Victor Turner's theoretical contributions to anthropology and to the formation of cultural criticism have become influential in literary criticism as fundamental Turnerian concepts, such as liminality, liminoid, social performance, anti-structure, communitas, etc. have gained considerable attention in the criticism of both oral and written literature. For example, articles in the recently published Victor Turner and the Construction of Cultural Pluralism: Between Literature and Anthropology. [1] show that Turner ' s socially grounded theories of anthropology are well applicable to literary criticism.

In this essay, I intend to show how some of the Turnerian concepts mentioned above prove to be very useful in constructing a reading of Yashar Kemal ' s Bin Bogalar Efsanesi (The Legend of the Thousand Bulls), [2] a novel infused with a ritual atmosphere and symbolic magic. In this novel, we see played out in the struggles between the two main protagonist groups, the Karachullu nomads and the sedentary (city) people of Chukurova, the differences between what Victor Turner has called liminal and liminoid settings.

I

For Turner, " the anthropology of performance is an essential part of the anthropology of experience. " Every cultural performance, such as ritual, ceremony, theater, poetry and the like, is an explanation of life itself. [3]

Turner lived side by side with the people he studied and his theories were developed based on direct contact with them.

In the field my family and I lived in no " ivory tower " : we spent nearly three years in African villages (Ndembu, Lamba, Kosa, Gisu), mostly in grass huts. Something like " drama " was constantly emerging, even erupting, from the otherwise fairly even surfaces of social life. For the scientist in me, such social dramas revealed the " taxonomic " relations among actors (their kinship ties, structural positions, social class, political status, and so forth), and their contemporary bonds and oppositions of interest and friendship, their personal network ties, and informal relationships. For the artist in me, the drama revealed individual character, personal style, rhetorical skill, moral and aesthetic differences, and choices proffered and made. Most importantly, it made me aware of the power of symbols in human communication. [4]

His particular attention to symbols is especially articulated in his definition of ritual. Turner, like Margaret Mead and some other leading anthropologists, has declared the smallest unit of ritual to be the symbol. [5]

He saw performances of ritual as different phases in social processes through which social groups become adjusted to internal changes and adapt to their social and cultural external environment. In this light, the ritual symbol becomes a major factor and a positive force in social action. [6]

In his acclaimed The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual, Turner described ritual as " prescribed formal behavior for occasions not given over to technological routine, having reference to beliefs in mystical beings or powers." [7]

His study of the Ndembu people of Africa provided him with the notion that rites compel the participants to make a change in their social status, in which they exchange their established place in the social structure for a condition of communitas. During this process, the bonds become " anti-structural in that they are undifferentiated, equaliterian, direct... " [8]

Turner uses the term anti-structure mainly with reference to tribal and agrarian societies as the basis for the description of his concepts of liminality and communitas. He sees in tribal societies a much closer relationship between communitas and liminality than between communitas and normative structure. [9]

Hardin sums up well what Turner means by the term communitas: " structure, rank, and social and economic status are what hold people apart; ' communitas ' unites people across the barriers." [10]

It seems clear that in his interpretations and arguments, Turner privileges anti-structure over structure and puts a much greater value upon the anti-structural.

The term liminality literally means thresholdness. For Turner the term liminality refers to the status of being outside the classifications of social life. The connotation and implications of this term later take on more clarity when contrasted to his characterization of the liminoid. According to Turner, liminal phenomena " tend to predominate in tribal and early agrarian societies possessing what Durkheim has called ' mechanical solidarity ' . " Liminoid phenomena, on the other hand, emerge in societies based on ' organic solidarity ' . Liminoid phenomena " first begin clearly to develop in Western Europe in nascent capitalist societies, with the beginnings of industrialization andmechanization, the transformation of labor into commodity, and the appearance of real social classes. " They continue to dominate today ' s economic and political powers, such as the United States, Germany, France, Britain, and other countries whose organized capitalist systems are highly visible. For Turner, liminal phenomena are collective and concerned with calendrical and socio-structural rhythms. " They are... enforced by sociocultural ' necessity ' , but they contain in nuce ' freedom ' and potentiality for the formation of new ideas, symbols, models, beliefs. " It is possible for liminoid phenomena to show collective characteristics but they are more individual products even if they have collective or mass effects. Liminal phenomena " are centrally integrated into the total social process, forming with all its other aspects a complete whole. " Liminoid phenomena, on the contrary, " develop apart from the central economic and political processes, along the margins, in the interfaces and interstices of central and servicing institutionsthey are plural, fragmentary, and experimental in character. " " Liminoid phenomena tend to be more idiosyncratic, quirky, to be generated by specific names of individuals and in particular groups... they have to compete with one another for general recognition." [11]

In introducing his theories of liminal and liminoid structures, Turner sometimes makes direct reference to many " literary " and " artistic " activities and the problems which arise when trying to describe their discursive statuses. His following remarks, for example, concerning the anonymous and individual creation of " literature " and " art, " intersect with many major discussions in the field of literary study:

If there ever were individual creators and artists, they have been subdued by the general " liminal " emphasis on anonymity and communitas, just as the novices and their novice-masters have been. But in the liminoid genres of industrial art, literature, and even science (more truly homologous with tribal liminal thinking than modern art), great public stress is laid on the individual innovator, the unique person who dares and opts to create. In this lack of stress on individuality, tribal liminality may be seen not as the inverse of tribal normativeness, but as its projection into ritual situations. [12]

Although he differed in many fundamental aspects from the classical Marxists, and later in life alienated himself from Marxism, in his analyses, a clear class consciousness always seems to be the dominant mode of thought.

