Gülnar Hatun (aka Büyük Ece, 731-769) was a semi legendary Turkish female hero. (Hatun is actually a title meaning "lady".) Her life story requires further research.
Life
She was born in 731 to Yahşi and his wife Duru. According to unsourced claims the family descended from a branch of
Göktürk family. Her family was in the Dörtkuyu village close to
Merv, what is now in
Turkmenistan. Merv was under
Umayyad rule and the
Turks in Merv were fighting against forced proselytising. Both Gülnar's and her fiancé Yirbağı's fathers were killed by Umayyad general
Nasr ibn Sayyar
Naṣr ibn Sayyār al-Lāythi al-Kināni ( ar, نصر بن سيار الليثي الكناني; 663 – 9 December 748) was an Arab general and the last Umayyad governor of Khurasan in 738–748. Nasr played a distinguished role in the wars agai ...
during the reign of Caliph
Marwan II. Although Umayyads were replaced by the
Abbasids
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
in 750, during the early years of the Abbasid rule Abbasid policy was not much different than that of the Umayyad. After Yırbağı was also killed, Gülnar with a large partisan group escaped to
Al-'Awasim, a buffer region between the Abbasid and the
Byzantine Empires, what is now in south
Turkey. In al Awasim, Gülnar began fighting against Abbasids and in 769 she too was killed during a clash around
Gülek Pass
The Cilician Gates or Gülek Pass is a pass through the Taurus Mountains connecting the low plains of Cilicia to the Anatolian Plateau, by way of the narrow gorge of the Gökoluk River. Its highest elevation is about 1000m.
The Cilician Gates hav ...
(Cicilian Gates of the antiquity).
Legacy
In 1950 the
Turkmen
Turkmen, Türkmen, Turkoman, or Turkman may refer to:
Peoples Historical ethnonym
* Turkoman (ethnonym), ethnonym used for the Oghuz Turks during the Middle Ages
Ethnic groups
* Turkmen in Anatolia and the Levant (Seljuk and Ottoman-Turkish desc ...
town Hanaypazar in
Mersin Province was renamed
Gülnar. Now Gülnar is a district center. According to one view the town (now neighborhood of Gülnar)
Büyükeceli
Büyükeceli is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Gülnar, Mersin Province, Turkey. Its population is 2,529 (2022). Before the 2013 reorganisation, it was a town (''belde'').
Geography
Büyükeceli had been founded on the sou ...
was also named after Gülnar Hatun (also known as Büyük Ece).
Saadet Bilir's page
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatun, Gulnar
731 births
769 deaths
Gülnar District
Turkish women
Women in medieval European warfare
Women in war in the Middle East