PİR SULTAN ABDAL’IN ŞİİRLERİNDE MİTOLOJİK TASARIMLAR
MYTHOLOGICAL DESIGNS IN THE POEMS OF PİR SULTAN ABDAL

Summary/Abstract: There has been a close relationship between myth, poetry, and memory since the formation of societies' earliest forms of thought. In oral culture, poetry serves the function of preserving mythical knowledge within social and cultural memory. It is a wellknown fact that these mythical representations frequently appear within the traditions of the ozan/baksı (poets/baksıs), the minstrels, and the shaman/kam (a type of poet) traditions within the Turkish cultural sphere. Mythic thought has been traditionally preserved within diverse contexts, transmitted and transformed over centuries. It should be acknowledged as a folkloric fact that perceptions and representations of Turkish myth are more prevalent in communities that are "closed" or "preserved in their beliefs," depending on changing circumstances. This study will identify the traces of Turkish mythology in Pir Sultan Abdal's poetry and examine it within the context of his culture. Pir Sultan Abdal was one of the most important folk poets of 16th-century Anatolia and a leading representative of the Alevi-Bektashi tradition. His poems not only shed light on the social and religious life of his time but also contain a rich symbolism rooted in mythological traditions spanning thousands of years. In this study, the mythological designs in Pir Sultan Abdal's poems were examined, and the connections of these imagery/images with both Islamic mysticism (Sufism) and ancient Turkic and Anatolian mythologies were revealed. The concept of the 'forty' (kırklar), which frequently appears in his poems, can be associated with both the 'Assembly of the Forty' (Kırklar Meclisi) in Islamic culture and the belief in '40 spirits' in the Shamanistic tradition. The design of the universe produced by mythic knowledge is explicitly featured in Pir Sultan's poems. In the final part of the study, how these mythological elements shaped Pir Sultan's poetic aesthetics was analyzed, and the continuity of these images in today's Alevi-Bektashi culture was emphasized. Thus, it has been demonstrated that Pir Sultan Abdal's poems constitute a rich source not only in literary terms but also from the perspectives of cultural anthropology and the history of religions.

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