II

Yashar Kemal is one of Turkey ' s most prominent and widely read writers. He was born in 1922 in a small village in southern Turkey. He possesses neither a university nor a high school diploma. The only education he received from the institutionalized " learning " industry was a basic primary school education. Though he began middle school, he never went beyond the eight grade. [13]

Nevertheless, he was a Nobel nominee for literature. Above, I cited Victor Turner saying " [i]n the field my family and I lived in no ' ivory tower '" (despite his being a highly literate man). Similarly, Yashar Kemal has not lived in an " ivory tower " and his writing has found its strongest inspiration and power directly from the people of Chukurova and their social struggles. The following words of a villager from the region, Memed Cakir, who received only a primary school education and owns no land, delineate well Yashar Kemal ' s close ties to the land and its people ' s struggles:

Yasar Kemal is a great revolutionary writer of our region. I was able to read only Ince Memed among his books. This novel describes the struggle of the villagers of the Taurus mountains against the aghas. It describes very well the injustices of the landlords against the people, how the aghas use the poor peasants ' land for their benefit, how they take advantage of the peasants, how they live well off the peasants. Ince Memed himself is a man of this region. He is one of us. [Yasar Kemal] narrates his experiences, the events that took place in Aktozlu, Anavarza, Hacilar, Ayseocagi: all of them are villages in this vicinity. [What he writes] is true; these events have occurred. I have been hearing about the struggles between the peasants and the aghas since my childhood... In a situation like this you expect brave fellows like Ince Memed to appear. In my opinion, Ince Memed is a hero created by poor sharecroppers, villagers like us against the cruelty of the aghas. [14]

The principal dynamic of Yashar Kemal ' s discourse has always centered around the socio-economic and socio-political problems of the people of Chukurova, people like Memed Cakir. Yashar Kemal not only takes the problems of the troubled people and transforms them into plot structures for his epics, he also benefits greatly from the language of these people with all its richness and " colloquialism. " As Ilhan Basgöz puts it, " [h]is language is surprisingly rich; he can find a local word to express a modern and complex concept. The publication of a dictionary [Ali Puskulluoglu, Yasar Kemal Sözlugu (1974)] explaining Yasar ' s usage of folk language and expressions was not an act of kindness or respect; it was necessary to gain a full understanding of his works." [15]

III

On the back cover of Bin Bogalar Efsanesi [The Legend of the Thousand Bulls] Yashar Kemal declares: " Bu belki de en gercekci romanimdir. " [This is perhaps my most realistic novel.] The novel [16] is based on a true story, as is the case in many of his works. It tells the story of the Karachullu yuruks, one of the last remaining nomadic groups of Anatolia, who were struggling to find a piece of pasture land and a wintering place around the Bin Bogalar [the Thousand Bulls] Mountains in the Taurus mountain range. Real historical events form much ofthe backdrop of the novel. From this point of view, it includes significant material from oral history which can be extremely useful for those historians interested in the gradual settling of the nomadic tribes in Anatolia.

On the night that links the fifth to the sixth of May the members of the wandering tribe organize an Ayin-i Cem (a ceremony of worship), as they have done for generations. It is the night dedicated to the religious-mythologic figures Hizir (Hizir) and Ilyas (Ilyas). [17]

According to the legend, each year on that night, the two meet somewhere on this earth, and when they join, everything in this world dies. But a few minutes later, everything again comes back to life and becomes more joyful than before. At the same time, two stars fall down through the sky. They meet, creating extraordinary lights all over the earth. If someone witnesses this moment, anything he or she asks for will come true. The greatest hope for the tribe in obtaining the land they seek lies in Hizir and Ilyas.

Yashar Kemal has always paid particular attention to the usage of similar mythological elements in his _uvre. This is perhaps one of the most significant features of his romantic-sounding but otherwise realistic stories. In an interview the author said: " In my youth I had witnessed how in times of famine the people would literally create saints they could turn to... Men have always forged myths as a refuge in times of stress and will go on doing so." [18]

This novel is permeated with the mythico-religious beliefs and symbols of the tribe and Hizir and Ilyas are almost full protagonists in the story because of the role they play, or could play, in determining the fate of the tribe.

Every member of the Karachullu tribe hopes to see the meeting of Hizir and Ilyas and the changes that take place at that moment. They believe that, in order to witness the two stars meeting and falling down to the earth, one must not sleep at all that night. Haydar, the Master Blacksmith, orders the tribe with a powerful voice: " Nobody must sleep tonight. No one at all. Even if one person sleeps then the spell will be broken, the magic... " (p. 10). Here belief constitutes an indispensable ritual element. In Haydar ' s character, we see the manifestation of respect for the elderly and for their authority in the tribe. The Master Blacksmith ' s strong order is perhaps the first indication of their tribal liminality. [19]

And in this liminal position one of the most characteristic elements of communitas is emphasized and will continue to be emphasized throughout the novel. According to the Master Blacksmith, the people of the Karachullu tribe must be good people because the stars are seen only by good people. The whole tribe in great unison prepares itself for the event, reinforcing its liminal unity. In this preparation two other inseparable devices of the ritual arise: music and dance. These two ritual elements appear as ritual symbols during the event and they perform religious or magical functions for the benefit of the wholetribe.

