5 votes

Özgür Baba - Dertli Dolap

Tags: folk, turkish, cura

11 comments

  1. [7]
    unknown user
    Link
    Wow, that's interesting! The first 2min 25 secs have nothing to do with traditional Turkish music, but at that point a nice transition's made to a more traditional sort of strings sound. Again,...

    Wow, that's interesting! The first 2min 25 secs have nothing to do with traditional Turkish music, but at that point a nice transition's made to a more traditional sort of strings sound. Again, from around 9min mark he goes into harmonic music, more European, like the intro. The lyrics are from Yunus Emre, considered one of the greatest poets of Turkish language. He's also a tasavvufi figure, meaning islamic mysticism. Things like Alawism, the Bektashi order, or the Sufi order are quite different to any modern widespread perceptions of Islam. I'm taking a distance education course on Turkish literature from the Anadolu University, hopefully that'll help me know more about this sort of literary and cultural tradition.

    Thanks for sharing this!

    3 votes
    1. [5]
      cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Thanks for providing some additional context for this video. I will definitely be looking for a good translation of Yunus Emre's works now. And speaking of Islamic mysticism and Sufism, Jalāl...

      Thanks for providing some additional context for this video. I will definitely be looking for a good translation of Yunus Emre's works now. And speaking of Islamic mysticism and Sufism, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, an Islamic Scholar, Theologian and Sufi mystic is easily my favorite poet of all time. I have mentioned him and some of his poems several times here on Tildes. I really wish more people knew of Islamic mysticism and the various orders associated with it too. As you say, they defy the preconceptions most Westerners have of Islam and fly directly in the face of the unfortunately common misconception (and Islamophobic attack vector) that implies the Islamic world is some monolithic entity where every Muslim agrees about everything.

      1 vote
      1. [4]
        unknown user
        Link Parent
        That might be because this sort of mysticism is hardly digested in most of the Islamic community too. I'm from Turkey myself, and can attest to the fact that, apart from some stereotypified...

        That might be because this sort of mysticism is hardly digested in most of the Islamic community too. I'm from Turkey myself, and can attest to the fact that, apart from some stereotypified examples like Celaleddin Rumi (Turkish spelling, though we call him Mevlana most of the time) who are wildly (edit:perhaps purposefully) misinterpreted, the mainstream Sunni islamic community has turned a blind eye to most of this sort of tradition, because it's at the fringes of Islam. The Bektashi order for example, famously the sort of Islam Janissaries practiced, resembles ancient Christian churches. This sort of belief systems have been persecuted historically by the majority sects. We don't study them in K12 history and literature lessons. We don't care about them except when attributing atrociously stupid quotes to Mevlana. I'm an irreligious ex-muslim, but yet I want to study these stuff because it's very interesting, and beautiful in itself. It's also got a deep philosophical side to it, and is deeply intertwined with the history of this piece of earth.

        3 votes
        1. [3]
          cfabbro
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          According to Pew, well over 1/4 of Muslims in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1/5 in South Asia & Russia, and 1/10 in Egypt are members of a Sufi order as well as a smattering of others <1/10 elsewhere. I...

          According to Pew, well over 1/4 of Muslims in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1/5 in South Asia & Russia, and 1/10 in Egypt are members of a Sufi order as well as a smattering of others <1/10 elsewhere. I would hardly call that "at the fringes of Islam", but you are absolutely right about Sufis often being heavily persecuted/attacked, both historically and even still.

          And speaking of the Bektashi, around the time I first discovered Rumi I also read a book by Stephen Schwartz, the director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, called The Other Islam about Sufism that had a forward written by the former Baba of the Bektashi order. It's just a very basic introduction to Sufism and its modern day practices, so I don't know how interesting it would be to you, but as a Westerner I found it quite eye-opening and your mentioning the Bektashi brought it back to my mind. :P

          And speaking of the Janissaries, you don't play Europa Universalis 4 by any chance, do you? It's one of my all-time favorite video games and the Ottoman Empire and its Janissaries feature rather heavily in it.

