DÜVÂZ-DEHS IN CLASSICAL TURKISH POETRY

Abstract

Düvâz-dehs is the name given to the poems, which are also called düvâz, düvâz-nâme and düvâzimâm and mentioned in relation to the subject of twelve Imams. It is considered as a genre belonging to Alevi and Bektashi literature. It is known that they are read during the semah, when slaughtering sacrifices, and in various rituals during the month of Muharram. The focus of the researchers on the düvâz-dehs, which was studied by Turkish folk literature researchers, is the breaths spoken about the Twelve Imams in the Alevi and Bektashi tradition. Although the researchers mentioned the existence of the düvâz-dehs sung in the forms of classical Turkish poetry, they stated that they are closer to folk poetry in terms of language, style and shape, and that folk literature was dominant in the measurements. In the studies carried out throughout Turkish literature, three poets who sang düvâz-dehs were identified in the classical poetry tradition. In the classical Turkish poetry, no examination and definition of the genre has been made on düvâz-dehs. They are examined under the names as “Twelve Imams praise” and “Twelve Imams elegy”, thus a comprehensive düvâz-dehs literature cannot be put forward in the classical Turkish poetry. As far as we can determine, they are sung by poets who comes from different sects and they have many different forms of writing from the first half of the 15th century to the last quarter of the 19th century. In this study, first, the researches on the düvâz-dehs are summarized and the current information about the düvâz-dehs is presented to the attention of the researchers. Then, the düvâz-dehs sung in the tradition of classical Turkish poetry are examined in terms of their scope, structure, relationship with public life and contribution to text critique by considering the century they were written, the form of the poems and the known affiliations of the poets.