The function of these two ritual activities in the novel deserves further analysis. Here, these activities are not seen by the tribe as " artistic " performances. They are not set apart from the other activities of necessity; music and dance are not leisure genres, rather they are totally functional. They are performed together by the group as a whole and serve the purpose of unification. The fundamental difference between the liminoid and liminal societies ' " artistic " creations or activities is clear. As I mentioned at the beginning, Turner distinguishes what he calls the " leisure genres of complex societies " from those of the tribal communitas. " In the liminal phases and states of tribal and agrarian cultures... " he says " work and play are hardly distinguishable... Ritual is both earnest and playful." [20]

For Turner, the clear division between work and leisure has been produced by modern industrial societies and this division " has affected all symbolic genres, from ritual to games and literature. [21]

Art in liminoid societies becomes part of the realm of leisure; it is set apart from those activities which serve necessity. In liminal societies, however, art retains its link with work and necessity. One can provide endless examples from world cultures in support of Turner ' s argument. One can, for example, think of the tents, kilims and carpets, baskets, socks, gloves, bags, plates, and many, many other material objects made by the hands of the people in Anatolia. They are in most cases not labeled as " art " by those who produce them. The people of Anatolia do not create them for the sake of being " artists " ; rather they do so because of necessity and function. These products become " art " only when they are seen by art " professionals " or by those who bring them into liminoid societies or groups for marketing. They become " art " and " expensive " only in the ostentatious galleries of businessmen or the museums of " cultivated " people. Similarly, people create love songs and laments throughout Anatolia without labeling and classifying them as " poetry " or " literature. " They do so because, through such activities or performances, they express their joys, pains, social disasters, victories, and other real episodes of their daily life.

During the ritual night no one sleeps in the tribe, as Haydar the Blacksmith ordered. Some of them " see " (or at least believe they see) the significant moment. However, the wish of the Karachullu tribe, a pasture land and a wintering place, does not come true because they, particularly Little Kerem, break the promise and ask for personal things. Due to this disloyalty to the tribe and to the century-old tribal spirit, they are again destined to be the poor subjects of the sedentary landowners. When Kerem sees the meeting of the two stars, he is torn between the goal of the whole tribe and his own dream: to have a falcon. His personal desire wins him over and he asks for a falcon. But later a nagging guilt invades his whole being. Whenever he thinks about the destitute people of histribe he suffers tremendously:

' Why, oh why did I wish for that falcon and not for a wintering place in the Chukurova?... ' ' ' The Lord Hizir who gave me the falcon could have given a wintering place too... Curse this falcon, what are we to do now? We haven ' t a patch of land to step on. These Chukurova people are going to kill us all. They ' ll take everything we have and kill us' (p. 88).

Little Kerem ' s regret continues throughout the novel. He sees himself as a traitor, as he witnesses the worsening situation of the tribe. The feudal exploitation of the Chukurova aghas (big landowners) pushes them further into desperation. Day by day, finding a little piece of land for pasturing and wintering becomes increasingly difficult. Wherever they move, they are obliged to pay a higher price in money or sheep to the landowners of Chukurova. After concentrating all their expectations in the mythological saviors and having their hopes dashed, they are left with only two other alternatives for their salvation: first, Jeren and then Haydar, the Master Blacksmith.

In the novel Jeren is a paragon of physical human beauty, which is also a mirror of her virtue and integrity. Even her name which means " gazelle " is an image of her innocence and beauty. One of the men enamored of her is Oktay Bey, the son of a landowner. He would bestow upon them as much land as they wanted in return for Jeren ' s hand in marriage. Some members of the tribe want to force Jeren to marry him, though she loves Halil, the Bey (chief) of the tribe. Even though some men in the tribe would give her away in exchange for the land, the majority eventually decides that it is too great a sacrifice to ask of the girl. There is now only one hope left for the Karachullu tribe: Haydar ' s sword.

Haydar has been working on a sword for thirty years. As the Master Blacksmith, he has a very respected place among the Karachullus. The members of the whole tribe believe that when this sword is ready, and when Haydar presents it to Ismet Pasha (at that time the president of Turkey) they will be able to obtain whatever they want. Just as legends tell of great padishas bestowing gifts of land and riches upon other craftsmen, Old Haydar and his believers have great confidence that this sword will procure for them the land they so desperately need. This dream finally makes Old Haydar finish his masterpiece. He goes on his horse to Adana, a big city very close to the area where the Karachullu live. He still thinks the city is part of an empire ruled by one man. He looks for the " palace " of this " ruler. " The minute he starts telling his story, people realize that he is unaware of the changes that have taken place in the world.

Beginning especially at this point, Yashar Kemal masterfully presents the conflict between liminal and liminoid settings, highlighting the results of capitalist alienation and its dehumanizing effects in society. [22]

Old Haydar tries desperately to find a " nice " person in the city. One man tries to help Haydar, but he cannot find the right manner to explain to him, without breaking his heart, that this is no longer the world he imagines. The man finally sends him to tell his story to another man, whom Haydar believes to be the ruler of the whole area. He looks for his " palace " but instead finds him living in a small, modest house. He thinks that all the other surrounding houses must be parts of the great palace. He knocks on the door and bows to his " majesty. " He tries to tell his story and show his famous sword but again he is disappointed. He finally finds his way to the capital. Upon arriving in Ankara, he begins to realize more clearly that people have become selfish and individualistic. But by the help of another " nice " man, he finally succeeds in meeting Ismet Pasha. He imagines at that moment that Ismet Pasha will listen to his story, take interest in his tribe ' s problems and offer him a piece of land, bringing to an end the century-old exploitation of his people by the feudal rulers of Chukurova. Yashar Kemal narrates the meeting as follows:

" Take it, Ismet, " he said. " Thirty years I worked on it for you. And you know how it was with Rustem, the Blacksmith of the Chelebi tribe... That was long ago... He went to the Padishah who was then in your place. Fifteen years it had taken him to make his sword, and what did the Padishah say?... Wish me a wish, Rustem, Master, he said... And the blacksmith asked for land for his tribe to winter on. At once the Padishah bestowed upon him the whole land of Aydin, all in return for one single sword... For thirty years I ' ve been forging this sword... For you... It ' s agony what we ' re suffering in the Chukurova, agony... Take it... Take this sword ' "(p. 241).

