Ziya Şakir’in Tarihî Tefrikalarından Avar Oğlu’nda Türk Âdet ve İnançları

Abstract

Ziya Şakir is a well-known author for his works published in newspapers and magazines. The author, known as Ziya Şakir during the Ottoman period, took the surname “Soko” with the Surname Law enacted during the Republican period. He also used nicknames such as Z. Melek, Hüseyin Servet, Bahtiyar, M. Ziya, Emekligil, Hamid Nuri, Abdülmüheymin. In his works, in which he included historical realities, he met with people who witnessed events other than memoirs or documents, and assumed the duty of “oral historiography” by recording the memories described verbally. Avar Oğlu that is published in Yarım Ay magazine in 1935 is one of author’s works where he brought a historical truth together with fiction. The work, which deals with the Avars that were the first Turks sieging Istanbul, has a narrative style that prioritizes Turkish tradition and morality over other nations. The work, which includes taboos, Shamanist beliefs, rowing bone fortune telling, which is one of the types of fortune telling, and beliefs that numbers are sacred, brings together the values transferred from the past to the present with the reader. In this study, it was investigated how the author, who started from a historical reality and emphasized the importance of the Avars on the stage of history, conveyed Turkish customs and beliefs in Avar Oğlu. As a result of the examination, it was determined that Ziya Şakir used the spiritual values that built bridges between generations to highlight the character traits of the Turks. Keywords: Ziya Şakir, Avars, siege of İstanbul, Turkish beliefs, history.