Abstract
THREE EPICS THAT BELONG TO ÇORUM BAYAT REGION
One of the important types of poetry in minstrel literature, epic bears important clues about the lifestyle, thoughts and beliefs as well as elements of the language and culture of the period they have been told. That’s why many types of events from small everyday life to large social movement are the subject of epic. These poems describing the various life scenes colloquially have been important means to inform the public about what is happening and to transfer them to the next generations.
In this study, it is laid emphasis on “Destan-ı Battal Ağa” of the poet under pseudonym of Merdiyâ, “Destan-ı Kıtlık” and “Destan-ı Kulire (Cholera)”of the poet under pseudonym of Nihanî. Destan-ı Battal Ağa was written in 1898 upon the death of Hatipzâde Battal Ağa who was an esteemed and influential person in the region, a resident of Hatipzâde Tepebayat neighborhood. Destan-ı Kıtlık is about famine that has affected to the large part of Anatolia between the years 1873-75. Destan-ı Kurile was told because of epidemic cholera that effected Bayat and its neighborhood and caused the death of many people in the years 1894-95. It has also aimed to introduce these epics, on which no scientific attention has focused, to the literature.
Keywords
Minstrel Literature, Epic, Çorum, Bayat