Ismet Pasha takes the sword, handles it with care and returns it to Old Haydar, saying " very beautiful; very, very beautiful! " He hobbles away quickly and gets into his official car. For the first time, Old Haydar fully realizes that there is no hope left for him, no hope of finding a real, caring human being to listen to his tribe ' s story. His sword slips from his hands onto the pavement.

Old Haydar enjoys respect and is deeply loved in his tribe ' s closed but unified liminality, however he represents uselessness and even insanity in the context of the normative structure of the city people. Here, his values, his thirty-year labor of love and craftsmanship have no meaning, no function. To Ismet Pasha, Haydar ' s sword is a lifeless object, an empty commodity. The capitalist mentality, represented in Ismet Pasha ' s attitude, values productivity and profit and Haydar ' s thirty-year labor to make one sword constitutes an absurdity in such a system. The clash of the liminal and liminoid values in these scenes verges on the tragic and the impossibility of communication between the two systems is heard in Ismet Pasha ' s hurried and embarrassed muttering and in Haydar ' s astonished silence.

The confrontation of the liminal and liminoid, the destructiveness of the one to the other, is implied in Haydar's destruction of his own masterpiece. He goes back to his tribe with the sword which he now realizes is useless in the liminoid society. As if performing a solemn ritual, he piles the coal into the forge, strikes a match, lights the fire, and begins pumping the bellows. Beginning the ceremony, he holds his sword in the light of the forge, kisses it three times, and closes his eyes, muttering an ancient prayer for iron, fire, and water. He puts the sword into the coals and waits for it to turn crimson. Towards midnight, he takes the sword from the fire and places it on the anvil. He starts beating and beating. The sword changes shape. He beats it again and again until it is rolled into a ball, as if taking revenge on the people who made them suffer. And it is in this ecstasy of destruction that Old Haydar departs from the tribe and the suffering which he has failed to remedy, falling lifeless over his anvil.

Even in Haydar ' s death, a ritual process with all its symbolism is clear. At this point we should recall Turner ' s description of ritual: " prescribed formal behavior for occasions not given over to technological routine, having reference to beliefs in mystical beings or powers. " However, this time the occasion is not to make a sword but to destroy one. This time Haydar is consumed by anger and frustration with the sedentary people and their capitalist " values " which have alienated those people from other human beings and even from each other. But he still manifests his loyalty to tradition; he follows what the elders did before him, destroying the sword with as much care, respect and love as that with which he had fashioned it.

In this ritual process, however, Haydar does not invoke any Islamic forces. He does not, for example, recite a prayer for Allah, but for iron, fire, and water. These three components and the beliefs of creation surrounding them were dominant among the Kökturk, centuries before the Turkic-speaking peoples adopted Islam, [23] and they have since been considered heterodox in the Islamic world. These and many other heterodox beliefs and rituals are found in Anatolia especially among the Alevis and Bektashis. In support of Köprulu ' s hypothesis in his Influence du chamanisme turco-mongol sur les ordres mystiques musulmans (1929), Mircae Eliade states that certain non-Islamic elements found in many works of " Moslem mystics " are due to influences from Turko- Mongol Shamanism. [24]

It seems clear that the Karachullu tribe followed the principals of the Alevi sect. Alevilik is indicated even with the personal names in the tribe, such as Haydar, which literally means lion and is the well know epithet for the Caliph ' Ali ibn Abi Talib. The Master Blacksmith ' s sword in the novel must symbolize the famous sword, Zulfeqar, of the Caliph ' Ali, too. If we consider the religious and martial characteristics of what this sword has symbolized in Islamic history, we can consider that Old Haydar ' s sword standsfor the socio-political status of the Alevis in Turkey, marginalized and subordinated by the dominant Sunni ideology dominant, at least since the Holy Wars of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. In The Legend of the Thousand Bulls this ideology appears to be represented by the liminoid sedentary peoples of Anatolia, from the ruthless aghas of Chukurova to the highest members of the central government.

When Haydar dies, the tribe does not bury him according to the Islamic rituals, but rather follows an ancient burial tradition found as early as prehistoric times: [25]

They did not separate him from his anvil. Just as he was, cleaving to it, they eased him on to a stretcher and carried the heavy load to the top of Hemité Mountain. They put him down near the earth tomb of the saint Hamit Dédé. A little further, facing east, where the spreading branches of the oaktree ended, they dug a wide man-deep grave and lowered the blacksmith into it, still clinging to his anvil. Beside him they placed his hammer and the other tools from his forge. Then they strewed heavy-scented myrtle branches and leaves over him and filled in the earth, arranging white stones all around the grave (p. 257).

