Çağlayancerit in Kahramanmaraş, and the life, the literary personality, and work of art of Ali Ataş

Our thesis has been prepared aiming at srutinizing Ali ATAŞ the Minstrel?s literary personality and poems starting from the essence of minstrel litereture in Turkish literature, the minstrelsy tradition of Çağlayancerit in Kahramanmaraş and minstrels thereof. The main purpose of choosing this subject in our thesis is to evaluate, in particular, the minstrelsy of Çağlayancerit in Kahramanmaraş, and the life, the literary personality, and work of art of Ali ATAŞ the Minstrel; to contribute to Turkish national culture and literature, and to help to estimate the tradition of minstrelsy which had been in the mintrelsy literature during 20 th.century. In order to know better the cultural and geografical environment in which Mr. ATAŞ the minstrel has grown up, it has been given general information in the preface in respect of the history, geografy, culture, language etc. of Çağlayancerit in Kahramanmaraş. The last part of the preface has been allocated for the historical evolution of the minstrelsy tradition, and the minstrelsy tradition in Kahramanmaraş and minstrels thereof. In the first chapter, we have addressed the minstrel?s life and position in the minstrelsy tradition. In the second chapter, we have analyzed the minstrel?s literary personality by scrutinizing the poems in respect of format and manner. In the third chapter, we have taken up the poems by Ali ATAŞ the minstrel in respect of contents. In the fourth chapter we have given his poems in total. The 20 are on national, the 9 are on religious and the 177 are on social issues; the 26 are nature based, the 124 are on his family and the other persons; the 29 are on love, lover and beauty; the 59 are on his friend who had been engaged in poetry; and the 88 are on statute and emotions out of 532 poems by Ali ATAŞ the minstrel which we have taken up. The 148 are with an eight, the 383 are with an eleven, the 1 is an fourteen of syllabic meter out of 532 poems by Ali ATAŞ the minstrel that we have taken in hand. It is seen that the pause was used in the poems, but it is seen that the pause are changeable in some poems. It can be easily seen that it was tried to bring the poems into consonense by means of as repeats as rhymes. It is seen that the poems was harmonized by ways of repeats and rhymes. The rhym used in the poem is generally half-one. Mr. ATAŞ the minstrel does not pay special attention to using a uniform rhym in the same poem. It is seen that Mr. ATAŞ the minstrel used the formats and the kinds as he had learned from the tradition and in a way that it is based on traditon rather than knowing the whole contents of the characteristics of the formats and the kinds of minstrel literature. The whole of his poems are in the manner of ?Koshma? and ?Samai? The manner which he used most are satirical, didactic and lyric ones. The language Mr. ATAŞ used in his poems is that of the ordinary people use in everyday life. It is seen that the local vocabularies and clauses were used in his poems. The Minstrel still lives in Çağlayancerit and continues to produce poems. Key Words: 1- The minstrel literature 2- The minstrelsy tradition 3- Çağlayancerit, Kahramanmaraş 4- Mr. Ali ATAŞ 5- Poem