A critical outlook on the perception of ascetic in classical Turkish poetry

Fundamental characters in Religious-Sufi Turkish literature and divan literature consist of a darling, an admirer, a recluse, an ascetic and an antagonist. While ascetic among these persons is the religious type who has positive qualities by fully adhering to religious rules, renouncing the worldly pleasures and spending his time in worship, approaches to the concepts of ascetic and asceticism have diversified in time. In this present study where we use a comparative method to analyse the sense of ascetic by Sufis and divan poets, the meaning which concept of ascetic corresponds, similar and different aspects of the qualities of character of ascetic, who is criticized, as reflected in literary texts are explored with examples from divans based on ten Sufis and nineteen divan poets' divans followed by a classification and analysis of these qualities by themes . Our research consists of an introduction where we present miscellaneous information on the concept of ascetic and historical progress of asceticism, and seven chapters where we classify the aspects of how the criticism of ascetic is handled in divans. Chapter one deals with ascetic in literary texts; and chapter two deals with ascetic's formalism, his external description with his clothes and items; and chapter three deals with knowledge; and chapter four deals with ascetic's aspects as reflected in divans by separating these aspects as sufic station and manners. Based on different titles attributed to ascetic, the last three chapters discuss comments on his ideas, words, talks and advices, descriptions of space, violence against ascetics, inclination towards malediction against ascetics and various elements he is likened to. At the end of the study, the poems that have been studied are put to an overall evaluation attempting to reach a conclusion. Keywords: Classical Turkish Poetry, Ascetic, Sufi, Divan Poet, Criticism