This ritual is another non-Islamic cultural element upon which the Karachullu nomads place a great value. [26]

The Master Blacksmith represents perhaps the most non- or anti-Islamic character in Yashar Kemal ' s epic. The reader is provided with abundant indications throughout the novel for such an assumption. As early as page 7, the Master Blacksmith had already challenged the God of the sedentary people in a rather angry voice:

" Well, speak! " he said suddenly. " Will you give me what I want? " Then almost in the same breath: " No no, of course you won ' t, my lion. Never. Don ' t I know it? You ' ve deserted us. You ' ve deserted the skies and the stars, the forests and the streams. You never come out of your mosques now. You ' ve built huge bright cities for yourself. You ' ve made birds of iron to fly in the sky. You ' ve created monsters that devour the earth with a roaring noise. You ' ve set up houses one on top of the other and multiplied the seas. So if I ask you now for a place to winter in the Chukurova and a summer pasture on Aladag, why should you give it to me?... Well then, I won ' t ask. I won ' t plead with you tonight. Let the tribe go to the dogs because of you. Let them waste away and perish. All because of you... "

It is clear that the destitute people of the Karachullu tribe depend more on supernatural mythological powers than on God. They loose their confidence in what the sedentary people believe in. They trust Hizir and Ilyas more and see their ritual(s) as power. Even if the ritual did not help them the last time, they are again determined to repeat it when the time comes.

After the tragic death of Haydar, which symbolizes frustration and revenge, but also submission, helplessness and weakness, the former alternative, Jeren, appears in their minds again. After the Master Blacksmith ' s death, the tyranny against these nomads becomes even greater. Wherever they go, they face merciless people who want to take away their last remaining possessions and their situation becomes worse than ever before. In these painful days, Jeren again seems like the only solution and some of the members of the tribe go back to their efforts to marry Jeren to the landowner ' s son. Jeren, however, still loves Halil and, although she has been given the announcement of Halil ' s supposed death, she refuses to believe it. Somewhere inside she hopes that Halil will come back and take her away. In the meantime, the pressure on Jeren from the tribe increases. Almost every member of the tribe begins to blame her for all the bad things which have happened to them. Finally, Jeren can no longer find the power in herself to tell them " no" and she accepts to marry Oktay Bey. She is soon engaged and the whole tribe is happy because they see in this marriage the end of their suffering. When Halil suddenly appears one day and takes her away with him, most of the tribe members swear to hunt him down and kill him. Jeren and Halil are now outcasts, traitors because they have put their own desires before the needs of the tribe.

Some time passes after this event, and once again the tribe begins to prepare for the coming Hidirellez [ < Hidir (Hizir) + Ilyas] day. Again hoping that the Lord Hizir will bestow great lands upon them, they start their religious ceremonies. Everyone in the tribe eats and drinks to the accompaniment of their musical instruments. The valley of Aladag rings with the echoes of their deep voices. And once more, they become intoxicated and more unified in the semah. They dance together, men and women, young and old. And suddenly the two fugitive lovers, Jeren and Halil, appear before them. But the people do not even look at them. Halil and Jeren enter their tent. They later join the others and go wait for Hizir and Ilyas. And finally, some men from the tribe approach them and open continuous fire upon Halil, killing him. After loosing her Halil, Jeren walkes toward the edge of the steep rocks thinking about her beloved... The tribespeople do not even go after her.

It is the unifying power of the ritual and the spirit of communitas which make the escapees, the two who had broken away from the group, come back on the night that links the fifth to the sixth of May. They return to their tribe when the members of that society are dancing to the intoxicating music. Even though they knew that they were going to be killed, they were drawn back to the group on such an important day of ritual.

The culture of the Karachullu tribe exhibits its nomadic inheritance and displays elements of the pre-Islamic Turkic culture(s) which had basicallyflourished on nomadic values in Inner Asia. And although evidence of their adoption of Islam is clear, many of the religious elements we see in Yashar Kemal ' s depiction of their culture are not carried out in an orthodox manner, as in their practice of Hidirellez.

The figures Hizir and Ilyas are found not only in Turkey but also in some other Middle Eastern and Asian cultures as well. The Qur ' anic version of the story shares many characteristics with those which are related in the Gilgamesh epic, the Alexander romance, and a Jewish legend. [27]

Hizir and Ilyas in Turkish folklore show very striking similarities to those in the Arabic and Jewish sources however, some differences can be observed. In some parts of Anatolia, people believe that Hizir is a prophet. For them, Hizir is a very respected person who helps those in desperate situations. He is a power which bestows wealth, fertility and immortality upon good and poor people (let us recall that in the beginning of the novel, the Master Blacksmith had ordered the tribe to be good people). People in Anatolia believe that he drank the ab-i hayat (life elixir) and became immortal. From time to time, he visits this world and helps poor people, appearing with a different face, under a different name. [28]

In some parts of Anatolia, people closely associate the mythological-religious characteristics of Hidirellez with the beginning of spring. They celebrate this event by dancing, playing music, eating their best foods, and the like. Here Hidirellez does not carry a religious connotation. For them, it is not a religious initiation day but a real festival during which they can celebrate and entertain. In this context, Hidirellez may be characterized as festival. However, in The Legend of the Thousand Bulls a mixture of ritual and festival takes place. The Karachullu tribe celebrates the Hidirellez together with prayers and semah at a specific time. Beverly Stoeltje notes that

[r]itual and festival occur in modern cultures as separate events, but older religions integrate the calendrical rites we are labeling festival into a larger ritual cycle. For this reason much of the literature on religion, ritual, festival, fiesta, or carnival does not distinguish between the two related forms. [29]

