Minstrel Literature

Minstrel and Dervish Literature

A type of poetry in Turkish Popular Literature, that emerged at the beginning of the 16th century. The minstrel’s poetic powers come from dreaming of drinking from the ‘wine of love’ offered by an elder and seeing the image of his true love. The minstrel generally sees his lover or a saz, a stringed instrument. Other elements may be a white-bearded dervish and one or maybe three full goblets. The goblets frequently occur in the dream in the form of a bowl. The liquid offered to the bards in these goblets is said to be ‘full of love.’ It is sometimes known as ‘bade’ literature under the influence of Persian literature.

Such poets are generally trained by a master. That way they learn both the master’s words and ways and means of performing their art. After having fully grasped these masters’ ways of expressing their art in the coffee houses, these poets then take on apprentices of their own, and the tradition thus continues.

The minstrel reveals his knowledge, feelings and abilities in battles of poetic repartee. The aim in these is to compete and win. At least two bards are involved in such matches. It begins with the recital of a verse by a master poet or other respected individual. The bard who is unable to add a further verse in the same style and meter is eliminated.

One of the main elements of this style of poetry is storytelling. Most poets who accompany themselves on the saz draw from a traditional range of stories, although some also had stories of their own invention to the main body of the tale. Some bards who have contributed in this way are Çıldırlı Aşık Şenlik, Ercişli Emrah and Sabit Müdami.

The shamans of the Tonguz people, the bo or bugues of the Mongols or the Baryat peoples and the ozans of the Oğuz peoples expressed, as representatives of that same tradition, the attitudes to life and feelings of their societies by means of their poems.

The best known representatives of the tradition are Yunus Emre, Pir Sultan Abdal, Köroğlu, Dadaloğlu, Karacaoğlan, Erzurumlu Emrah, Dertli and Aşık Veysel.

The tradition is still alive and flourishing in Anatolia today.

DERVISH POETRY

This style is also known as mystical or religious popular poetry, and is the product of a form of literature that emerged in the 11th and 12th centuries, created as bards expressed their love of God and feelings about the hereafter. The most important exponents of the style are Ahmet Yesevi, Yunus Emre and Hacı Bayram-ı Veli.