The First Rewriting of the Book of Dede Korkut in Story Format: "Mustafa Rahmi, Korkud Atanin Kitabi Evvel Zamanda..."

Abstract

The Book of Dede Korkut contains very important cultural elements in terms of Turkish culture and history. It was announced to the scientific world by Heinrich Friedrich Von Diez. A century later, in 1916, it was published by Kilisli Muallim Rifat in Turkey. Rifat's work did not fall from the hands until the Latin-letter publications of Orhan Saik Gokyay and Muharrem Ergin and this study has been the only reference source of Dede Korkut studies for a long time in the literature. On the one hand, researchers such as Fuad Koprulu, Abdulkadir Inan, Muallim Cevdet, Pertev Naili Boratav and Huseyin Namik have been working on the publication of Kilisli, while Ziya Gokalp has made efforts to bring the "Dede Korkut narratives" to the wider public. In 1923, Ziya Gokalp edited "Duha Koca's son Deli Dumrul" and "the story that Basat kills Depegoz" in the Book of Dede Korkut and published in his poetry book Altun Isik with the titles "Deli Dumrul" and "Arslan Basat". This study is the first rewriting examples of Dede Korkut narratives in poetry format. Mustafa Rahmi [Balaban] published Korkud Atamn Kitabi Evvel Zamanda with Arabic letters in 1927. The narratives titled "Tepegoz and Arslan Basat", "Dirse Han and Oglu Bogac" and "Salur Beg" in this work are the first examples of rewriting of the stories taken from the Book of Dede Korkut in the form of prose by considering the children's audience. The concept of "intertextuality", which is based on the basic assumption that any text cannot be independent of its predecessors, is a method of examination produced to reveal the relations between the two texts. It is also used in researching the relationships between different branches of art (music, cinema, painting), especially oral and written literature. In this study, the works of Mustafa Rahmi ("Tepegoz and Arslan Basat", "Dirse Han and his son Bogac" and "Salur Beg") and the publications of Muallim Rifat ("the story that Basat kills Depegoz", "The story of Dirse Han and his son Bugac Han" and "the story that ransacks Salur Kazan's house") have been examined in the context of intertextual relations. The Book of Dede Korkut is one of the most important sources of the reconstruction process that started with Ziya Gokalp. Especially the fact that Ziya Gokalp re-wrote some of Dede Korkut narratives in poetry format played an important role to help these narratives reach people. In the same period, Mustafa Rahmi handled this issue in prose format. Mustafa Rahmi's Dede Korkut narratives did not find as much fame as Ziya Gokalp's publication due to publication date. The work, which was published in Arabic letters in 1927, was left to be forgotten before becoming widespread with the transition to Turkish alphabet of Latin origin a year later. The work was transferred to Latin origin Turkish letters by Turan M. Turkmenoglu in 2014 and republished under the same name.