A New Age Epic of Seyrānī

Abstract

The yaşnāme, one of the oldest genres in Turkish folk literature, traces its historical lineage back to the eleventh century. First exemplified by Hoca Aḥmed Yesevī (d. 1166), this genre was later adopted by ‘āşıḳ poets from the sixteenth century onward. Yaşnāmes typically narrate the human life cycle—beginning with conception and extending to approximately one hundred years of age—structuring each stage chronologically and characterizing it by distinct life phases. Commonly composed in syllabic meter and performed as destāns (epic poems), these texts are also known under various titles, including ‘ömür destānı (life epic), yaş türküsü (age song), ḥayāt destānı (life narrative), and vücūdnāme (book of the body). Seyrānī (d. 1866), one of the most prominent poets of nineteenth-century Turkish folk literature, left behind a prolific corpus in both syllabic and prosodic meters. Celebrated for his improvisational talent, Seyrānī earned widespread acclaim during his lifetime. Modern scholarship continues to engage with his work, particularly through cönks, miscellanies that preserved the verses of ‘āşıḳ poets, which remain vital sources for uncovering his lesser-known compositions. This study focuses on a newly discovered yaşnāme by Seyrānī, preserved in a cönk held in the Rare Books Collection of the Atatürk Library of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (catalogue no. Bel_Yz_K0362). Through a close analysis of this previously unrecorded work, the study explores Seyrānī’s contributions to the yaşnāme tradition and his poetic persona as an ‘āşıḳ. The article begins with an overview of the genre and its defining features, followed by biographical notes on Seyrānī. The central section offers an in-depth analysis of the text in terms of language, style, structure, and thematic content. The study concludes with a transcription of the full text.