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The Book of Dede Korkut (also spelled as Dada Gorgud, Dede Qorqut, or Ata Korkut) is the most famous epic story of the Oghuz Turks (also known as Turkmens or Turcomans), which allows all of its direct descendant nations, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, as well as to a lesser degree Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, to claim heritage of.^[1] The epic is believed to have originated from the ninth century^[2], although some scholars place it several centuries later, while scholars in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan place it around eighth century. A precise determination is impossible to come by due to the nomadic lifestyle of the early Turkic people, where epics such as Dede Korkut were passing from generation to generation in an oral form. This is especially true of an epic book such as this, which is a product of a long series of narrators, any of whom could have made alterations and additions, right down to the two sixteenth-century scribers, who wrote the two manuscripts that have been found so far.^[3] The majority of scholars which specialized in ancient Turkic epics and folk tales, such as Russian-Soviet academician V.V. Barthold and British scholar Geoffrey Lewis, consider that the Dede Korkut text "exhibits a number of features characteristic of Azeri, the Turkish dialect of Azerbaijan".^[4]

Contents 1 UNESCO celebrations 2 Origin 3 Soviet treatment 4 References 5 External links

In 1998, the Republic of Azerbaijan and UNESCO nominated, and in 2000 celebrated, the "One thousand three hundredth anniversary of the epic Azerbaijani legend Kitab-i Dede Qorqud"^[5] In 2000, the General Director of UNESCO remarked: "Epics - and I have in mind in particular that of the Turkish-speaking peoples attributed to Dede Korkut, perpetuated by oral tradition up to the fifteenth century before being written down...are vectors of the historical, geographical, political, social, linguistic and literary references of the peoples whose history they relate. Although many of these epics have already been noted down, the oral and gestural skills of the storytellers and griots who keep them alive should also be immortalized without delay. The matter is urgent."^[6][7]. Since 1956, UNESCO participates in the commemorations of historic events and in the anniversaries of eminent personalities celebrated by Member States and Associate Members, in order to give them worldwide significance.^[8]. Azerbaijan announced the Kitab-i Dede Qorqud as its first "Celebration of anniversaries" in 1998. ^[9] The National Bank of Azerbaijan issued special gold and silver coins in 1999 to commemorate the 1,300th anniversary of the epic.^[10]

Dede Korkut is a heroic dastan (legend), also known as Oghuz-nameh among the Oghuz Turk people,^[11] which starts out in Central Asia, continues in Anatolia and Iran, and centers most of its action in Caucasus and specifically Azerbaijan.^[12] According to academician Barthold, "it is not possible to surmise that this dastan could have been written anywhere but in the Caucasus".^[13] For the Turkic people, especially of Oghuz stock, it is the principal repository of ethnic identity, history, customs and the value systems of the Turkic people throughout history. It commemorates struggles for freedom at a time when the Oghuz Turks were a herding people, although "it is clear that the stories were put into their present form at a time when the Turks of Oghuz descent no longer thought of themselves as Oghuz."^[14] Now it is known that the term 'Oghuz' was gradually supplanted among the Turks themselves as Turkmen, 'Turcoman', from the mid tenth century on, a process which was completed by the beginning of the thirteenth century. The Turcomans were those Turks, mostly but not exclusively Oghuz, who had embraced Islam and begun to lead a more sedentary life than their forefathers.^[15] In the fourteenth century, a federation of Oghuz, or, as they were by this time termed, Turcoman tribesmen, who called themselves Ak-koyunlu established a dynasty that ruled eastern Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq and western Iran.^[16] But even before that at least one of the stories (Chapter 8) of the Dede Korkut epic existed in writing, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, from an unpublished Arabic history, Dawadari's Durar al-Tijan, written in Egypt some time between 1309 and 1340.^[17]