The ritual-dance semah, like Hidirellez, has been used by Yashar Kemal as a leitmotif in The Legend of the Thousand Bulls. This leitmotif however stands for a social performance which challenges the gender biases of the institutionalized religions. As well reflected in the Karachullu tribe, semah is a ritual-dance performed by men and women together to the accompaniment of traditional folk songs and musical instruments. Music and dance are inseparable components of their culture. The fact that they worship with music and dance seems to be a clear indication of the pre-Islamic origins of this cultural performance. Similarly, Metin And argues that semahs are the indigenous dances of the pre-Islamic Turkic people. He also rightly asserts that today theyare performed with an added religious curtain because of the prohibitions of Islam against dance. For this reason he prefers to call them " quasi-religious dances " and tries to establish a theoretical tie between semahs and Shamanism. [30]

In spite of the effort of some mystical orders, like the Mevlevi order, to break the objection of Islam towards music and dance in worshipping, the religion of Islam does not allow its followers to pray with musical instruments and dance in the mosque. The fact that the famous Sheyhu ' l-Islam Ebussu ' ud Efendi (1490- 1575) issued a fetva to murder a sheyh who tolerated those who were singing hymns in ecstasy well indicates the decisive reaction of the Islamic ideology against music and dance in worshipping. [31] Ahmet Yasar Ocak argues that the roots of the Hidirellez ritual/festival performed by the " Turks " of Anatolia, the Balkans, Iraq and Syria go back to pre-Islamic " Central Asian " [32] days. [33]

Similarly, Ilhan Cem Erseven mentions that there is a shocking similarity between the thousand year-old " figures of dancing people " discovered in " Central Asian " archeological excavations and the semah of today ' s Alevis. [34] It is significant to observe that the semah of the Anatolian nomads has been performed by men and women together. [35]

The century-old position of the Islamic ideology towards women does not seem viable in the liminality of the Karachullu tribe. [36] In The Legend of the Thousand Bulls, the reader finds a powerful woman in Jeren ' s character. She makes her own decision and escapes with Halil despite the strong pull which should prompt her to sacrifice herself and her desires for the good of the whole tribe. Elsewhere in the novel, Yashar Kemal interpolates the story of a group of women from another tribe as if wishing to represent the social power of women in nomadic Turkish culture: these women at the end kill the agha of that feudal region who had done all sorts of ruthless things to their tribe. [37] The collective image of women in The Legend of the Thousand Bulls, seen in the personality of Jeren and in the women of the agha story, resembles in many characteristics the woman in the Turkic cultures of pre-Islamic times. [38]

The crucial differences between the cultures of nomads and that of the sedentary " Turks " are evident, and it is this evidence that created perhaps one of the greatest socio-political and cultural conflicts in Ottoman-Turkish history. The nomads, as Yashar Kemal believes, played a significant role in the creation of a powerful state, but ironically they were later seen by the same state as barbarians.

Rudi Paul Lindner ' s Nomads and Ottomans in Medieval Anatolia provides us with often brilliant insights concerning the " problems " of the nomadic entity in Anatolia. He argues that " the Ottoman dream was for farmers and merchants, not for nomads. " Lindner tries to solve the puzzles of early Ottoman history by paying particular attention to the inevitable socio-political and cultural conflicts between nomadic Anatolians and the sedentary Ottomans. He shows how the nomads, who had been partners at the creation of the Ottoman enterprise, became the unwilling and unwanted subjects of the Ottoman government. They posed a difficulty for the Ottomans because " the nomads had no fixed abode where they could be found (and taxed); they would simply camp and then move on. This made them difficult to govern. " Lindner believes that " the Ottomans saw nomads as a potential threat to the sedentary dream, a threat enforced by both mobility and independence. " Lindner sees the impossibility of taxing the nomads as the greatest reason for the systematic Ottoman oppression of these people, as the following paragraph sums up:

Ottoman taxation showed a disregard, and what was worse, disrespect, for the realities of nomadic and tribal well-being. Ottoman taxation threw nomadism into some peril. Ottoman administrative practice demonstrated dangers to the structure of the tribe. The census registration of units below the tribal level, in which the authority of the chief was undermined by the studied undercutting performed by the Ottoman secretaries, drove the chiefs into revolt. For when the tribesmen dealt with the Ottoman government directly, the chiefs would serve no further useful function. The tax registers of the Ottomans were not only witness to the process of settlement and subjection. They were weapons in that struggle. [39]

Similarly, Halil Inalcik provides us with valuable material clearly indicating the place of the nomad in the eyes of the Ottoman. Inalcik mentions that " Bayezid I (1389-1402) and Mehmed I (1402-21), who strived to establish a centralized bureaucratic state, were historically known as enemies of the nomads. " [40] Yashar Kemal, without reading all the documents concerning the fight of the Ottoman with the nomad, summarizes what happened to the Karachullu family in the Ottoman Empire, perhaps merely repeating in his novel what the people of Chukurova had told him:

In 1876 a battle took place between the Turkoman nomads and the Ottoman rulers. The Ottomans wanted to settle the nomads, to tie them to the earth, to make them pay taxes and enroll them in the army. The Turkomans refused to be yoked. They resisted fiercely, but were beaten in the end and compelled to settle. The bitterness of this defeat, the ignominy of their forced settlement, have ever remained a raw wound in the heart of every Turkoman. Many there were who would not bow to this fate, who ran away from the settlements, who evaded exile and persevered in their old nomadic ways. But this grew more difficult with every passing day. And nowadays it was well-nigh impossible (p. 40).

According to The Legend of the Thousand Bulls, the Ottomans punished the yuruks with their cannons and guns, whereas the yuruks had no firearms. Fordays, weeks, and months they suffered helplessly. In the end, they stopped resisting the technology of the Ottoman army. " Desperately, they watched for the stars and gave prayers to the Lord Hizir. "

The Legend stages the conflicts of a liminal society brought under the attack of the values of a liminoid structure. During the Ottoman centuries and continuing in the Republican period, every one of the potential heroes, the individuals in which the tribe places their hopes, is defeated. Magic and mythico- religious powers, symbolic craftsmanship, physical and spiritual goodness, heroic strength and leadership, all are proven powerless in face of the forces of capitalist progress, technology and the modern, liminoid social structures.

