We may have seen Turkish tribes and states briefly in middle school, high school, or university history classes. Asian Huns, European Huns, Karakhanids, Ghaznavids, Ottoman Empire… We remember all these states with more than one important title due to their specific characteristics. Therefore, they are all very important in terms of Turkish history. Among these states, in addition to their warrior structure and military genius, we cannot pass without mentioning the Göktürks and Karakhanids, who are considered the founders of literature in Turkish history. The Göktürks are generally remembered as a warrior state, and most people only know them from nationalist stories. So why and how were these nationalist stories told?
The Gokturks were founded much earlier than many states we know. They were founded in 552 AD and have a history of over 200 years. In other words, the Gokturks had never met Islam for a very significant period of time. Despite this, the Gokturks had adopted a belief that somehow resembled Islam: the belief in the Sky God. In this religion, there was only one God, and they believed that they communicated with this God through rituals, just like in Islam. As a result of this belief, the Gokturks explained how they, the Turks, were able to continue their lineage in the Ergenekon Epic with an imaginative narrative. If you ask why these are important, it is because their religious and national beliefs somehow pushed them into literature.
Emotional Warriors: Gokturks
Of course, today’s understanding of art and literature did not exist in the time of the Gokturks. Just as people living in caves in the early ages did not draw the figures on cave walls solely for the sake of art, but had the purpose of warning and informing; the Gokturks also created all their inscriptions for the purpose of informing, but of course not with pictures, but using an epic and epic language. Aesthetic and artistic pleasure were not important elements for them, but they did not want to use a monotonous narrative either. Nevertheless, with the Orhun Inscriptions and the Ergenekon Epic, they both formed the basis of the folk epics that are frequently seen in our literature later on, which later formed the culture of fairy tales, and they also enabled us to use the culture of writing for art.
Who are the Karakhanids?
After the Gokturks lost their political unity and ceased to be a state, a new Turkish state joined the historical scene, and this was the Karakhanids. The Karakhanids were a Turkish state that was more fond of art and gave importance to cultural elements compared to the Gokturks. Of course, Islam and the advancing time also had a great influence on this. During this period, the works tended towards the encyclopedic style that focused on cultural teaching rather than the epic texts with information content that the Gokturks had initiated.
Lovers of Knowledge and History: The Karakhanids
The Gokturk epics and alphabet that we mentioned in the previous sections of the article were actually a guide for the Karakhanids. The Karakhanids created all these works inspired by the Gokturks. The Gokturks’ inscriptions about the Turkish past and epics brought the Karakhanids the understanding of transferring Turkish culture to the future, and in this way, they produced works such as Kutadgu Bilig, Dîvânu Lugâti’t-Türk, and Târih-i Kâşgar. These works, which aimed to tell the Turkish language or history, contained elements of nationalism. Despite this, unlike the works of the Gokturk period, they brought to Turkish literature works that were written with a completely objective, even academic language, with a concern for providing information.
Two Literature-Loving Communities and the Conclusion
In order to better explain to our valued readers why this entire article was written, one final explanation is necessary. Turkish history did not begin with the Gokturks, of course. Until that period, the Turks were present on the stage of history, but they did not call themselves “Turks”. In other words, when the Gokturks indirectly started literature, they came after many communities that had not been interested in it before them. This situation brought them to a relatively progressive and pioneering position.
Neither did the Gokturks write the first epic, nor were they the first to learn how to write. The Gokturks first adopted the principle of conveying existing knowledge in written form. This made them the ancestors of written texts in Turkish history, although not in the sense of romantic literature that we understand. On the other hand, the Karakhanids, who came onto the stage of history after them, took the conveyance principle adopted by the Gokturks even further and produced works that were written in a more didactic but impartial manner and contained only information.
References and Further Reading
Gokturk Inscriptions (Orhun Inscriptions) . Turkish Language and Literature. (2023, April 18). https://www.turkedebiyati.org/gokturk-yazitlari-orhun-abideleri/
Turkish Culture . … (nd). https://www.ktb.gov.tr/TR-96255/turk-kulturu.html
Written Literature Period . Turkish Language and Literature. (nd). https://www.turkedebiyati.org/yazili-edebiyat/
