''Kesik Baş'' is a '' mes̱nevī'' written in

Old Anatolian Turkish Old Anatolian Turkish (OAT, tr, Eski Anadolu Türkçesi, ''EAT'') is the stage in the history of the Turkish language spoken in Anatolia from the 11th to 15th centuries. It developed into Early Ottoman Turkish. It was written in the Arabic sc ...

. It tells the story of how

Ali ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...

(the cousin, son-in-law and companion of the Islamic prophet

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

) battled against a giant so that the severed head of a devout Muslim would regain his body and thereby would be able to rescue his dear ones. The work spread in

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

in the Middle Ages, and it is generally attributed to Kirdeci Ali. The work is part of an array of works that were originally transmitted orally being read out in gatherings or during religious celebrations. The work was first brought to awareness of scholars by

Mehmet Fuat Köprülü Mehmet Fuat Köprülü (December 5, 1890 – June 28, 1966), also known as Köprülüzade Mehmed Fuad, was a highly influential Turkish sociologist, turkologist, scholar, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of the Republ ...

in 1918. The text is written in a register of spoken vernacular Turkish, marked by a limited and mostly Turkish vocabulary, except for words belonging to the world of religion, which are of

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

origin. It also contains a large number of verbs and many instances of direct speech. It infrequently uses

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 ...

syntactic constructs.

Copies

Noteworthy copies of the work include: * N. Y-462 of the ''Türk Tarih Kurumu''’s Library datable to 1732–3 * A 3881 in the

National Library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant wo ...

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

* A copy printed in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

in 1893 and included in the book entitled ''Hikāye- i Mevlidü’n Nebī'' * No. 1344 in the Üsküp Gazi Hüsrev Bey Library dated to 1618 * Ms. 06 Hk 3953/1 located in the National Library in Ankara. The manuscript is undated, but may be dated to the 17th-18th century

References

Sources

* {{cite journal , last1=Cazzato , first1=Irene , title=The ''Kesik Baş'': Some Remarks on a Medieval Turkish Legend , journal=Eurasian Studies , date=2022 , volume=19 , issue=2 , pages=237–265 , doi=10.1163/24685623-12340116 Turkish language Mathnawi Islamic literature Turkic literature Works about Ali