Deyiş in transmission

Alevi poetry and music as religious tradition

Bibliographic Data

ID6093482
AuthorsZeynep Oktay (0000-0002-8009-4339, Bogaziçi University, corresponding author), Ulaş Özdemir (0000-0003-4528-517X, Istanbul University)
Year2025
Pages1-20
Publication date2025-10-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Perspectives on Turkey (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0896-6346 • E-ISSN: 1305-3299
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/npt.2025.10045
OpenAlexW4415464787
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited17

Religious poems sung with music, the Alevi deyiş are an integral part of Alevi ritual and social life. Due to the dynamics of oral transmission, the same deyiş can be performed with all kinds of music, the words of the deyiş can change from one performance to the next, and pen names can multiply. The unique experiential function of the deyiş lies precisely in this dynamic and fluid plurality. The deyiş serve as the anchor of communal identity, linking the group to a mythico-historical past that also constitutes the hermeneutical background for making sense of the present and near past. Born from an affect that is at once personal and communal, the oral tradition of deyiş is an experience of collective and personal agency, re-created at each moment in the acts of performance and active listening. Grounded in conceptual frameworks on emotion, embodiment, and orality, the article explores the transmission of deyiş through the cases of early Republican singer–poet Âşık Veysel (d. 1973), poems by Kaygusuz Abdal (flourished late fourteenth–early fifteenth century) and Pir Sultan Abdal (flourished sixteenth century) in the compilation of Ottoman palace musician Ali Ufuki (d. 1675), and modern musical interpretations of Kaygusuz Abdal’s poem

African history and culture analysis · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies

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