5 replies to this topic

[saffron]

The Turkish oral literature includes legends, mythology, verses, stories, tales, 'meddah' stories, jokes and other forms of oral literature. These forms survive to varying degrees, depending on the geographical zone. The Eastern Anatolia, for instance, is a region where stories are still told. In the long and cold nights spent by stoves , the stories and other forms of oral literature seem to have found more chance to be heard and passed to the next generation.
The tradition of story telling is carried by special people called 'aşık' (sometimes halk aşığı). Though in modern Turkish 'aşık' means someone who fell in love, it is not always so. Aşık is a person who knows how to play 'saz', the Turkish string instrument as you probably know, which has the types like bağlama, divan, cura,..in different sizes.
Aşık tells the story, plays saz and sings:the lyrics are the verses which are part of the story, or written by aşık, himself, or earlier poets.
The stories are mostly about love or the adventures of heros. The most important heroic story is 'Köroğlu', which has many versions told in different areas of the Turcic world.
Some of these aşık's has an interesting feature: While they are sitting by a river or a spring, they fall asleep. In their dreams a 'pir' (an old man considered as holy) appears and offers something to drink. This special holy liquid is called 'bade'. The holy old man asks him what type of a bade he wants: for love or for a heroic life. If the candidate asks for love, then pir shows him a picture of a girl, and disappears. He wakes up and feels desperatly in love with the girl. He spends his life to find the girl, and his experiences become the subject of another folk story, which, sometimes has a happy end and sometimes a tragedical one..

[Cukurbagli]

Ah that explains it! There is a guy in our village who is an "aşık", I wrote a blog entry about him and I wondered about the name aşık because I know that it means someone who fell in love and I found that confusing, thanks for explaining it Saffron.

[sunny]

In the Middle Ages in Britain men called troubadours used to travel around the country with their lute (similar to a saz) to tell stories and sing songs.

[Fil]

You mean like this?

[saffron]

Yes, I heard the story of them. If I remember correctly, they have an important role in the history of music. They joined Crusades, and brought with them a new concept of music , from the far lands they went to fight. This new music with the topics like romantic love or bravery , however, wasn't approved by the Chruch..I don't remember the whole course of events, but the result was to the favour of a new understanding of music..

[sunny]

They don't make 'em like that any more do they? Brilliant.