Abstract
READING THE EPIC OF KÖROĞLU THROUGH THE REALM OF TRUTH
The Epic of Köroğlu is one of the most deeply rooted and multi-layered epic narratives of the Turkic world. In fact, it is observed that the epic is constructed upon a truth domain tied to the story of Prophet Joseph (peace be upon him), which is characterized in the Holy Quran as "ahsenu'l-qasas" (the most beautiful of stories). This point is brought to the attention of the scholarly world for the first time in this study. Therefore, the processes of formation, evolution, artistic creation (ibda), and recitation (inshad) that the Epic of Köroğlu underwent in the oral culture environment for centuries do not consist of random plots or ordinary bandit legends. Within the literary circle bound by "Töreli" (tradition/moral code), with the transition from the ozan-baksı tradition to the minstrel-storyteller (kıssahan) tradition, it is seen that the narrators transformed Islamic-Sufi principles into the main load-bearing pillars of the text. In this context, although the epic changes and diversifies in live performance environments according to the characteristics of the socio-cultural structure (for example, the Celali rebellions), it has meticulously preserved its fundamental literary and Sufi codes rooted in Töreli. In the study, based on the manuscript compiled by Alexander Chodzko, this foundational character of the epic tied to Töreli is addressed in a comparative manner with the story of Prophet Joseph. It is demonstrated that the structure woven with symbols, starting most notably with Köroğlu's name, corresponds one-to-one with the aforementioned story. Naturally, this structure has gained a function directly tied to the realm of truth. Therefore, the study directly brings to the agenda the "religious-Sufi essence" of the Epic of Köroğlu—which has been continuously neglected until today—and reveals this bond of truth, previously overlooked in literary science, through an original analysis. In short, the epic should be evaluated not merely as a bandit legend or an adventure of heroism, but as a deeply rooted "narrative of truth" that continuously keeps the idea of tawhid (divine oneness), the journey of the perfect human (insan-ı kamil), divine love, and the quest for justice alive in the collective memory on the basis of the story of Prophet Joseph.
Keywords
The Epic of Köroğlu, The Realm of Truth, The Story of Prophet Joseph, Sufism, Oral Culture.