Folk poet Hanefi Ünver from Malatya (Life, art and examples poeties)

The tradition of minstrelsy is a phenomenon of a process extending from the past to the future. This tradition, which dates back to Shamanism before Islam, became a heteredox structure with the adoption of this religion after Islam and continued to exist on the axis of the mosque, the lodges. Starting from the 16th century, the poets who have moved away from a religious and mystical discourse have started to say more realistic poems based on their individual experiences and social events. The poets who dealt with the individual and social events in their poems, which gave them the name minstrel also attributed the giving of their craftsmanship to a divine source. In order to prove their craftsmanship and to announce their names, these minstrels who performed their art on their routes during their journey from country to the center served to convey the collective narratives as well as expressing their emotions. In this respect, lovers have played an important role in transferring collective memory from region to region and from generation to generation as carriers of oral culture. In this sense Malatya is one of the few centers where the minstrel tradition continues alive in Anatolia and many minstrels have grown up in the region for centuries. In this study, after giving information about the life and art of Minstrel Hanefi Ünver, one of the most important minstrels in Malatya; his poems will be examined in terms of content, style, language and literary arts. The literary place and influence of Minstrel Hanefi in tradition will be determined. Keywords: Minstrel Hanefi Ünver, folk poetry, minstrel tradition, minstrel, culture