‘I AM PIR SULTAN ABDAL’ A HERMENEUTICAL STUDY OF THE SELF- NAMING TRADITION (MAHLAS) IN TURKISH ALEVI LYRIC SONG (DEYIŞ) Paul V Koerbin Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2011 College of Arts University of Western Sydney STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or in part, for a degree at this or any other institution. ………………………………….. Paul Koerbin ii ABSTRACT The lyric songs of Turkish oral tradition broadly understood by the term deyiş provide one of the richest perspectives on the historical construction, communal perceptions and creative impetus of Turkish Alevi culture. One of the most evident defining characteristics of the deyiş is the convention in which the poetic persona to which the lyric is attributed, known as the mahlas, is incorporated in the final verse. While this convention is ubiquitous in this lyric form it has received little scholarly attention particularly in regards to is role in expressive culture. This study approaches Alevi expressive culture by means of focusing on the interpretive force of the mahlas. The theoretical basis for this study is the tripartite model proposed for ethnomusicological study by Timothy Rice in 1987, by which musical experience may be understood as being historically constructed, socially maintained and individually applied. In applying this model my study pursues an interpretive approach both in terms of identifying interpretive practice and in suggesting interpretive perspectives. This approach follows Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutical perspective as an encounter that seeks not to understand the inner experience of people of another culture, but rather to understand the world that is suggested by music sounds, performance and contexts. The structure of this study follows this hermeneutical epistemology in terms of pre-understanding (encounters in text), explications (the analysis of the form and structure of the text and music) and experiences (interpretive encounters with expressive culture that suggest new understandings). Methods employed for this study include a broad reading and iii familiarity with Alevi related and initiated publications and scholarship (in Turkish and English); observation of Alevi (and more broadly Turkish) public expressive culture through audio and visual recordings and attending festivals and other events; and participation in Alevi expressive culture and critical reflection through learning the bağlama (Turkish lute) and performing Alevi deyiş informally and in public. This study begins by considering ‗pre-understandings‘ through the way the persona of the most influential of the Alevi poets, Pir Sultan Abdal, is presented in the pursuit of a historical identity as the lyrics or oral tradition attributed to him have become the basis of canonical textual collections. This chapter suggests the limitation of this approach to understanding while revealing the centrality of the mahlas as the object of study. The second part of the study focuses on explicating the deyiş lyric form and the mahlas as a defining characteristic of that form. These explications suggests the mahlas is more than merely a convention used to identify the author of the lyric but is, rather, a subtle and adaptable traditional textual integer that, while inherently meaningful, is not fixed in its meaning or purpose; and with its immanent associations provides interpretive and creative potential. The third part of the study considers the interpretive and creative potential of the Alevi deyiş and the immanent qualities of the mahlas in performance. Firstly, a context to Alevi public expressive culture is provided by examining a series of commercial recordings produced in the 19κ0s by Arif Sağ, a formative period when Alevis began to be more open and assertive in the articulation of Alevi culture. This is followed by an examination of the interpretive potential of performance through the description and analysis of a performance by Tolga Sağ at the 2002 Pir Sultan Abdal festival in the village of Banaz in central Turkey. The study further considers the application of the iv interpretive potential provided by the immanent and associative qualities of the mahlas through a critical reflective analysis of my performances of Alevi deyiş. Finally, this study includes the largest collection of lyrics by the major Alevi poet Pir Sultan Abdal yet to appear in English translations. These translations are included to demonstrate and reveal the hermeneutical challenge presented by this material as well as providing broader scholarly access to a substantial representative sample of the lyrics associated with this major Alevi figure. This study concludes that the mahlas is a richly meaningful textual integer that conveys, with communicative economy, immanent aspects of authority, lineage, communal identity and inclusion. As such, rather than being a simple convention to identify authorship, it is an adaptive yet critical element in the creative and interpretive expression of Alevi culture. