Dadaloğlu (Veli) (1785 ?–1868 ?) was a Turkish Ottoman, a folk poet-singer, known as ''ozan'' (bard).

Background

Two distinct literatures existed in the Ottoman Empire. Literature of the palace, so called divan literature used

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. ...

, a language which extensively borrowed words and phrases from

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. This language was not used in daily speech and was not intelligible for most of the population. Conversely, the folklore literature used everyday language which was Turkish with a minimum number of words borrowed from other languages. The best known examples of folklore literature were

poems Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

named ''koşma''. A special type of koşma was ''varsağı'' which can be described as epic koşma.

Biography

Dadaloğlu lived in the mountainous areas of south

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

(

Nur Mountains The Nur Mountains (, "Mountains of Holy Light"), formerly known as Alma-Dağ, the ancient Mount Amanus (), medieval Black Mountain, or Jabal al-Lukkam in Arabic, is a mountain range in the Hatay Province of south-central Turkey. It begins sou ...

and possibly

Toros Mountains The Taurus Mountains ( Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar,'' Greek'':'' Ταύρος) are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean coastal region from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a ...

). His name was Veli. Dadaloğlu was his ''mahlas'' (pseudonym). He was a member of a nomadic Turkmen tribe named

Afshar tribe Afshar ( ; , ; ; ) is a tribe of Oghuz Turkic origin that split into several groups in Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan. Afshar means "obedient". According to Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, Afshar, the eponymous founder of the tribe, was a son of Yildiz ...

. Ottoman government in the first half of the nineteenth century decided to settle down the nomadic tribes to end the tension between the nomadic tribes and the settled people. They were given agricultural land. But most of the tribe members preferred traditional nomadic life style and struggled against the Ottoman high commander. Dadaloğlu was also in the struggle and in his varsağı poems, he reflected the feelings and the reactions of his people. In his verse, :''Ferman padişahın, Dağlar bizimdir...'' :

Decree A decree is a law, legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, monarch, royal figure, or other relevant Authority, authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislativ ...

Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

's, mountains are ours... After a period of struggle, finally Ottoman government persuaded most of the tribes to adopt a sedentary life. The new home was in Central Anatolia. Dadaloğlu died in the village of Ziyaret Tepe in Kaman district of Kirsehir Province.

Style

Although he is known as a varsağı poet, he also produced koşmas in other types. He usually used 8 or 11 syllabic meter. As it is true with other folk poets he used his pseudonym in the last verse.

Background

Biography

Style

References

Further reading