From Gosan to Ozan

Ilhan BA≤GÖZ 229

FROM GOSAN TO OZAN

T he western Turks Oguz called their epic teller Ozan. The best description of that bard, is found in the Book of My Grand Father Korkut, the Turkish epic which was written down in the second half of the 15th century. The epic mentions the Ozan in several places∞: “∞The Ozan with his musical instrument Kopuz, goes from land to land, from lord to lord∞; he knows who is stingy, who is generous∞”1. In the lay of Bamsı Beyrek, the hero in the return episode, meets an ozan and asks him “∞O Ozan where are you going∞?∞”. The Ozan replies∞: “∞My lord I am going to a wedding∞”. “∞O Ozan, give me your dress, I will give you my horse in return∞”. The Ozan tells himself∞: “∞Before my voice goes bad, my fame is forgotten, and my kopuz is broken, I would own a horse, so I should take it∞”. Beyrek took the kopuz and went to his father’s house. There he meets his sister who does not recognise him in disguise. His sister tells him∞: “∞Do not play oh Ozan, do not sing here, there is a wedding farther on, go play your kopuz there.∞” The Ozan goes to the wedding ceremony where his fiance is being married with his rival∞; he sings and plays music there. Kazan Bey, the head of the tribe hearing his music, says∞: “∞Oh Ozan∞! What do you wish from me. Do you want a tent, or slaves or money and gold∞? I shall give you whatever you wish∞”. The Ozan refuses all but asks for a permission to go to the wedding banquet and play and sing there for women. His wish is granted. Beyrek goes to ladies quarter and plays music and sings songs, while the bride and guests dance. At the end of the epic lay, when Beyrek maries with his fiance in a fourty days and nights banquet, “∞Dede Korkut∞”, the leg- endary Ozan came and played joyfull music on his kopuz and narrated the stories which recounted the heroic adventures of heroes. Then he said∞: “∞Let this lay be Beyrek’s∞”2. At the end of another epic lay Dede

Ilhan Ba≥göz is Professor Emeritus from Indiana University — Bilkent University — Department of Turkish Literature — Bilkent/Ankara (Turkey).

1 GÖKYAY, 1973∞: 2. 2 GÖKYAY∞: 56-57.

Turcica, 33, 2001, pp. 229-236 230 ILHAN BA≤GÖZ

Korkut came, and narrated the epic and sung songs. He said∞: “∞Let this lay be Deli Dumrul’s. Let the brave ozans after me sing it, and let generous men with clean forehad listen to it∞”3. In the majority of the epic lays in the Book of Grand Father Korkut a formula which mentions the ozan’s name is repeated∞: “∞Horse is quick of foot and the ozan is quick in tongue∞”4. Thus we learn from the Book of Dede Korkut that the ozan is a com- poser-creator of the epic, who also narrates and sings it with the accompaniment of a musical instrument. The instrument is called kopuz. He would be invited to wedding ceremonies, to entertain the people with music and songs, eulogize lord, criticize people. He travels from tribe to tribe. He was given horse, gold, tent as either gift or pay- ment for his performance. He was the wise man and sootsayer of the people, and he would be considered a miracle worker with magical power. Although the Dede Korkut epic is recorded in the 15th century, its oral versions in Anatolia may be dated to the 11th. Just we may safely assume that the reference made to Ozan in the 15th century manuscript is the sur- vival of the early oral versions. Thus the ozan has been known the Oguz Turks since the seventh century A.D. Fuat Köprülü in his pioneering article entitled “∞Ozan∞” examined the history, function and origin of that bard among the western Oguz Turks5. A summary of Köprülü’s work is as follows∞: The word ozan designs a musical instrument of foreign origin which is played by musicians during the march of the Sultan. The musician who is in charge of that function chants in Turkish the story of fight, history of the ancient kings, and campaign of the famous fighters6. Abu Hayyan who wrote his book in the 14th century in Egypt, indicates that ozan is the name of a bard who sings by the accompaniment of kopuz, a musical instrument7. Yazıcıoglu Ali in his work Selçukname written in the reign of Sultan Murad II (1403-1451) informs us that in the armies of Anatolian Saljukides there were ozan's and kopuz players8. Kemal Ummi, the sufi poet of the 15th century, mentions the Oguz ozan's who screem unpleasantly in chanting poems. AÒıkpa≥azade refers to a Kurdish ozan in the time of Sultan Bayazıd (1360-1403)9.

