Muhabbetten Hınca: Bektaşi Aynasında Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu

 
The aim of this paper is to explore the factors that shaped Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu’s approach towards Bektashism in the context of his life and his works. In line, it is put forward that in Karaosmanoğlu’s novels and works, especially in Nur Baba, certain characters and events bear biographical traces. In this respect, it is well understood that through his perception and representation of Bektashism, Yakup Kadri casts a light upon his own life. Nur Baba is Yakup Kadri’s major work in which he fictionalized his thoughts and experiences as to Bektashism. People’s curiosity about the Qizilbash/the Alevi and the Bektashi also motivated him to write the novel. The Qizilbash/the Alevi and the Bektashi has most of the time been an object of curiosity. Studies have shown that those who do not share their belief system have asserted malicious prosecutions and inculpation against them throughout history, the primary ones of which are sexual. The main reason has been that they conduct their religious rituals, owing to their historical experiences and as a requirement of their beliefs, in a
self-enclosed way, which results in gossips directed at them, drawing on the metaphor of mum söndü (the-candle-blown-out) based on the cem (the service) rituals. Consequently, it is seen that Yakup Kadri in his Nur Baba centered on a Bektashi lodge and a Bektashi sheikh aggravated the disputes already existing and became an addressee of many criticisms at the same time. This study first reveals certain themes in Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu’s works, followed by a detailed analysis of Nur Baba in the context of the age and the time he wrote it in. Thereafter, in this frame, what kind of motives and factors made him write the novel and the discussions and criticisms upon the publishing the novel in periodicals are presented. In this light, the fictionalization of Bektashism and its relevancy to reality is scrutinized in its wholeness in Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu’s literature.