar, novelist (1884-1964)

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Shadow Play may refer to:
  • Shadow play, a technique of using shadows to tell stories
  • Shadow Play (PBS documentary), a PBS documentary about the rise and fall of the Suharto regime in Indonesia
  • Shadow Play (The Twilight Zone), an episode of the television series

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A stock character is a one that relies heavily on cultural types or stereotypes for their personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. In their most general form, stock characters are related to literary archetypes, but they are often more narrowly
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 •

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The Ottoman Dynasty (or the Imperial House of Osman) ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1281 to 1923, beginning with Osman I (not counting his father, Ertuğrul), though the dynasty was not proclaimed until 1383 when Murad I declared himself sultan.
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Bursa (historically also known as Brusa, Greek: Προύσσα, Prusa) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the seat of Bursa Province.
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Trabzon, formerly known as Trebizond (Greek: Τραπεζοῦς Trapezûs or Τραπεζούντα Trapezúnta
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vine is any plant of genus Vitis (the grape plants) or, by extension, any similar climbing or trailing plant. The word, derived from Latin vīnea, referred to the grape-bearing variety.
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The adjective Pontic, from Greek pontos "sea" can refer to:
  • the Black Sea
  • the Pontic colonies on its northern shores
  • the Kingdom of Pontus on its southern shores
  • the Pontic steppe north of the Black Sea

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Giresun is the provincial capital of Giresun Province in the Black Sea Region of northeastern Turkey, about 110 miles (175 km) west of the city of Trabzon.

Etymology

Giresun was known to the ancient Greeks as Choerades or Pharnacia
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Trabzon, formerly known as Trebizond (Greek: Τραπεζοῦς Trapezûs or Τραπεζούντα Trapezúnta
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Rize is the capital of Rize Province, in north-east Turkey, on the Black Sea coast.

Geography

The city is built around a small bay on the the Black Sea coast, on a narrow strip of flat land between the sea and the mountains behind.
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Artvin is a city in north-eastern Turkey on the Çoruh River near the Georgian border.

This article is about the city of Artvin. See Artvin Province for more information about the surrounding area.
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mosque is a place of worship for followers of the Islamic faith. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, masjid Arabic: مسجد — pronounced: /ˈmæsʤɪd/ (pl.
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Trabzon, formerly known as Trebizond (Greek: Τραπεζοῦς Trapezûs or Τραπεζούντα Trapezúnta
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blackberries (singular, blackberry; genus Rubus, subgenus Eubatus; also called bramble or occasionally "bramble raspberry") are a widespread and well known group of several hundred closely related apomictic microspecies, native throughout the
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Trabzon, formerly known as Trebizond (Greek: Τραπεζοῦς Trapezûs or Τραπεζούντα Trapezúnta
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