TURKS, THE TURKISH LANGUAGE, AND OGHUZ TURKISH CULTURE IN THE POETRY OF KHAQANI SHIRVANI
Keywords:
Turk, Turkishness, urkish language, Persian-language Azerbaijani literature, Shirvanshah dynasty, Seljuk period, Khaqani Shirvani, twelfth century, 'torki səhləst', Turkish image, Oghuz culture, medieval poetics, cultural identityAbstract
This article examines the conceptual framework of 'Turk,' 'Turkishness,' 'Turks,' and the 'Turkish language' as they appear in the creative output of Khaqani Shirvani, the twelfth-century Azerbaijani poet. Despite composing predominantly in Persian — the prestige literary language of medieval courts — Khaqani explicitly expressed his Turkish ethnic identity, asserting national belonging through the declaration 'we, the Turks.' In his poetry, the concept of 'Turk' functions simultaneously as a symbol of physical beauty, martial valor, statecraft, and justice. The verse 'Torki səhləst o məradəlpəzir' (Turkish is simple and captivates my heart) encapsulates the poet's profound attachment to his mother tongue. Drawing on examples from Khaqani's Divan, this article demonstrates that he was an artist who preserved Turkish spirit, Oghuz cultural values, and linguistic consciousness within Persianlanguage literary tradition.