Since the early eighteenth century, the Book of Dede Korkut has been translated into French, English, and Russian.^[18] However, it was not until it caught the attention of H.F. Von Diez, who published a partial German translation of Dede Korkut in 1815, based on a manuscript found in the Royal Library of Dresden, that Dede Korkut has become to be more widely known in the West. The only other manuscript of Dede Korkut was discovered in 1950 by Ettore Rossi in the Vatican Library. Until Dede Korkut was transcribed on paper, the events depicted therein survived in the oral tradition, at least from the ninth and tenth centuries. The Bamsi Beyrek chapter of Dede Korkut preserves almost verbatim the immensely popular Central Asian dastan Alpamysh, dating from an even earlier time. The stories were written in prose, but peppered with poetic passages. Recent research by Turkish and Turkmen scholars revealed, that the Turkmen variant of the Book of Dede Korkut contains sixteen stories, which have been transcribed and published in 1998.^[19]

The twelve stories that comprise the bulk of the work were written down after the Turks converted to Islam, and the heroes are often portrayed as good Muslims while the villains are referred to as infidels, but there are also many references to the Turks' pre-Islamic magic and shamanism, and it is clear that the stories originated in a pre-Islamic past. The character Dede Korkut, i.e. "Grandfather Korkut", is a widely-renowned soothsayer and bard, and serves to link the stories together, and the thirteenth chapter of the book compiles sayings attributed to him. "In the dastans, Dede Korkut appears as the aksakal [literally 'white-beard,' the respected elder], the advisor or sage, solving the difficulties faced by tribal members. ... Among the population, respected aksakals are wise and know how to solve problems; among ashiks [reciters of dastans] they are generally called dede [grandfather]. In the past, this term designated respected tribal elders, and now is used within families; in many localities of Azerbaijan, it replaces ata [ancestor or father]." ^[20] The historian Rashid al-Din (d. 1318) says that Dede Korkut was a real person and lived for 295 years; that he appeared in the time of the Oghuz ruler Inal Syr Yavkuy Khan, by whom he was sent on an embassy to the Prophet; that he became Muslim; that he gave advice to the Great Khan of the Oghuz, attended the election of the Great Khan, and gave names to children.^[21]

The tales tell of warriors and battles and are likely grounded in the conflicts between the Oghuz and the Pechenegs and Kipchaks. Many story elements are familiar to those versed in the Western literary tradition. For example, the story of a monster named "Goggle-eye" bears enough resemblance to the encounter with the Cyclops in Homer’s Odyssey that it is believed to have been influenced by the Greek epic or to have one common ancient root. The book is also describing in great details the various sports activities of the ancient Turks: "Dede Korkut (A.D. 1000- 1300) clearly referred to certain physical activities and games. In Dede Korkut's description, the athletic skills of Turks, men and women, were described to be "first-rate," especially in horse-riding, archery, cirit [javelin throw], wrestling and polo which are considered Turkish national sports."^[22]

Majority of Turkic people and lands who are described in the Book of Dede Korkut, were part of Soviet Union from 1920 till 1991, and hence most of the research and interest originated there. Despite initially neutral attitude towards the Book of Dede Korkut and other dastans related to Turkic people, after Stalin has solidified his grip on the power in Soviet Union, and especially in the early 1950's, a tabu on Turkology was put into effect. For example, the first full-text Russian edition of the Book of Dede Korkut, by Azerbaijani scholars academician Hamid Arasli and Dr. M.G.Tahmasib, based on the academician Barthold's translation which he completed in 1920s, was published on a limited basis only in 1939 and again in 1950.^[23][24] As Prof. Paksoy recalls, "Turk scholars and literati (who raised the same issues) were lost to the Stalinist 'liquidations' or to the 'ideological assault' waged on all dastans in 1950-52."^[25] The tabu of the early 1950's became to be known as the "Trial of Alpamysh", when all dastans of Central Asia were officially condemned by the Soviet state apparatus.^[26] Despite the liberalization of the political climate after the denunciation of Stalinism by Nikita Khrushchev in February 1956, the same "Barthold" edition of the Book of Dede Korkut was re-published only in 1962 and in 1977. Problems persisted all the way to perestroika, when the last full edition in Azerbaijani language was sent for publication on July 11, 1985, but received permission for printing only on February 2, 1988.^[27]

• Four editions of the Dede Korkut book, Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative, Texas Tech University, 2000-2007