3 GÖKYAY∞: 82. 4 GÖKYAY∞: 6, 12, 84, 139, 145. 5 KÖPRÜLÜ, 1934∞:273-292. 6 KÖPRÜLÜ, op. cit., 275, quoted from QUATREMERE∞: 136. 7 KÖPRÜLÜ∞: 225, quoted from ABU HAYYAN. 8 KÖPRÜLÜ∞: 226, quoted from HOUTSMA, vol. III∞: 348. 9 KÖPRÜLÜ∞: 278. FROM GOSAN TO OZAN 231

Ahmet Talat believes that the name ozan is a derivation of Oguzan, the plural form of Oguz10. I may add another 15th century reference to the ozan. ≤eyh ≤emsi Sivasi who dedicated a kaside to Yavuz Sultan Selim (1467-1502) writes in his work Dastan-ı Murgan in the description of the stork∞: Kimi a≥ik kimi dani≥mend ozan. Her biri bir makamda çift bozan. Some are ashiks, minstrel, some students of religion, and some ozan's. Each absetting the tune like refusing his contract in ploughing a field11. Köprülü indicates that after the 15th century the ozan appellation assumed a deragotary meaning and implied, under the impact of Islam, to ignorant minstrels who told lies and nonsense and documented his claim by several examples. The word ozan is also found among the Asian Turks in Azerbaijan, in the 14-15th century, a musical instrument was also called ozan which took the place of kopuz. In the palace of Shirvanshah, in the 15th century the presence of the ozan is known. Among the Turkmen the word ozan survived only in a proverb which reads∞: «Wherever wealth comes bahÒı and ozan follow». According to Köprülü the word ozan disappeared among Turkmen and was replaced by bah≥ı which has the same meaning. In Çagatay area ozan is referred for the first time in a work by Ali ≤ir Nevai, who says the ozan’s has a strange metric which does not fit to any classical poetic system12. In the ethnography of Anatolia and Azerbaycan the name of ozan is preserved in various areas∞: in the 15th century, two communities, one of which consisting of 25 male adults and the other of 10 families, were called ozan's13. In Gence in the 17th century14, and in Diyarbakır in 191515 a section of each city was called ozan mahallesi, the quarter of ozan. Köprülü finds seven villages in Anatolia which were called ozan village. The word ozan and ozanlama (literally talking like an ozan), the former referring to a person who talk too much and nonsense, the latter a person who quotes proverbs and traditional sentences, are still in use in Turkey16. In Azerbayjan the name ozan survived in two manis, folk quatrains∞: Evime ozan geliptir An ozan came to my house Perdeni bozan geliptir Who apset the tune

10 TALAT∞: 14. 11 SIVASI∞: 35. 12 KÖPRÜLÜ∞: 288. 13 LINDNER∞: 1983∞: 124. 14 ABBASOF, 1963∞: 60. 15 KÖPRÜLÜ∞: 287. 16 KÖPRÜLÜ∞: 282. 232 ILHAN BA≤GÖZ

