Human appearance in “Dîvânu Lugâtı̇’t-Türk”

Abstract

Written by Kashgarli Mahmud in the XI century, “Dîvânu Lugâti't-Türk” is not a dictionary but an encyclopedia that provides information on Turkic history, geography, ethnology, mythology, folklore, language and literature with witnesses. Since the work contains many materials related to Turkic culture, it can be said that the work laid the foundation of Turkology. It contains proverbs (saw), riddles (tabuzgu), lullabies (balu balu), anonymous poems, narratives, folk beliefs, food culture and traces of social life in general.

In addition to traces of social life, it is also possible to learn about the appearance of people from a work. In literary texts, there are works that define the character of people from their appearance. These works are named as kıyafetnâme.

This study focuses on the external appearance of human beings in “Dîvânu Lugâti't-Türk” and gives it the function of a kind of outfitnâme. By looking at the external appearance, inferences were made on the characteristics of men and women of that period.