The Palimpsest Memory of Anatolia: The Cultural Transformation of Turkistan’s Narrative and Hagiographic Traditions

Authors : Serap Sarıbaş

Pages : 155-172

Doi:10.47702/sema.2025.53

View : 94 | Download : 298

Publication Date : 2025-10-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This article examines the layers of cultural memory transmitted from Turkistan to Anatolia in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries within the framework of oral tradition. The structural continuity between the Oğuz Kağan Epic and the Book of Dede Korkut, explored through Vladimir Propp’s morphological model and Karl Reichl’s research on performance, indicates that epic forms maintained their function despite migration and political disruption. The transmission from Ahmad Yesevī’s hikmets to Yunus Emre’s poetry, discussed alongside the findings of Fuad Köprülü and Cemal Kurnaz, highlights the role of mystical verse as pedagogy and as a discourse of consolation during periods of crisis. The Velâyetnâme of Hacı Bektaş Veli, the Saltuknâme, and the Menâkıbu’l-Ârifīn, interpreted through Irene Melikoff, Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, and Nathalie Clayer, show that the hagiographic repertoire functioned as a narrative archive of sanctity and legitimacy. The writings of Kaşgarlı Mahmud, Yusuf Has Hacib, and Âşık Paşa underscore Turkish as a decisive axis of cultural translation and identity-making. Framed by the perspectives of Jan Assmann, Walter Ong, John Foley, Homi Bhabha, and Richard Schechner, this study interprets Anatolia as a palimpsest where the epic, Sufi, and hagiographic inheritances of Turkistan were adapted to new contexts and transformed into a multilayered cultural space.
Keywords : Kültürel Bellek, Sözlü Gelenek, Hagiografik Repertuvar, Palimpsest Hafıza, Anadolu'nun Kültürel Sentezi

ORIGINAL ARTICLE URL