[1] See, for example, C. Clifford Flanigan, "Liminality, Carnival, and Social Structure: The Case of Late Medieval Biblical Drama," pp. 42-63; Robert Daly, "Liminality and Fiction in Cooper, Hawthorne, Cather, and Fitzgerald," pp. 70- 85 in Victor Turner and the Construction of Cultural Pluralism: Between Literature and Anthropology, Kathleen M. Ashley, ed. (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990).

[2 ] Yasar Kemal, Bin Bogalar Efsanesi, Fifth Printing (Istanbul: Cem Yayinevi, 1981). First published in 1971. Throughout the present study I will refer to the excellent translation of the novel by Thilda Kemal: The Legend of the Thousand Bulls (London: Collins and Harvill Press, 1976).

[3] Victor Turner, From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play (New York: PAJ Publications, 1982), p. 13.

[4] Turner, From Ritual to Theatre, p. 9.

[5] See Richard F. Hardin, "'Ritual' in Recent Criticism: The Elusive Sense of Community," PMLA (Publications of the Modern Language Association of America) 98/5 (1983), p. 848.

[6] Turner, From Ritual to Theatre, p. 22.

[7] Victor Turner, The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1967), p. 19.

[8] Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1974), pp. 46-47 [Cited in Hardin, "'Ritual' in Recent Criticism," p. 851.]

[9] Turner, From Ritual to Theatre, pp. 44-45.

[10] Hardin "'Ritual' in Recent Criticism," p. 851.

[11] Turner, From Ritual to Theatre, pp. 53-55.

[12] Turner, From Ritual to Theatre, p. 43.

[13] For more on his biography see, for example, Behcet Necatigil, Edebiyatimizda Isimler Sözlugu. (Istanbul: Varlik Yayinlari, 1991), pp. 324-325; Ahmet Ö. Evin, "Introduction," Edebiyât: A Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures ("Special Issue on Yasar Kemal") V/1-2 (1980), pp. 7-15.

[14] Osman Sahin: "'Yasar Kemal is Cukurova': Interviews with the Villagers of Saribahce," Edebiyât: A Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures ("Special Issue on Yasar Kemal") V/1-2 (1980), pp. 50-51.

[15] Ilhan Basgöz, "Yasar Kemal and Turkish Folk Literature," Edebiyât: A Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures ("Special Issue on Yasar Kemal") V/1-2 (1980), p. 46. It is quite ironic that some authors of our century still believe that colloquial discourse is "antagonistic" or inappropriate to "literature." The famous Turkish poet Cemal Sureya, for example, believes that "the sky of the folk expressions is so narrow that poetry will not be able beat its wings there." And he concludes: "the folk language is a danger from which one should abstain." (See Cemal Sureya, "Folklor Siire Dusman" in Nesin Vakfi Edebiyat Yilligi 1984 [Istanbul: Kardesler Basimevi, 1984], p. 164.) Likewise, some of the so- called "postmodern" authors of Turkey are struggling for the formation of a "new" discourse in which the "provincial" language and "provincial" literary values seem to be rejected. The Nobel prize winner Najib Mahfuz shares the same notion: "The colloquial is one of the diseases from which the people are suffering." (Quoted in Pierre Cachia, An Overview of Modern Arabic Literature. Islamic Surveys: 17 [Edinburg: Edinburg University Press, 1990], p. 71.)

[16] Despite the historical elements, The Legend of the Thousand Bulls is far from being a historical novel. Like his other works, this novel seems to defy conventional generic definitions, for Yashar Kemal has also incorporated many epic elements in his legend. As Altan Gökalp has observed, Yashar Kemal uses epic elements but not to the point where we should consider this a traditional "epic." However, "the epic design grants a preeminent position to mythic structures which permit the author to integrate the real and the imaginary in a story where myth and epic are indissolubly linked." (See Altan Gökalp, "Yasar Kemal: From the Imaginary World of a People to an Epic of Reality," Edebiyât: A Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures ("Special Issue on Yasar Kemal") V/1-2 (1980), pp. 152-153.

[17] Throughout this article I will obey the spelling used in the English translation of the novel, from which I will be citing.

[18] "Interview with Yasar Kemal," Edebiyât: A Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures ("Special Issue on Yasar Kemal") V/1-2 (1980), p. 19.

[19] Kelly and Kaplan have argued that "[r]itual plays a crucial role in practice, as a vehicle for all forms of authority." (See John D. Kelly and Martha Kaplan, "History, Structure, and Ritual," Annual Review of Anthropology 19 [1990], p. 141.)

[20] Turner, From Ritual to Theatre, pp. 34-35.

[21] Turner, From Ritual to Theatre, p. 35.

[22] In an interview with Erdal Öz, Yashar Kemal states his ideological stand more clearly, concerning the relationship between the destruction of humanistic concerns and capitalist development: "1844 Elyazmalari'nda Marks, insan iliskilerinin kapitalizm tarafindan korkunc yozlastirildigini ve bozuldugunu söyler. Daha önceki dönemlerde, insanlarin degerlerine daha sadik, daha bagli olduklarini da söyler. Bizim yapacagimiz bir is de, insanlik degerlerine yeniden kavusmaktir... Yabancilasmanin önune gecmektir önemli olan." [In the 1844 Manuscripts, Marx says that human relationships have been extremely degenerated and damaged by capitalism. He says that in earlier times people used to be more loyal and attached to their values. The task we have to undertake is to struggle to come together with the values of humanity... What is important is to block alienation.] ("Erdal Öz'un Yasar Kemal'le Uzun Bir Söylesisi" in Yasar Kemal, Agacin Curugu [Istanbul: Milliyet Yayinlari, 1980], p. 345.)

