This document provides an overview of Turkish folk tales and some examples. It discusses how Turkish folk tales developed out of oral tradition and the heroic epic tradition after the Oghuz Turks settled into a more agricultural lifestyle. Several notable folk characters are introduced, including Dede Korkut, Nasrettin Hoca, Karagöz and Hacivat, Mevlana, and Keloğlan. Short summaries of tales associated with some of these characters are also provided, such as the story of Boghach Khan from the Book of Dede Korkut and a Nasrettin Hoca tale about a coat being invited to a banquet. The document aims to give context and examples of the Turkish oral storytelling

2. As in other cultures, Turkish Folk Tales, as a
step between epic and novels, are the fruit
of oral tradition and even today there are
still some folk tales which have not been
written down, yet. Historically, Turkish Folk
Tales appear following the heroic epic tra-
dition as one of the early fruit of settled life
after the nomadic life style. They take their
roots from legends and fairy tales as well as
carrying some characteristics of epics as a
genre. Although the genres that constitute
the oral Turkish literature differ in form and
theme, Turkish folk tales embody texts and
characteristics of such various genres.
However, there are still some basic charac-
teristics that differ the Folk Tales from other
oral literary genres.

3. Dede Korkut Mevlana
Nasrettin Hoca Karagöz & Hacivat
Keloğlan

4. Dede Korkut is a Central Asia legend, the principal
repository of ethnic identity, history, customs and the
value systems of its owners and composers which
were passing from generation to generation in an
oral form and written first at the sixteenth century.. It
commemorates struggles for freedom at a time
when the Oghuz were a herding people who lived in
tents.

5. A TALE FROM THE BOOK OF DEDE KORKUT:
The story of Boghach Khan, Son of Dirse Khan
Dirse Khan is upset when Bayindir Khan,
leader of the Oghuz Turks, relegates
him to a black tent. He is informed that
the order is that men with sons are en-
titled to a white tent, men with only da-
ughters to a red tent, and men with no
offspring to a black one. Dirse Khan
exchanges poetry with his wife about
their desire to alter their childless state. He offers sacrifice of stallions,
rams and he-camels.
When Dirse Khan's son is fifteen, he's playing knuckle bones and Bayindir
Khan's prize bull attacks him. His fellow gamers flee, but the son of Dirse
Khan stands his ground. The boy gave the bull a merciless punch on the fore-
head and the bull went sliding on his rump. Again he came and charged the
boy. Again the boy gave him a mighty punch on the forehead, but this time he
kept his fist pressed against the bull's forehead and shoved him to the end of
the arena.
They struggle for a while, until at last the boy decapitates the bull, obtaining
thus his name, Boghach, Bull-man. He's richly rewarded, but his father's forty
warriors are jealous and resentful. They tell tales to Dirse Khan, falsely sa-
ying Boghach plans to commit patricide. Dirse Khan strikes first. As the boy
lies there bleeding, the crows and ravens being kept at bay by Boghach Khan's
two dogs, his mother comes upon him. They exchange poetic concern about his
wound and assurance that he'll recover. He does and the villains seize his fat-
her. He rides with his men to the rescue. He led his forty men, he charged, he
faught and gave battle. Some he beheaded, some he took prisoner, and he
freed his father.

6. “Come, Come again !
Whatever you are...
Whether you are infidel,
idolater or fireworshipper.
Whether you have broken
your penitence a hundred
times
Ours is the portal of hope,
come as you are.”
Mevlana was born in the city of Balkh in Afghanistan and
he lived most of his life in Konya , seat of the Selçuk Empi-
re, located in present day Turkey. Mevlana Celalettin Rumi,
was a philosopher and his doctrine advocates unlimited
tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and
awareness through love. To him and to his disciples all reli-
gions are more or less truth. Looking with the same eye all
of the religions, his peaceful and tolerant teaching has ap-
pealed to men of all sects and creeds

7. A TALE WRİTTEN BY MEVLANA
The Grammarian And The Boatman
A grammarian once embar-
ked in a boat. Turning to the
boatman with a self-satisfied
air he asked him:
‘Have you ever studied
grammar?’
‘No,’ replied the boatman. “I am just a
simple boatman”
‘Then half your life has gone to waste,’
the grammarian replied.
The boatman thereupon felt very depres-
sed, disturbed in his heart from burning
sorrow, but kept silent from answering at
that moment. Presently the wind tossed the
boat into a whirlpool. The boatman shouted
to the grammarian: ‘Do you know how to
swim?’
‘No’ the grammarian replied, ‘my well-
spoken, handsome fellow’.
‘In that case, grammarian,’ the boat-
man remarked, ‘the whole of your life has
gone to waste, for the boat is going to
drown in these whirlpools.’

8. Nasrettin Hoca is Turkey's
(and perhaps all of Islam's)
best-known trickster. His le-
gendary wit and droll tric-
kery were possibly based on
the exploits and words of a
historical imam. “He was
born in 1208 in Hortu village
near town Sivrihisar (near Af-
yon in Turkey) in the west
part of Central Anatolia. He
moved in 1237 to Akşehir
town to study under notably
scholars of the time as Seyid
Mahmud Hayrani and Seyid
Haci Ibrahim. He served as
Kadi, Muslim judge, from ti-
me to time till 1284 which is
the date of his death.

