Bayterek Uluslararası Akademik Araştırmalar Dergisi

Öz

Stories in which the occurrence of a natural phenomenon or a being is embellished and told with extraordinary events by connecting the lives of people with supernatural characteristics to a certain place or an event in the form of living in public memory and imagination are called legends. Legends have also been fed by historical events, myths and other narratives, but have been separated from them in terms of style and have survived to the present day by showing an anonymous character. The legends told in the Beypazarı district of Ankara and compiled by Ahmet Yıldırım constituted the field of study of our study. In our study, legend definitions were discussed and a classification attempt was made for Beypazarı legends based on similar classifications. After the classification attempt, the concepts of belief, faith and cult were explained and then the cults in the legends of Beypazarı were examined.
Legends; are stories about a real or imaginary person, a place or an event that have a credible character, are shorter in form and have a didactic style. In general, legends that are connected with real events have been prioritized by folk heroes, religious elders or important objects. Legends are nourished by the geographical region and history in which they are created and inhabited. The events, people and places in these regions, the secrets of which cannot be solved or which attract attention, have both been the subject of legends and the source of legends. Mythological, historical, religious and imaginary/fantasy roots have been influential in the formation of legends. The credibility of the narratives is prioritized. He drew a lesson by considering the reality of the legend that both told the legend and listened to it. While the legends that we can find an example in every field of society are classified according to their subjects, in Beypazarı they are grouped into three groups as "legends about place and other formation names", "legends about shapeshifts" and "legends about religious elders".
While some of the legends told in Beypazarı constitute the story of the names of objects such as bridges, villages and food, some of them are formed around the short adventures of people. While some of these people were commoners, some of them appeared as figures with religious and historical characteristics. The adventures of figures in some legends have also shown menial characteristics.
The role of belief and faith in the formation of legends is great. Although the legends that have a share of reality are not one-to-one historical narratives, their reality has been accepted by the society and the events and people told have been believed. Cults, which are considered as sacred beings and which have led to the formation of many rituals around them, have also taken place in the legends and ensured that the value judgments of the society are protected with the credibility of the legends, the prohibitions are clearly stated and the tradition is transmitted.
In the legends of Beypazari, the cult of ancestors, the cult of veli, the cult of Hızır, the cult of mountains and stones, water, trees, food, tombs, folk medicine and dream cults have been identified. The beings who are the subject of cults seen in the legends of Beypazarı are not at the level of the God worshipped, but rather as manifestations of God, and they are not as prominent as the cults we see in the myths and have remained at the motif level.
In the legends compiled, cults such as the cult of ancestors, the cult of veli, the cult of the tomb, the cult of Hızır, the cult of mountains and stones, the cult of water, the cult of food, the cult of the word, the cult of medicine and the cult of dreams were seen. While one of the cults was more dominant in the legends, there were other cults that helped him, and some cults were intertwined. The titles we have created for our study are named on the most intense cult concepts, and other cults have taken their place under these headings. The cults in question have more of a narrative function of creating respect for the place or person and creating fear to protect it.
As a result of the examination, the cults in the legends did not only give life to the narrative; It has been seen that they have functions such as linking to religion, customs and traditions, adapting to nature and other living spaces and even contributing to the economy, and because of these functions, cults continue their own existence.