| Some important points about Yunus Emre (warning:controversial opinions ahead) |
| 1. Most Yunus Emre web pages on the internet are written by people who are well meaning but they have no knowledge of mystical studies. Since they don't understand the key concepts of Wahdat Al-Woujd, Unity of Being, (Vahdeti Vucud in Turkish) and the ancient Anatolian myths, they are interpreting Yunus from purely modern Secular Humanist view...which is not necessarily wrong but it's not complete. Because of this incomplete view of the Humanist interpretation, most of Yunus poems have not been translated in the correct manner.
2. What�s the Unity of Being perspective? It's similar to Hindu Advaita Vedanta school, Buddhist nondual schools, Chinese Tao, Japanese Zen, Jewish Kabala and Christian Gnostic schools. In other words in every culture there are nondual perspectives with different names. Then what is nonduality? In nondual view the ideas of "me" and "God" disappear in "That." What do we mean by That? That has many names, depending on which mystical school we are talking about. "That" can mean Brahman in Hinduism, Consciousness in modern nondual schools or simply Existence itself. Everything becomes manifestation of "That." My favorite for That is Existence. Although it's more of an abstract name, everyone understands what we mean by existence. 3. Another mistaken view often repeated is that Yunus was a shepherd. Although some Semitic prophets were shepherds and this word can mean many things, anywhere from a humble servant to humble leader, the modern interpretation of shepherd can mislead us about Yunus' education. Yunus was fairly educated and well traveled for his time. When we look at his knowledge of mysticism, use of Turkish and his general knowledge of myths, it can be said that Yunus was more educated than an average college educated Turkish person. Unfortunately just because Yunus spoke in plain Turkish it does not mean that anyone who's proficient in Turkish-English languages can do a good job of translation. They cannot and they have not for some of the reasons I have explained above. 4. Yunus was very influential on particularly the Alawi (Alevi) people of Turkey. Like Yunus the Alevi people came from the Khorasan region to Anatolia but eventually most of the mystical movements were absorbed by the orthodox schools to the extent that most Turkic migrants to Anatolia lost their mystical heritage. Khorasan is the lost region in today�s Eastern Iran, Western Turkmenistan and Northern Afghanistan. Khorasan was the crossroads of civilizations and world religions. 5. It's important to remember that before Turks were forced to convert to Islam they were mostly Buddhist. This fact is often hidden in modern Turkish history. I don't understand why there's such a shame...to the extent that the Buddhist past of the Turkish people are omitted and they jump to the ancient Shamanist religion of Turks. Well, at one time, several thousands of years ago we were all Shamanistic. In between the Shamanistic period, there were a number of religions adapted by the Turks, such as Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and the Gnostic Manichaeism (among many others). Unfortunately this simple history is not taught in Turkey...or at least it was not when I was growing up in the 70s. The question then is that...why is the non-Islamic past of the Turks so important? One cannot understand the Khorasan mystics, and hence Yunus Emre, without understanding this complex mosaic past of the religions and mystical schools. 6. Although I may speak with authority on these subjects, I am only a fan of this subject. If I can at least raise some questions then it's up to the scholars to study and interpret Yunus correctly. 7. The last and perhaps the most controversial point is that...can the orthodox scholars be trusted to study Yunus and interpret him correctly? So far the results are mixed and it remains to be seen. I don't think we the mystical poetry fans can say that we have made of good job of explaining Yunus Emre's beliefs especially to the West. Hur Guler [email protected] |
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