[23] For soil, water, fire, tree, iron and wind in pre-Islamic Turkic cultures and their relationship with the `anasir-i erba`a, which constitutes one of the principal beliefs of the Bektashi, see Ahmet Yasar Ocak, Bektasî Menâkibnâmelerinde Islam Öncesi Inanc Motifleri (Istanbul: Enderun Kitabevi, 1983), pp. 181-185.

[24] Mircae Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, trans. Willard R. Trask (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972), pp. 402-403.

[25] See, for example, Gordon Childe, What Happened in History (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1964), pp. 21, 42.

[26] For similar rituals found throughout history among the Turko-Mongol people see, for example, J. A. Boyle, "The Thirteenth-Century Mongols' Conception of the After Life: The Evidence of Their Funerary Practices, Mongolian Studies 1 (1974), p. 5-7; V. V. Bartol'd, "The Burial Rites of the Turks and Mongols," (trans. J. M. Rogers), Central Asiatic Journal 14/2-3 (1970), pp. 207- 208; Abdulkadir Inan, "Altay Daglarinda Bulunan Eski Turk Mezarlari" in Makaleler ve Incelemeler. Second Printing (Ankara: Turk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, 1987), pp. 496-499; Inan, "Turkistan'da Yeni Arkeolojik Kesifler" in Makaleler, p. 518.

[27] See A. J. Wensinck, "Al-Khadir (Al-Khidr)" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. IV (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1978), p. 902.

[28] For more on the beliefs regarding Hidir-Ilyas, see Pertev Naili Boratav, 100 Soruda Turk Folkloru (Istanbul: Gercek Yayinevi, 1984), pp. 222-224; Pertev Naili Boratav, "Turklerde Hizir" in Islam Ansiklopedisi, Vol. V (Istanbul: Millî Egitim Basimevi, 1950), pp. 462-471.

[29] Beverly J. Stoeltje, "Festival" in International Encyclopedia of Communications, Vol. 2 (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press), p. 162.

[30] Metin And, Oyun ve Bugu: Turk Kulturunde Oyun Kavrami (Istanbul: Turkiye Is Bankasi Kultur Yayinlari, 1974), p. 185-189.

[31] Ilhan Cem Erseven, Alevilerde Semah, Second Edition (Istanbul: Ant Yayinlari, 1990), 126.

[32] This term has been used in many Turkish academic institutions with the meaning of Inner Asia or they have used the two terms interchangeably.

[33] Ahmet Yasar Ocak, Islam-Turk Inanclarinda Hizir yahud Hizir-Ilyas Kultu, Turk Kulturunu Arastirma Enstitusu Yayinlari: 54 (Ankara: Ankara Universitesi Basimevi, 1985), p. 141.

[34] Erseven, Alevilerde Semah, p. 91.

[35] Gölpinarli mentions that in the early stages, the Mevlevi order did not have any objections to women performing sema' side by side with the men dervishes. He also argues that until the seventeenth century Mevlevi women shared equal rights with the Mevlevi men. Among the reasons Gölpinarli presents for such a fundamental social and political change in women's status in the order is the fact that Mevlevilik moved from villages to towns and big cities and became the possession of the intellectual (elite) classes of society. (See Abdulbâki Gölpinarli, Mevlânâ'dan Sonra Mevlevîlik [Istanbul: Inkilâp ve Aka Kitabevleri, 1983], pp. 278-281.) It is also significant that many Mevlevis throughout history were involved in Alevilik. (See Gölpinarli, Mevlânâ'dan Sonra, pp. 224-243.)

[36] The fourteenth-century Arab traveller Ibn Battuta "has a good deal to say... about the freedom, respect and near equality enjoyed by Mongol and Turkish women in startling contrast to the custom in his own land and the other Arab countries." (Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveller of the 14th Century [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986], p. 168.) Ilhan Arsel attracts our attention to the fact that Ibn Battuta's work was translated into Turkish but all the sections dealing with the non-Muslim Turkish society have not been included. This translation was published by a governmental institution in Turkey. (See Ilhan Arsel, Seriat ve Kadin, Fourth Printing [Istanbul: Kurtis Matbaasi, 1989], p. 35.)

[37] "The stones came faster now, from all sides. On and on, in silence, all together, the women pitched stone after stone, hundreds of them, for how long nobody could tell. The heap of white stones that covered Sabit Agha was mounting, taller, larger, and still the women did not stop. Tirelessly, tenaciously, relentlessly they kept on hurling stones at the ever widening mound... (p. 247).

[38] For some of these characteristics, see Inan, "Turk Mitolojisinde ve Halk Edebiyatinda Kadin" in Makaleler, pp. 274-280.

[39] Rudi Paul Lindner, Nomads and Ottomans in Medieval Anatolia (Bloomington: Indiana University, Uralic and Altaic Series, 1983), p. 111.

[40] Halil Inalcik, "The Yuruks: Their Origins, Expansion and Economic Role" in his The Middle East and the Balkans under the Ottoman Empire: Essays on Economy and Society (Bloomington: Indiana University Turkish Studies, 1993), p. 106.