Abstract
A NEW MANUSCRIPT OF THE EPIC OF CUT HEAD IN THE TRADITION OF HZ. ALI CENK-NAMES
Hz. Ali–centered cenknames, which occupy a significant place in the oral and written narrative tradition of Turkish-Islamic literature, have played a decisive role in shaping both the religious imagination and the epic–heroic worldview of Islamic societies. Among these narratives, The Epic of the Cut Head holds a distinctive position due to its extraordinary motifs, dramatic structure, and heroic theme that resonated deeply within the collective imagination, enabling the text to circulate across a wide geographical area for centuries. Transmitted from hand to hand, such texts were continuously re-created within the oral tradition and, when committed to writing, acquired multiple variants in accordance with the linguistic, formal, and aesthetic preferences of the scribes involved in the process of transcription.
This study aims to introduce to scholarship a previously unexamined manuscript of The Epic of the Cut Head preserved in the manuscript miscellany registered as 06 Mil Yz FB Cönk 164 in the National Library of Ankara. The manuscript under examination differs from other known versions of the epic in terms of its length, metrical structure, linguistic features, and scribal interventions, thereby allowing for a closer observation of the processes of textual variation. By analyzing this manuscript with particular attention to its textual presentation, prosodic characteristics, and linguistic features, the study seeks to provide new insights into the historical continuity and cultural dynamics of the Hz. Ali–centered cenkname tradition.
Keywords
Cenknâme, Hz. Ali, Kirdeci Ali, The Epic of Cut Head, Conk.