The determination of the compositions for the Bektaşi nefes compilations by Ahmet Besim Atalay

Ahmet Besim Atalay is a person who has done many important research studies throughout his life. Among these studies, the works on Turkish language and religious issues seem to come into prominence. Atalay, also conducted the first sect research focused on Bektashism in the history of the Turkish Republic. Atalay placed a great emphasis on the literal side of Bektashi breaths in his works on Bektashism. In various later studies regarding the studies of Atalay, it has been revealed that there is a strong relationship between music and literature in Bektashi culture. However, there has not been any research about Besim Atalay's relationship with music and how he used music to examine the Bektashi breaths. When the Bektashi tradition is examined, it is seen that the Bektashis generally recite their poems with musical accompany. Although these poems have survived to the present day, most of their compositions have been unfortunately lost. The reason for this loss can be related to the fact that folk poets' works are mainly transferred orally, thus these folk songs are learned by the master-apprentice method and passed on to future generations without taking the direct support of written culture. The main purpose of this study is to examine the Bektashi poems compiled by Besim Atalay from a musical point of view by also determining the compositions made on these poems. The study has been constructed in three main sections. In the first part, his life is mentioned in order to get to know Besim Atalay, and in the second part, Atalay's relationship with Sufism and the sects/sufi divisions he is interested are discussed. In the third chapter, Besim Atalay's breath collections are examined. Bektashi breaths compiled by Atalay are classified according to their genres in terms of their subjects and the compositions made on these breaths have been determined. As a result, it is found that 48 of the breaths compiled by Atalay were also composed and the notes of these breaths were included. It is seen that, while 17 of these breath compositions were available in musical note archives, 31 of them were not available in archives. In this study, the musical scores for these 31 compositions were written and presented. Keywords: Bektashism, breath, literature, music