Gündüz olan i≥leri Who records at night Geceler yazan geliptir. What happened during the day. Gızım gızım Gızana Oh my daughter called Gızana Gızım verem ozana I will mary her to an ozan Ozan akça kazana Ozan will earn money Gızım gezip bezene. My daughter will spend and enjoy it17. The word ozan survived also in Turkey in a mani which was collected in Kırıkhan, in 1991. Ocakta hezan The wood in the hearth Üstünde kazan Cauldron on it Aglama kızım Do not cry my daughter Ni≥anlın ozan Your fiancee is an ozan18. Köprülü concludes that∞: 1. The ozan is a word which is used by Oguz, before they moved to Anatolia to refer to a musician poet. 2. This word survived in different Oguz areas, and probably in Azer- bayjan the name was given to the musical instrument kopuz, from that ozancı, meaning player of instrument derived. 3. The word a≥ık among Turks in Anatolia, and bah≥ı among Turk- men in Asia replaced the word ozan. 4. When the old meaning of ozan is forgotten in Azerbaijan and Ana- tolia, the word ozan assumed a new meaning, mainly a person who talk too much and nonsense. 5. The other Turkic groups did not use the word ozan. Çagatay writ- ers must have learned it from either Horasan Turkmen or Azeri’s. As to the linguistic origin of the word ozan, Köprülü, basing his opinon on Ibni Muhenna proposes “∞a hypothesis for the time being∞”. “∞I believe∞”, he says, “∞The word ozan derives from the verb ozmak in Turkmen, meaning to lead, to come first, from which the subject partici- ple ozgan has derived. By dropping the (g), the word became ozan∞”. The Turkmen called the dog which wins a race ozgan19.. M. Tahmasib who reads the word uzan, not ozan, claims that it derives from the infinitive uzmak, meaning to bring together two things, to harmonize the words, ryhmes and lines20. Azeri scholar Israfil Abbasov in his study on Ozan and Gusan rela- tionship summarises the information dealing with gosan by Armenian scholars, and of Ozan by the Turkish sources. He indicates that gosan among Armenians has several functions, mainly singers and players of music, performer of mimes. The name gosan also refers to a musical

17 TEHMASIP, 1972∞: 42. 18 KAYA, 1999∞: 33. 19 KÖPRÜLÜ∞: 280. 20 ABBASOF, 1968∞: 61. FROM GOSAN TO OZAN 233 instrument among Armenians. In the Armenian epic David of Sasson, the heroine, the lover of Sasson used the service of a gosan as a message conveyor. Abbasof concludes that both gosan and ozan are ancient epic tellers, singers and musicians. And later the ozan was transformed into ashık among the Turks and gosan to ashug among Armenians. But he does not say whether one derives from the other21. It is Russian scholar Gordlewski who proposed a linguistic connection between the Turkish word ozan (he reads it as uzan) and Armenian gosan, and claimed that the Armenian word gosan derived from the Turkish word ozan. His judgement, I think, is based on an analogy. Since, the word ashug, the name of the Armenian minstrel, is taken from Ottoman Turks, the Armenians must also take the word gusan from the Turks22. Ahmet Talat proposes a hypothesis which claims that the word ozan derives from Oguzan, the plural of the tribal name Oguz23. All the hypothesis, including Köprülü’s, fail, at least semantically and functionally, in explaining the linguistic origin of the ozan. None of them refers to a bard, or minstrel, musician or narrator, who plays music and narrates epic and stories. And the transformation of a tribal name into a bard and musical instrument does not look feasible. And Gordlewski’s hypothesis does not look convincing, because the word gozan is not an Ottoman-Turkish word. Today we are in a better position to draw a linguistic origin to the appellation ozan, mainly thanks to the research of Mary Boyce who studied the historical background, origin, and art of the Iranian epic singer, story teller gosan. She writes∞: The gosan is a Partian (an Iranian dynasty between 2nd century B.C. and 3rd century A.D.) origin word which is used to refer to an oral artist, singer, story teller, musician and magician. It was mentioned twice in the Iranian Masnawi Vis-u Ramin (Vis-u Ramin, a Partian origin folk romance which was written in the form of a romance by Fahreddin Gurgani between 1040- 1054 A.D. in the Seljukide Empire. Ba≥göz). There, gosan is referred to as a singer who performed in the presence of the king Mobad. The Iranian King Behram-ı Gor was reported asking an Indian king to send some gosan's to Iran because his subjects drunk wine without musicians. And there came from Luristan (India) 12 000 singers, men and women. Behram gave them goods and animals, that they might without charge make minstrelsy and entertain people. The Armenian, who was always heavily influenced by Iranian culture, began to use the appellation gosan in the beginning of the 3rd century A.D.

