Comparative analysis of the poems of Ahmed Yesevi, Yunus Emre and Shah Ismail Hatayi

Turkish Sufi literature is one of the most important currents of Turkish literature. The literature, which has delevoped around lodges since the 12th century, has blended pre-Islamic Turkish culture, customs, beliefs and traditions with the otherwordly thought brought by the religion of Islam. Ahmed Yesevî, Yunus Emre and Shah İsmail Hatayi are poets with high influence of Turkish Sufi literature. The aim of this study is to compare the poems of Yesevî, Yunus and Hatayî in terms of content and to determine their common, similar and different aspects. The comparative analysis of the poems aims both to make sense of the independent existence of this literary current and to bring the common issues to light. In this context, in the first part of the study, information was given about the emergence of the comparative literature method used in the thesis, its transfer to Turkish literature and its current situation, and then it was tried to explain how this method was applied. In the second part, in order to understand the identity of Turkish Sufi literature, the concepts of sufism and literature are emphasized and the formation process and history of literature arising from the combination of these concepts are mentioned. Then, the general form features of Turkish Sufi literature are briefly discussed. In the third part, the lives of Ahmed Yesevî, Yunus Emre and Hatayi are discussed individually, their arts are emphasized and the social and political situation in their era is examined. In the fourth part, the poems of these poets were compared within the framework of predetermined criteria and the common, similar and different aspects of these criteria were revealed.