“GORGUD”, “GORGUT” OR...?

Abstract

At the moment, there are two known manuscripts of the Book of Dede Korkut in the world. The book’s title on the first page of the Dresden manuscript and the name of Dede Korkut are the controversial topic of this essay. Since the title on the first page is written in Arabic, the scholars around the world who have worked on this monument have translated it differently. Even the calligraphers of the title and the text are not the same. The scholars around the world have translated the Arabic text of the title into their own language and therefore, they are correct. While the native scholars in Azerbaijan have considered the first three words of the title in Farsi and the rest of it in Arabic. So their translation of the title into Türki has become somehow incorrect. On the other side, the name of Korkut is also a matter of controversy. Some native scholars have tried to analyze it by separating the two syllables of it and interpret it through their own deductions. However, the author of this paper thinks that the words in any language are the black boxes of each language. Then they stand so strongly for themselves that you do not need to break them down to analyze the broken parts. The word “Korkut” is not an exception then.
You do not need to separate it into two parts and then interpret each part separately to achieve its meaning. The meaning of the word is easily achievable by itself and, especially through the contexts of the book’s both manuscripts. The aim of this essay is to illustrate the two misunderstandings about both the title and the precise meaning of “korkut”.