Alevî- Bektaşî Menâkıbnâmelerinde Renk Sembolizmi
Authors: Yurduseven Sümeyye 
Published: September 2023

Manāqibnāmes, which include the wise words and virtuous attitude of the Sūfīes in the Sūfī literature, written to explain the miracles of the elders of the sect; the social, political, religious-mystical structure of the society; It is one of the important sources of our culture and literature in terms of containing the historical events and personalities of the age. The inclusion of the miracles of the saints in the Alawī-Bektashī manāqibnāmes has caused these works to be quite rich in terms of symbolic motifs. In this study, the symbolic elements found in manāqibnāmes, which are among the important texts of Anatolian Sūfī literature and one of the important manuscripts of the Alawî-Bektashī tradition, were examined. The color symbols and colorful motifs used in different meanings in the velayetnames such as Koyun Baba, Demir Baba, Seyyid Ali Sultan, and the manāqibnāmes such as Abdal Musa, Hacım Sultan reflecting this culture, especially in the Velayetname of Hacı Bektaşi, revealed the necessity of examining the subject in detail and making comparisons. This study aims to examine the cultural richness and vitality of the Alawī-Bektashī tradition, which was influenced by pre-Islamic Turkish beliefs and Islam, and its effect on color symbolism and aims to analyze the symbolic meaning of the color elements in the manāqibnāmes. Color symbolism, which developed in the axis of old Turkish belief and Islamic religion, is frequently encountered in manāqibnāmes. These colors constitute an important area both in understanding the Alawî-Bektashī culture and in the analysis of the Turkish-Islamic unity in the formation of this culture. In this study, the colors in the Alawî-Bektashī manāqibnāmes and the meanings of these colors in the face of events and situations are emphasized. In this study, the symbolization of colors, which is the most striking element of human perception, on the axis of beliefs and thoughts found in Alawī-Bektashī's manāqibnāmes has been evaluated. In the research conducted, materials related to the subject were found by making use of Turkish, Ottoman, Arabic, and English works, they were classified, and the information obtained by establishing a connection between symbolic elements was arranged in accordance with the subject headings. In this study, library catalog searches, e-book/archive, encyclopedia reviews, related journal and internet articles, books, and theses were examined and analyzed according to the suitability of these resources for the subject of the paper. Many studies have been done on manāqibnāmes. However, there has not been a direct study on the color symbols in the manāqibnāmes and the semantic background of these symbols. For this reason, in this study, by examining each motif in the manāqibnāmes, it has been tried to evaluate the symbolic meanings of these motifs by giving comparative information on the axis of old Turkish belief and Islam. At the same time, information is given about the period's historical, socio-political, and psychological background, and the tradition of writing manāqibnāmes has been tried to be placed on a more understandable ground.