Typological Analysis of Female Characters in N. Ganjavi's "Khosrov and Shirin" and Turkish Epic Examples

Abstract

In the article, the images of ruler women in Nizami Ganjavi's poem "Khosrov and Shirin" are analyzed in a comparative manner with Turkish epic traditions. In the poem "Khosrov and Shirin", the poet purposefully used Turkish epic traditions in the description of the heroes' national identity in the part "Mahin Banu's warning to Shirin".Mahin Banu's advice to Shirin has twofold significance. The first is the advice given by an aunt in the status of a mother to her niece, and the second is a moral "lesson of statesmanship" given by a ruler to a prince. Mahin Banu advises Shirin to behave moder-ately in accordance with Turkish state etiquette from a political and moral point of view. We can consider this element from masnavi coming from Turkish epic traditions. Although this part of the poem and the advice given by Dirsa Khan's wife to his son in the epic "Kitabi-Dada Gorgud" are different in content, they are identical in terms of epic function. Both women-mothers call their chil-dren to do what is right in the family, state, and society. There is no individuality in the content of both advices, they are based on Oghuz-Turkish statecraft.