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of a rich oral lyric tradition and creative expressive culture that has received relatively little scholarly attention, especially in the English language scholarship, and to reveal the mahlas in the context of oral and expressive culture as a subject deserving of further scholarly study. v ACKNOWLEDEMENTS This project would not have commenced, continued nor have been completed without the encouragement, belief and support – moral and practical – of my supervisor Professor Michael Atherton. His judicious and guiding wisdom, and faith in my work, retrieved this endeavour from the brink on many occasions, for which I am greatly indebted. So much of this project would not have been possible without the friendship and assistance of Eyyup and Nargiz Bevan (Aydoğmuş) who taught me so much about Alevis, playing bağlama and understanding Alevi culture. Eyyup provided invaluable introductions and I am particularly grateful to Nargiz for assistance in transcribing and translating interviews I recorded in Turkey. In Turkey, I am grateful most of all to Neşe and Işık Onatça for their indefatigable friendship, hospitality and practical assistance providing obscure resources, introductions, and logistical help – not to mention acting as impromptu interpreters! Many others provided assistance in Turkey including ‗Kızılbaş‘ Mehmet Aslan and İbrahim Aslan and family in Banaz; Salih Kılıç (for the recording of Aşık Nuri); Murtaza Demir; Kazım Genç; Cemal Şener; Rıza Zelyut; Adil Ali Atalay; Hayri Dede; Emel Sungur; Ali Murat İrat, Muharrem Ertaş Dede at the Karacaahmet Dergahı; and especially the late İsmail Onarlı. I am pleased to acknowledge the friendship of Sercihan Dehmen and many memorable days talking of many things including his grandfather Nimri Dede and evenings in Istanbul with his band. I am grateful to Dertli Divani, Arif Sağ and Mehmet Özbek for the generous time they gave to my clumsy questions and to Ahmet Koçak for facilitating arrangements. I wish to acknowledge Irene Markoff whose love for, and immense knowledge of, Alevi music she enthusiastically shared with me in our periodic informal email correspondence over the past few years. I express thanks to Mark Soileau, Martin Sökefeld and Ahmet Yürür who generously provided materials; to İrfan Gürel for the precious recordings of Aşık İbreti; and Professor John Miles Foley and the editors and un-named reviewers of a paper I submitted to the Oral Tradition Journal. Finally I wish to thank my wife Diane for the love, boundless tolerance and support of her too often distracted husband; and my daughter Sabine who has grown up with this project and learned to ask the all too pertinent question ―when will the book be finished?‖ DEDICATION For my parents, Una and Lloyd Koerbin, who waited so long and for whom this means so much. vi A NOTE ON TRANSLATION AND ORTHOGRAPHY All translations from the Turkish are my own unless otherwise indicated. This thesis involves reference to a considerable number Turkish sources and Turkish terminologies which provides certain challenges for consistent renderings. I have generally followed Turkish terminologies and forms rather than translating them, the term mahlas, the subject of this thesis, which I have not rendered as ‗pen-name‘, being the most obvious example. I have generally added the English plural ‗-s‘ to Turkish terms rather than retain the Turkish plural ‗lar/ler‟. So for aşık I use the plural aşık-s not aşıklar. Occasionally this approach would produce a monstrous and unpronounceable mouthful in English and in such cases I have retained the Turkish plural, as in deyişler rather than deyiş-s. For the same reason I have preferred Alevilik rather than Alevi-ism. In regards to names I have used Turkish forms except when they are very common in English, so in place of the Turkish Hüseyin and Muhammed I have used Husayn and Muhammad. In quoting Turkish sources I have used the orthography of the original rather than attempt any standardisation. This is perhaps most evident in the variable use of the circumflex in some Turkish words that have Persian or Arabic origins. So, for example, aşık will also appear as âşık and the name Hatayi as Hatâyî. Ostensible inconsistencies may be most apparent in a number of the texts used for the translations. Since many of these are from