A RE-READING AND REINTERPRETATION OF TWO PERSONAL NAMES OCCURRING IN THE BOOK OF DEDE KORKUT

Abstract

The Book of Dede Qorqut, a collection of epic Oghuz tales, was formed as a product of the common language, literature, folklore, history and culture of the Oghuz people. Until 2022, it was known that the most extensive of the existing manuscripts of the Book of Dede Qorqut was the Dresden manuscript, which consists of a preface and twelve stories. However, in the first quarter of the same year, the discovery of the vocalized Bursa manuscript - which largely parallels the Dresden version- introduced to the scholarly world the existence of another new and extensive copy. The emergence of this new vocalized manuscript also contributes to resolving certain phrases in the existing manuscripts that have remained uncertain in terms of reading and interpre-tation. Indeed, there are still expressions in these manuscripts whose spelling or meaning has not yet been clarified. In this study, we propose new readings and/or interpretations concerning two personal names found in the Dresden, Bursa and Vatican manuscripts of the Book of Dede Qorqut, which have so far been misread or whose meanings have not been properly explained.