Yunus Emre in Alevi-Bektashi Culture in the Example of Tevfik Othman Baba’s Mecmua

Bektashi mecmuas (journals) and conks come to the fore among the written sources that help to determine the place of Yunus in Alevi-Bektashi poetry, which was influenced by Yunus Emre's style. These poems recorded in journals were probably composed in Alevi-Bektashi rites and assemblies and performed in divine form. Since there are very few written sources that tell us how this survival and continuation situation developed in the Alevi-Bektashi cultural environment in the historical process, mecmuas and conks are among the important written sources at this point. Tevfik Othman Baba, who we think lived in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, has his own mecmua. This journal provides important data in explaining the relationship of the Alevi-Bektashi groups with the poems of Yunus. There are 23 Yunus poems in 541 Alevi-Bektashi poems in this source, which is a Bektashi mecmua. The mecmua, which we learned that the poems were mostly recorded in Bektashi lodges in a wide geography from Istanbul to the Balkans, successfully reflects the situation of Yunus's poems in the Alevi-Bektashi cultural environment in the last century. Two of the Yunus poems in Tevfik Otman Baba’s mecmua belong to Âşık Yunus and the others belong to Yunus Emre, who uses the pseudonyms Yunus and Derviş Yunus. When the Yunus poems that Tevfik Othman Baba included in his mecmua are examined, it is seen that these are poems that overlap with the principles of the Alevism-Bektashism way, support the rites of this way and contribute to the explanation of the way. The poems in the şathiye type, which attract a lot of attention in Alevi-Bektashi poetry in the mecmua are widely accepted as being sung by the folk poets belonging to this group, are remarkable. Othman Baba added the poems that we can call the devriye to the Yunus poems in the şathiye type. In short, Yunus poems in Tevfik Othman Baba’s mecmua show that Yunus Emre was taken into account in Bektashi circles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his poems, like many other Alevi-Bektashi poets, continued to be recorded in mecmuas.
Keywords: Yunus Emre, Alevi-Bektashi poetry, Tevfik Othman Baba, Mecmua.