Menkıbelerde bir af dilenme makamı olarak eşik

Abstract

Eşik seen in many fields from the oldest mythical narratives to modern literary texts and generally defined in dictionaries as “the low step at the bottom of the doorway” carries out a highly important function while interpreting the relation between murshid (spiritual director) and murid (seeker) in tasawwuf culture. According to conventional wisdom, a murid who wants to transfer from zahir (outward) to batin (inward) and to walk confidently on the spiritual path needs to put his head in eşik of his murshid. Thus, murid expresses his devotion and surrender to his murshid. From this perspective, eşik symbolizes humility, devotion, and giving up the ego. Eşik having such a deep meaning is also used in hagiographies while asking for forgiveness for a mistake. Murids who follow their nafs (ego) in a moment’s heedlessness and hurt the feelings of their murshid ask for forgiveness as waiting on eşik of murshid and finally they achieve these goals. One of the best examples of this shows itself in the famous hagiography of eşik between murshid Tapduk Emre and his murid Yûnus Emre. However, this is not the only example in the hagiographies of the use of eşik as a scale of asking for forgiveness. It is seen that a similar situation occurred between murshid Zengî Ata and his murid Seyyid Ahmed Ata, murshid Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli and his murid Molla Sadeddin and murshid Emir Külâl and his murid Behâeddin Buhârî and the murids who commit a fault try to be forgiven by their murshids as putting their heads in eşik of their murids. Firstly, this study deals with the meaning of the term, eşik in tasawwuf culture, then, eşik as an expression of regret is scrutinized in the framework of the sample hagiographies.