          1 vote
          1. [2]
            unknown user
            Link Parent
            The book would be totally interesting to me! I'll study these stuff at some point in future, mostly in context of history, so I'll add that to a reading list. Thanks a lot! Sufis and Shia are...

            The book would be totally interesting to me! I'll study these stuff at some point in future, mostly in context of history, so I'll add that to a reading list. Thanks a lot! Sufis and Shia are indeed numerous, but mainstream Islam is Sunna in political terms. Also, people think that Sunna is the closest to the ways of Mohammed, one meaning of the word sunnah being the exemplary behaviour of him. And TBH AFAIK Sufism and Shia deviate from Quran to various extents organisationally. Like the higher barrier to entry to the religion is in direct conflict with the "normal" way which is to cite kelime-i şahadet "words/oath of testimony" and accept the five pillars of Islam.

            WRT the game, I'm not a games person (I only play what my brother has on his PC from time to time). But looking at this video, it looks like Hearts of Iron which he used to play and I found frankly too complex for my tastes (I like simple and easy---my favourite ever is CoDII :)), but still somewhat enjoyable. Add to that the historicalness of the game, it might be fun to try, though I suck big time at any game that requires strategy.

            2 votes
            1. cfabbro
              Link Parent
              Hearts of Iron is made by Paradox Interactive, the same company that makes Europa Universalis so that's why they look so similar. And yeah, all their games are stupidly complex strategy games but...

              Hearts of Iron is made by Paradox Interactive, the same company that makes Europa Universalis so that's why they look so similar. And yeah, all their games are stupidly complex strategy games but that's exactly why I love them. :P

              And I'm glad my book recommendation sounds interesting to you. I enjoyed it, and as I said it was pretty eye-opening for me, but I honestly can't speak to its veracity since I am definitely not an expert on the subject by any means. And in fact, a few months ago I even found out that one of my favorite books on Rumi is actually full of a lot of horrible mistranslations so had to hunt for more well regarded replacement. Which is funny since you mentioned misinterpreted Rumi quotes earlier too. :P

              1 vote
    2. EightRoundsRapid
      Link Parent
      I really enjoy new takes on folk/traditional music. And the blending of folk tradition and modern electronic music is something i enjoy. Stuff like this is great, because it opens doors for me...

      I really enjoy new takes on folk/traditional music. And the blending of folk tradition and modern electronic music is something i enjoy.

      Stuff like this is great, because it opens doors for me into music I'd probably never realise I had any interest in hearing.

      Santi & Tuğçe - Songs for Another Day https://soundcloud.com/tugce-kurtis/sets/santi-tug-e-songs-for-another

      Tuğçe Kurtiş - Songs for My Grandmother Remixes [Souq Records] EP · 2018 by Santi & Tuğçe

      https://soundcloud.com/santiandtugce/sets/tug-c-e-kurtis-songs-for-my

      1 vote
  2. [3]
    cfabbro
    Link
    Cura (instrument) - for those curious. I love classic, minimalist, ethno folk music and this was absolutely no exception. There is something so utterly pure and raw about it. Thanks for sharing...

    Cura (instrument) - for those curious.

    I love classic, minimalist, ethno folk music and this was absolutely no exception. There is something so utterly pure and raw about it. Thanks for sharing Staross, this was great.

    2 votes
    1. [2]
      Staross
      Link Parent
      Youtube recommended it to me for some reason, I find it quite fascinating, even the chicken adds to it.

      Youtube recommended it to me for some reason, I find it quite fascinating, even the chicken adds to it.

      2 votes
      1. cfabbro
        Link Parent
        LOL yeah I loved the environment he was playing in with the chickens running around, and the braying of the donkey (I think it was a donkey?) at one point also made me smile too. :P

        LOL yeah I loved the environment he was playing in with the chickens running around, and the braying of the donkey (I think it was a donkey?) at one point also made me smile too. :P

  3. calcifer
    Link
    Wow, this was beautiful. It's like one of those things that inspires you to give up the hectic city life and move to the countryside.

    Wow, this was beautiful. It's like one of those things that inspires you to give up the hectic city life and move to the countryside.

    1 vote