[Hikayet-i Seyyid Battal Gazi] - [حكايت سيد بطال غازي].

This volume contains a version of the popular narrative of Seyyid Battal Gazi, in prose. Little is known of the historical Seyyid Battal, save that he was a gazi who fought under the Umayyads in the early second century AH/eighth century CE. He took part in a number of Byzantine expeditions. Following the Danishmendid conquest of Malatya in 495 AH/1102 CE, Seyyid Battal began to be portrayed as a Turkicised hero in local epic traditions celebrating the Arab-Byzantine Wars. He was transformed into a champion of the Abbasid period, active in the third century AH/ninth century CE. Battalnamenarratives were greatly informed by both Turkic and Turkicised Persian traditions and motifs, perhaps especially from the Shahnama. Ottoman historians and scholars drew on these narratives in their writings, and conveyed the legends of Seyyid Battal as historical fact. Seyyid Battal continues to be an important figure in the Alevi and Bektashi traditions and in modern-day Turkish culture more generally. His shrine is in the Seyitgazi district of Eskişehir. The present volume appears to be a later recension of Battalname texts in circulation in the tenth century AH/sixteenth century CE. Like Add MS 10000, it appears to be a later text, judging by linguistic differences and changes in character details (for example, Cafer instead of Ömer in the initial narrative about Hüseyin and a gazelle). Or 7310, Or 8768, and Or 16122, text III appear to be earlier recensions with greater similarity to other examples from the tenth century AH/sixteenth century CE. The spellings in the present volume appear to be distinctive, and would have allowed a storyteller to more easily pronounce the words. This offers some clue as to how the volume might have been used. The manuscript is incomplete at the end as well as the beginning. The annotations in the margins include paraphrases of words and phrases. There are also a number of inserted notes by the British Turcologist C.S. Mundy, marking particular episodes in the narrative. Begins:. … Geyik kaçtı Hüseyin … bir dağdan işitti Hüseyin ardınca dağa çıktı gördü kim bir kal- kalının (sic) kalası havaya beraber olmuş. Original text ends:. Abdülvehhab na're urdı Benim Abdülvehhab Gazi Resul Hazretinin alemdarı diye kâfurları birbirine nigah-i kaza-yi asuman …. This copy is undated but is approximately from the 12th century AH/18th century CE.

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Other copies of the Battalname can be found at Add MS 10000, Or 7310, Or 8768, and Or 16122, text III. On Add MS 10000, see Rieu, Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the British Museum, pp. 214-5. Or 7310, Or 8768, and Or 16122, text III are likely to be earlier recensions of the text. For more on Seyyid Battal, see I. Mélikoff, 'al-Baṭṭāl (Sayyid Baṭṭāl Ghāzī)', EI2 (doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0106); M. Canard, 'al-Baṭṭāl,' EI2 (doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_1288); Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, 'Battal Gazi,' TDVİA(islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/battal-gazi). For more on different aspects of the Battalname Idem, 'Battalnâme,' TDVİA(islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/battalname); Buket Kitapçı Bayrı, 'Contemporary perception of Byzantium in Turkish cinema: the cross-examination of Battal Gazi films with the Battalname,' Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 37:1 (2013), 81-91; Z. Yürekli, Architecture and hagiography in the Ottoman empire. The politics of the Bektashi shrines in the classical age (London; New York: Routledge, 2012).

Battalname: Introduction, English Translation, Turkish Transcription, Commentary and Facsimile = Battalname, 2 volumes, edited by Yorgos Dedes (Cambridge, Mass: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, 1996); H. Ethe, Die Fahrten des Sajjid Batthal: Ein Alttürkischer Volks- und Sittenroman, 2 volumes(Leipzig, 1871); Hasan Kavruk and Salim Durukoğlu, Battalname(Malatya: Malatya Kitaplığı Yayınları, 2012).