Summary View

Country

Tatarstan

City

Kazan

Institution

Kazan Devlet Üniversitesi Fenni Kütüphanesi

Collection

Türkçe Yazmaları

Shelfmark

2080

Contents

Baṭṭālnāme (Anonymous)

Author

Anonymous

Title

Baṭṭālnāme

ﺑﻄﺎﻟﻨﺎمه

Notes

An anonymous prose collection of oral lore narrating the military feats and extraordinary adventures of holy warrior Baṭṭāl Ġāzī. The Baṭtālnāme is set during the Arab confrontation with Byzantium in Anatolia during the early Abbasid period. The historical figure at the origin of the narrative can be identified as Abū Ḥusayn (or Abū Muḥammad) ʿAbd Allāh al-Baṭṭāl al-ʿAnṭaqī (or al-Shāmī) (d. 740/1339-40), an Arab commander of the Umayyad period who may have taken part in the Arab siege of Constantinople in 717 AH [1317-1318 CE]. The Danishmendid emirate played a central role in the dissemination of a popular cycle of religious-heroic frontier narratives, of which The Baṭtālnāme was the first representative (though later than the epic Ḥamzanāme). The Baṭtālnāme has major similarities with the folk prose epic (sīrat) known as the Sīrat Delhemma, however the differences indicate that it was not modelled on the latter. In both works, Baṭṭāl is associated with Malatya and works under the command of this town’s governor. It is safe to assume that the pre-existing oral lore on Baṭṭāl Ġāzī was adopted and revised by the Turks arriving in the region of Malatya. In the process, Baṭṭāl Ġāzī was made into a saint for purposes of legitimation. His holy nature is also underlined by the miraculous way the Prophet’s saliva is carried to him and by his use of the weapons belonging to Islamic and pre-Islamic heroes. The Baṭtālnāme can also be considered as a Turkish reworking of Persian material originating from the Shāhnāma. The content of the work indicates that composition of the Baṭtālnāme should be dated to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. However the earliest extant manuscript dates from 840 AH [1436 CE]. The stories in the Baṭtālnāme are composed for serial delivery over a period of time. The work remained in the repertoire of storytellers even after it was put down in writing, resulting in discrepancies between manuscripts which can only be explained by differences in oral composition.

Main language of text

Turkish

Bibliography

Editions

Dedes, Yorgos. Battalname. Cambridge: MA: Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, 1996.

Kavruk, Hasan and Salim Durukoğlu. Battalname. Malatya: Malatya Kitaplığı Yayınları, 2012.

Say, Yağmur. Türk-İslam Tarihinde ve Geleneğinde Seyyid Battal Gazi ve Battalnâme. Eskişehir: Eskişehir Valiliği, 2009.

Studies

Alangu, Tahir. "Bizans ve Türk Kahramanlık Eposlarının Çıkışı Üzerine." Türk Dili. , no. 20 1953: 541-557.

Athamina, Khalil. "al-Baṭṭāl, ʿAbdallāh." Encyclopaedia of Islam Tree. Consulted online on 26 November 2016 dx.doi.org. (First published online: 2011 Canard, M. “al-Baṭṭāl.” Encyclopedia of Islam 2. Vol I. 1103-1104.)

Canard, M.. "Delhemma Sayyid Battâl et ‘Omar al-Noʿmān." Byzantion. , no. 12 1937: 183-188.

Köksal, Hasan. Battalnâmelerde Tip ve Motif Yapısı. Ankara: Başbakanlık Basımevi, 1984.

Kırzıoğlu, Fahrettin. "Doğu Serhaddimizde Battal Gazi Kitabının Okunması Geleneği ve Tesirleri." Eskişehir: Eskişehir Turizm ve Tanıtma Müdürlüğü ile Seyitgazi Turizm ve Tanıtma Derneği, 1977: 61-85.

Ocak, Ahmet Yaşar. "Battalnâme." TDVİA. 5 1992: 206-208.

Physical Description

Number of folios

98 ff.

History

Date of copy

20th. century