9. A HOCA’S STORY
Eat, My Coat , Eat
The Hoca was invited to
a banquet. Not wanting
to be pretentious, he wo-
re his everyday clothes,
only to discover that
everyone ignored him,
including the host. So he
went back home and put
on his fanciest coat, and
then returned to the
banquet.
Now he was greeted cordially by everyone and invited
to sit down and eat and drink.
When the soup was served to him he dunked the sleeve
of his coat into the bowl and said, "Eat, my coat, eat!"
The startled host asked the Hoca to explain his strange
behavior.
"When I arrived here wearing my other clothes," explai-
ned the Hoca, "no one offered me anything to eat or
drink. But when I returned wearing this fine coat, I was
immediately offered the best of everything, so I can
only assume that it was the coat and not myself who
was invited to your banquet."

10. Karagöz and Hacivat is a
Turkish shadow play ta-
king its name from its main
character Karagöz . Accor-
ding to a legend, they were
working as construction
workers in a mosque in
Bursa. Although their sati-
ric jokes entertained other
workers it also held up the
building of the mosque by
their constant joking toget-
her. As a result it made the
As a result it made the sultan very angry and anxious
about whether Karagöz and Hacivat could encourage
rebellion in others, so they were executed. The const-
ruction of the mosque was completed without them, but
their comrades did not forget them and kept their jokes
alive, telling them over and over. In time, the adventures
of Karagöz and Hacivat gained a new dimension and
the traditional Turkish shadow puppet theatre was born.
Their monumental tomb stands in Bursa today.

11. A REPRESENTATIVE KARAGÖZ SCENARIOS
The Pleasure Trip To Yalova
Çelebi, the dandy, wishes to take a trip with his sweethe-
art to the Spa of Yalova. He therefore buys a large sack
and a jar in which to put provisions for the journey. While
he is making last minute preparations, Karagöz appears
and teases her with stupid, nonsensical stories the young
woman who has remained behind with the sack and the
jar. For instance he tells her that her boy friend is dead
and somebody has set fire to the sea and that Çelebi has
been burnt, or that somebody though that he was a mo-
uthful of food and has swallowed him, and so on. Taklits
appear, all of whom wish to go on the same trip and are
hidden one after the other by the obling girl in the sack
and the jar. Among them is the girl’s other lower. When
Çelebi comes, he puts all these people out of the jar and
sack where they had been concealed, hopping to travel
without paying their fare.

12. Keloğlan is a very well-
known Turkish folk sto-
ries hero. He is a poor
and an orphand boy
who lives with
his elderly mother. He is
a lazy boy who works
unwillingly with the for-
ce of his mother and ke-
eps the job grudgingly,
because of his stupidity
and forgetfulness to
work hand side is one of
the propagator.
Unexpectedly, the power
status remained in a human
or animal for helping them
with the support of the
extraordinary power of for-
tune turns. Keloğlan chop-
per's fate, ruthless, cunning
in the face of injustice to
those who had gained the
temperament and intelligent
behavior may also change.

13. A KELOGLAN STORY
Keloğlan And Magical Bowl
Once there was a bald boy, named Keloğlan. His old,
poor mother was addressing him as “Bald son, cute
son”. One day Keloğlan went fishing to catch some
fish. “I can catch a few fish for me and my mother and
shall be full up that evening”, he thought. On the edge of
the river he threw his fishing-line to the water, soon he
caught a very big fish in the afternoon.
Its eyes were as light as a glass, and its scales were as
brilliant as silver, it was a very beautiful fish. Keloğlan
carved its scales, and went to cut its belly and clean
it. It’s was then he saw a big bowl inside the fish. He felt
very happy “I shall take both the bowl and the fish to my
mother”, he said. He wanted to wash the fish by the
bowl of water and pour the water in the bowl on the fish
but at that time he saw that gold was flowing from the
bowl instead of water. He tried a few times to be sure.He
saw again that gold was flowing .
“I think it is a magical stone, I should tell my mother right away”, he said and he
ran all the way home as fast as he could. Keloğlan soon became very very
rich, even the king of the country was poorer than him. He built a wonderful
palace and he had a lot of servants and he was eating the most delicious me-
als. After sometime, Keloğlan started to be spoiled by richness, he wasted a lot
of gold unnecessarily. He even did not listen to his mother’s warnings about
it. “I have a magical copper bowl and I can do anything and everything I want”
he said. People started to lose their interest in him because of his pride and
ambitions. People have now commented that ‘Keloğlan was better in his old
days, now we cannot know him, he is a spoiled and very ambitious person at
present’.
One day Keloğlan came to the edge of the river “Gold does not finish, I can bu-
ild a palace here too” he thought and at that moment his magical copper bowl
in his hand fell into the water. Keloğlan jumped into the river to catch it, but Ke-
loğlan was not a good swimmer and he nearly drowned. He was able to rescue
himself after sometime, but during this time, thieves have stolen all the
gold. Keloğlan cried and went back to his home, he told his mother what hap-
pened on the edge of the river and how he lost the magical copper bowl and
the thieves stolen all his gold. “Don’t worry, my dear son, that magical copper
bowl was not your right. You did not gain it by your work and effort. Besides,
you were very spoiled and proud. Leave it. You will be rescued of looking
down people like that” his mother said. Keloğlan was comforted by his mother
and found what mother said was right .

14. Selin UGURLU
Resource
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