Pir Sultan in the Balkans: The Meaning of Pir Sultan Abdal Hymns in the World of Otman Baba PİR SULTAN BALKANLARDA: OTMAN BABA SÜREĞİNDE PİR SULTAN ABDAL NEFESLERİNİN ANLAMI ÜZERİNE

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Turk Kulturu ve Haci Bektas Veli - Arastirma Dergisi, sa.101, ss.117-150, 2022 (Scopus)

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© 2022 Ankara Haci Bayram Veli University. All rights reserved.This article attempts to reflect on the historical and contemporary meaning of listening to a hymn by Pir Sultan Abdal, in a melody typical of a Babai Dede from Haskovo, Bulgaria, at the end of the cold war and the opening of the borders. The article, first of all, compiles the oral history about the lcoal version of Babaism and introduces the Dede, whose hymn was compiled, to the reader. Also, it investigates the plaqce and intensity of Pir Sultan Abdal's hymns in Babai rituals. Assuming that the hymns could bear the traces of the migration layers from Anatolia, the article embarkes on a literature review, using mainly chronicles and menakıbnames such as Menakıbül Kudsiyye, Tevarih-i Al-i Selçuk and Velayetname-i Otman Baba, to understand the conditions and intervals of the transition of the Turkmens to the Balkan territories during both the Seljuk and Ottoman periods. When the predominant place of Pir Sultan Abdal in the early days was recognized by the universe-sampling method, the hymn gained symbolic importance. Although the literary examples of Anatolian Alevism after the sixteenth century were equally embraced by Babais and Bektashis, their merging, which is thought to have long been completed in Anatolia, did not occur in the same way in the Balkans. In conclusion, the specific Babai tradition has been preserved which is analysed with a four-stage analysis model. One of the inevitable consequences of modernization in Turkey is an alignment in cem rituals that bear the danger of losing local expressions and melodies. This danger applies also to Balkan Babai and Bektashi rituals, as they turn their faces naturally towards Turkey, where in the past two decades Alevism has been experiencing increased visibility in the public sphere. It is therefore of utmost importance that a project of recording and compilation ist put in place to save the rich repertoire of hymns, especially from the regions of Haskovo, Deliorman and Dobruja. This will help understanding and preserving the musical heritage of Babai tradition and its interaction and development stages.