Suleyman Celebı, Vesıletu'n-Necât and The Mawlid Tradıtıon as a National and Cultural Value: a Case Study on Turkish University Students
Süleyman Doğan, Lütfullah ÇeliktenThis research paper aims to determine the opinions of Turkish university students about the tradition of mawlid literature, and in particular, Süleyman Çelebi’s Vesîletü’n-Necât, an important work in Islamic Turkish literature. The study group of the research consists of university students studying in different faculties in the 2021- 2022 academic year. The research was designed as a phenomenological research. An interview form consisting of open-ended questions was used as a data collection tool in the research. The results show that the university students have a command of the mawlidt tradition, and in particular Süleyman Çelebi and his work Vesîletü’n-Necât, and see them as holding an important status in Turkish culture. It can be said that students know Süleyman Çelebi and his work in both literary and socio-cultural terms, are aware of the purpose of its writing, and see these two names as important in the Turkish-Islamic world. However, there were also students who had never encountered Süleyman Çelebi, Vesîletü’n-Necât or attended a mawlid ceremony. Therefore, it is proposed to carry out various activities for the recognition, promotion and survival of Süleyman Çelebi, the pioneer of this tradition, and his work Vesîletü’n-Necât.
Millî ve Kültürel Bir Değer Olarak Süleyman Çelebi, Vesîletü’n-Necât ve Mevlit Geleneği: Üniversite Öğrencileri Üzerine Bir Araştırma
Süleyman Doğan, Lütfullah ÇeliktenMevlit geleneği, Türk-İslam coğrafyasında Hz. Peygamber’in doğumu ve peygamber sevgisinin bir nişanesi olarak dinî hayatın ayrılmaz parçalarından birisidir. Süleyman Çelebi tarafından yazılan ve halk tarafından daha çok “Mevlit” olarak bilinen ve asıl ismi “Vesîletü’n-Necât” olan eser, mevlit geleneğinin en çok beğenilen, sevilen ve okunan eserlerinden birisidir. Bu araştırmada, toplumun genç ve aydın kuşağını oluşturan üniversite öğrencilerinin İslami Türk Edebiyatının önemli isimlerinden Süleyman Çelebi ve eseri Vesîletü’n-Necât özelinde mevlit geleneği hakkındaki görüşlerini tespit etmek amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu, 2021- 2022 öğretim yılında farklı fakültelerde öğrenim gören üniversite öğrencileri oluşturmaktadır. Araştırma nitel araştırma desenlerinden olgu bilim araştırması olarak tasarlanmıştır. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak açık uçlu sorulardan oluşan görüşme formu kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada ulaşılan sonuçlara göre üniversite öğrencilerinin Türk kültüründe önemli bir yeri bulunan Süleyman Çelebi ve onun eseri Vesîletü’n-Necât özelinde mevlit geleneğine hâkim oldukları görülmüştür. Öğrencilerin hem edebî hem de sosyo-kültürel anlamda Süleyman Çelebi ve eserini bildikleri, yazılış amacının farkında oldukları ve bu iki ismi Türk – İslam dünyasının bir değeri olarak gördükleri söylenebilir. Bununla birlikte hayatlarında Süleyman Çelebi, Vesîletü’n-Necât ve mevlit törenleri ile hiçbir şekilde karşılaşmamış öğrencilerin de bulunduğu görülmüştür. Bu vesileyle bu geleneğin öncüsü Süleyman Çelebi ve eseri Vesîletü’n-Necât’ın tanınması, tanıtılması ve yaşatılmasına yönelik çeşitli faaliyetlerin gerçekleştirilmesi önerilmiştir.
The Mevlit/Mawlid, the traditional celebration of the birth of the Prophet and an occasion to demonstrate love of the prophet, is an inseparable part of religious life in the Turkish-Islamic geography. This tradition is a reflection of faith within the framework of social, cultural and religious values in the Islamic world. The foundation of the mawlid tradition consists of reading verse and prose literary texts about the birth of Muhammad, his family, prophetic qualities, miracles, morality that serves as a paradigm for believers, and various periods of his life and his death. The work “Vesîletü’n-Necât”, more widely known by the public as “Mevlit,” by Süleyman Çelebi is one of the most admired, loved and read works of the mawlid tradition. Although there are many works in the genre of mawlid, “Vesîletü’n-Necât” is the most famous and the first work of its kind written in Turkish. Süleyman Çelebi’s plain and effective language helped make it one of the main works of the mawlid tradition. Süleyman Çelebi was born in Bursa in 1409. Sources report that he was the imam of the Dîvân-ı Hümâyun for a while before being appointed as the Imam of the Bursa Grand Mosque. It is generally accepted that the poet, who is claimed to be Mevlevi or Halveti, died in 1422, as indicated by the composition of “râhat-ı ervâh.” In Turkish society, apart from the birthday/night of the Prophet and religious ceremonies, “Mevlit” is also read at other ceremonies such as births, deaths, marriages and circumcisions and sending off soldiers. In terms of these practices, the ceremonies of mawlid have become not only a religious practice, but also a socio-cultural value and have an important role in value transfer. Given the guiding and integrating effect of values in social life, it can be said that mevlit is a tradition that unites Turkish society and incorporates national and spiritual root values. This research aims to determine the opinions of university students, who constitute the young generation of intellectuals in society, about the tradition of mawlid, and in particular, Süleyman Çelebi and Vesîletü’n-Necât. The research was designed as a phenomenological research. The study group consists of students at different faculties and grade levels studying at various universities in Istanbul. In the study, easily accessible case sampling was preferred in selecting the study group. In order to collect data for the research, an open-ended question form was prepared for the students by the researchers. The open-ended question form consists of two parts. The first part contains questions regarding personal demographic information, while in the second part, there are questions divided into “Self-Status Assessment” and “Süleyman Çelebi, Vesîletü’n-Necât and Mawlid as a Value.” The obtained data was subjected to content analysis with an inductive approach. The research paper aimed to determine the knowledge of the students about Süleyman Çelebi, Vesîletü’n-Necât and the tradition of mawlid, and whether they had attended any mawlid ceremony before. When the data obtained was examined, it was concluded that a little more than half of the students had knowledge about Süleyman Çelebi and his work Vesîletü’n-Necât. Thus, the majority of the students have participated in a mawlid ceremony before. The fact that the majority of the students have been in some form of mawlid ceremonies at some point in their lives is an important indicator of the fact that the mawlid tradition is an important value in Turkish-Islamic society. As a second value in the research, it aimed to determine students’ views on Süleyman Çelebi, his work Vesîletü’n-Necât and mawlid ceremonies. When the data obtained were examined, it was seen that the words used by the students in their opinions about these names were “Hz. Muhammed, divan poet, mawlid, scholar, great mosque, Turkish, prophet, special, emotional, famous, poetry, Celebi, esotericism (Bâtinîlik), religious poet, imam, death, birth, circumcision, love, literature, Bursa, morality, eulogy, “ The expressions that the students emphasized the most were about the Prophet Muhammad and the poet’s love for him. Secondly, various questions were asked to the students in the context of direct values. The study aimed to determine what values the mawlid tradition reflects and its place in the context of socio-cultural values. After evaluating the data, it was determined that the students mostly used the concepts of “love, morality, unity and solidarity, truthfulness, trust, goodness, beauty, mysticism.” It can be seen that they draw attention to the existence of Islamic and human values.
