A Comparative Essay: The Epic of Bathal Ghazi and Digenes Akrites Cover Image

Bir Karşılaştırma Denemesi: Battal Gazi ve Digenes Akrites Destanı
A Comparative Essay: The Epic of Bathal Ghazi and Digenes Akrites

Author(s): Murat Tural
Subject(s): History
Published by: Karadeniz Araştırmaları Merkezi
Keywords: Anatolia; Byzantium; Epic; Battal Ghazi; Digenes Akrites

Summary/Abstract: Although epics do not reflect historical facts exactly or properly, they nevertheless should be considered as significant resources of history. Epics are literary works containing cores of important events and cultural elements that are meaningful for nations. The most important feature of the two epics studied here is that the space is Anatolia. Thus theyare products of Anatolian culture. Battal Ghazi lived in the seventh and eighth centuries and was killed in a battle with Byzantines. Afterwards he became a Turkish hero. The context of the Digenes epos with a similar content shows that the historical background is the period of Byzantine-Arab peace in the tenth century. Byzantines reached Syria, and the eastern borders of the empire had advanced to the Euphrates in that century.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 40
  • Page Range: 145-158
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Turkish
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