Yunus Emre (1240?–1321?) was a Turkish poet and Sufi mystic. He has exercised immense influence on Turkish literature, from his own day until the present. Because Yunus Emre is, after Ahmet Yesevi and Sultan Walad, one of the first known Turkish poets to have composed works in the spoken Turkish of his own age and region rather than in Persian or Arabic, his diction remains very close to the popular speech of his contemporaries in Central and Western Anatolia. This is also the language of a number of anonymous folk-poets, folk-songs, fairy tales, riddles (''tekerlemeler''), and proverbs.

Like the Oghuz ''Book of Dede Korkut'', an older and anonymous Central Asian epic, the Turkish folklore that inspired Yunus Emre in his occasional use of ''tekerlemeler'' as a poetic device had been handed down orally to him and his contemporaries. This strictly oral tradition continued for a long while.

Following the Mongolian invasion of Anatolia facilitated by the Sultanate of Rûm's defeat at the 1243 Battle of Köse Dağ, Islamic mystic literature thrived in Anatolia, and Yunus Emre became one of its most distinguished poets. Poems of Sultan Yunu Emre — despite being fairly simple on the surface — evidence his skill in describing quite abstruse mystical concepts in a clear way. He remains a popular figure in a number of countries, stretching from Azerbaijan to the Balkans, with seven different and widely dispersed localities disputing the privilege of having his tomb within their boundaries.

His poems, written in the tradition of Anatolian folk poetry, mainly concern divine love as well as human destiny:

Yunus Emre's portrait is depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 200 lira banknote issued in 2009.

In 1946, Ahmed Adnan Saygun composed an oratorio entitled Yunus Emre.

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Category:1240 births Category:1321 deaths Category:People illustrated on Turkish banknotes Category:Date of birth unknown Category:Turkish-language writers Category:Sufis Category:Sufi poets Category:Sufism stubs Category:Date of death unknown Category:Date of birth unknown

Mercan Dede (born Arkın Ilıcalı, 1966, Bursa, Turkey), also known as DJ Arkin Allen, is a Turkish composer, ney and bendir player, DJ and producer. He divides his time between Turkey, Europe and North America. He is a world music artist, playing a fusion of traditional acoustic Turkish and other oriental musics with electronic sounds.

His best known albums include ''Seyahatname'', ''Su'', and ''Nar''. He has worked in collaboration with Turkish and international musicians such as Susheela Raman, Dhafer Youssef, Sheema Mukherjee (Transglobal Underground) and Hugh Marsh.

Early life and education

Dede speaks Turkish, Arabic, French, Persian, and English.

Career

In 2001 he released his third album, ''Seyahatname'', which means "travelogue" in ancient Turkish, evokes the era of the great caravanserai crossing Anatolia on the silk road. The sound of the ney goes back to this period, and the music aspires to the spirit of the mystic Sufi poets of that time, such as Mevlana. Dede describes the sound of the ney as "a pure, universal spiritual sound" evoking deep feelings, deeper than we can comprehend in just our short time on earth. The ney "speaks the language of love, instantly comprehensible in the heart, compared to which all the mosques, churches, temples built to decorate (our spirituality) drift away". The album is Dede's personal effort to reflect on his own spiritual journey.

His 2002 album ''Nar'' (which means "fire" in Turkish) continued in the same vein. In 2004 he released ''Su'' ("water") stayed at number one on European World Music Charts for two months. The album was recorded with an international line-up of musicians and has more vocals on it than the previous works. One track featuring folk singer Sabahat Akkiraz was particularly popular in Turkey. Dede made his U.S. debut at the first Globalfest that year, followed by a North American tour and the release of the album ''Fusion Monster'' under the name 'Arkin Allen', which has a slightly different twist on his familiar sound. He was commissioned by the Turkish Ministry of Culture as the music director of the Guldestan project to represent Turkish culture and arts all around the globe, working alongside choreographer Beyhan Murphy.

The February 2007 album ''Nefes'' ("breath") included Transglobal Underground sitar player Sheema Mukherjee in the line-up. The album includes spoken songs in Turkish, Arabic, and French.

Mercan Dede and his Secret Tribe have given live performances at festivals including the Montreal Jazz Festival, WOMEX, the Festival de Trans Musicales and Banlieus Bleus, Arezzo, the Montreux Jazz Festival, the World Roots Festival and the Rhythm Sticks Festival and at more than 100 shows in Vienna, Geneva, Brussels, Cologne, Paris, Amsterdam and Istanbul.

His music

He plays with groups of various sizes and fluctuating membership: the Mercan Dede Trio, the Mercan Dede Ensemble, and the Secret Tribe. The instrumentation used includes electronics and elements of classical Turkish music such as the ney (which he plays himself), percussion, violin, and zither. The groups often include Montreal-based percussionist Scott Russell, Canadian violinist Hugh Marsh, and Turkish clarinetist Hüsnü Şenlendirici. The shows often include men and women in Sufi costume doing Sufi whirling.

Dede works as a DJ under the name Arkın Allen, specialising in music related to that of his live groups, in this case dance music with an oriental flavour.

Dede has been criticised by Turkish music purists for not being steeped in the Sufi traditions and for not properly representing sufism in his music and writings. Another criticism is that the whirling dancers he uses to accompany his shows do not accurately display the correct dervish routines. However, as more than a ney player, working just as often as a DJ as performing live in concert, with an audience consisting of clubbers, not Islamic scholars, Dede aims to synthesise several different traditions rather than recreate a historically pure music.

Discography

Achievements

Collaborations

See also

References

External links

Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:Turkish composers Category:Sufi music Category:Turkish expatriates in Canada