21 ABBASOF∞: 85, 86. 22 GORDLEWSKI, 1930∞:27. 23 TALAT∞: 16. 234 ILHAN BA≤GÖZ

Two early Armenian sources, one 368 A.D., the other 374 A.D., refer to gusan's as drummers, pipers, lyrists, and trumpeters. In the translation of the Bible into Armenian, the word gusan again is seen as singers, men and women (Ecclesiastes II, 8 and Samuel XIX, 35). Gosan is found in Georgian literature as mgosani, meaning singers, and entertainers of kings. In a ninth-century versian of the Gospel of Saint Matthew and in the romance literature which flourished among Geor- gians mgosani is usually referred as singers praising their patrons, before kings in feast, and also accrobats, and musicians, story tellers and rhe- tores. Mandaean borrowed the word gosan from the Partians and used it to refer to minstrel-poet. Boyse concluded that “∞The gosan played a considerable part in the life of Partians and their neighbours, down to late in Sasanian epoch, entertainer of king and commoner, privileged at court and popular with the people∞; present at the graveside and at the feast∞; eulogist, satirist, story-teller, musician∞; recorder of the past achievements and commen- tator of his own times.∞”24. It is obvious that the Turkish ozan and Iranian gosan were both folk artists, epic singers, players of music, entertainers and magicians. We do not know the usage of the word ozan referring to a bard among the Turks before the 11th century. And the Turks, especially the Western Turks Oguz, had a long history of contact with the Iranian culture and civilisation before coming to Anatolia. Judging from the long history of the appellation gusan in the Iranian culture, and adaptation of it by all cultures in the area, we can safely assume that the word gosan passed into Turkish, either directly from the Iranian origin or one of the cultures in the area which borrowed it from the Iranians. A linguistic change, mainly dropping the initial “∞g∞”, and making the unvoiced consonant “∞s∞” the voiced “∞z∞”, made the transformation possible. Thus gosan became ozan among western Oguz.

REFERENCES

ABBASOF I., “∞Ozan, Gusan Istilahi ve Senetine Dair∞”, Azerbaican ≤ifahi Halk Edebiyatına Dair Tetkikler. Vol. 3, 1968, p. 59-70. ABU HAYYAN, Kitab al Idrak li Lisan al Atrak. Edited by Ahmet Caferoglu, Istanbul, Evkaf matbaası, 1931. BOYCE M., “∞The Partian Gosan and Iranian Minstrel Tradition∞”, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1957, p. 11-45. GÖKYAY, Dede Korkut Kitabı, Ed. Gökyay, Istanbul, 1938.

24 BOYCE, 1957∞: 11-45. FROM GOSAN TO OZAN 235

GORDLEWSKI V.A., Quoted by Abbasof from Proyhoshtenia Osmanskogo slova “∞uzan∞” Yicenye zapiski Instituta narodov Vostoka, ABBASOF∞: 61, 1930. HOUTSMA, Recueil de textes relatifs à l’histoire des Seljoucides. E.J. Brill, vol. 3, 1886-1892, p. 348. KAYA D., Anonim Halk ≤iiri, Akçay publ, 1999. KÖPRÜLÜ F., “∞Ozan∞”, Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Hakkında Ara≥tırmalar. Kanaat Publication, Istanbul, 1934, p. 273-292. LINDNER R.P., Nomads and Ottomans in Medieval Anatolia. Indiana University, Uralic and Altaic Series Publications, vol. 144, Bloomington, 1983. QUATREMERE E.M., Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks d'Egypte. Paris, 1837. TALAT A., Halk ≤iirlerinin ≤ekil ve Nevi. Istanbul, 1926. TEHMASIP M., Azerbaycan Halk Destanları. Baku, 1972. 236 ILHAN BA≤GÖZ

Ilhan BA≤GÖZ, “∞From Gosan to Ozan∞”

The word ozan refers to an epic poet and bard who tells stories and sings with accompaniment of a musical instrument. There is no reference to it among the Turks before the XIth century. This paper reviews the researches on the question and concludes that the Turkish word ozan comes from the Iranian gosan, which has more or less the same meaning.

Ilhan BA≤GÖZ, “∞De Gosan à Ozan∞”

Le mot ozan désigne un barde poète épique qui conte et chante en s'accom- pagnant d'un instrument de musique. On n'en a pas de référence chez les Turcs avant le XIe siècle. Cet article passe en revue les recherches sur la question et parvient à la conclusion que le mot turc ozan vient du mot iranien gosan, qui a à peu près le même sens.