A comparative study on Oğuznâme and Şehnâme

One of the keystones of Turkish culture and history known as Oghuz Khan or Oğuznâme, narratives written out after the acceptance of Islam, and Şehnâme which reflects the pre-Islamic era of Persian history and Iranian culture are analyzed in our thesis named as "A Comparative Study on Oğuznâme and Şehnâme". We need to confine our study with certain transcripts due to the fact that so many variants of Epic of Oghuz Khan exist and Şehnâme is such a sizable and high volume of itself. Our study is based on four specific variants of Epic of Oghuz Khan in order to analyze lives of Oghuz Khan and his children or in other words social, political and judicial approaches of Turkish tribes: Epic of Oghuz Khan in Uigur language belongs to pre-Islamic era, Reşideddin's Oğuznâme, Ebülgazi Bahadır Han's Şecere-i Terakime and Kazan Oğuznâme, which is recently introduced to scientific world right after finding in Kazan, belong to Islamic era. Chapter of our thesis named "Şâhnâmeh (Şehnâme): Iranian National Epic" is based on Muhammed Dabirsiyakî's five volume work among other worldwide copies. Ages lasted political and historical affair between Iranian and Turks is mentioned at the beginning of our study. In addition to bilateral affairs, concept of epics and diversity and characteristics of epics in the literatures of two nations are also defined and a classification on Iranian epic narratives is done. Examples of heroic saga from different times are given within the framework of the classification Before going through the main aim of our thesis named "A Comparative Study on Oğuznâme and Şehnâme", the concepts of nâmecilik and oğuznâmecilik are analyzed and different variants of Oğuzname are introduced. After giving an extensive summary of Kazan Oğuzname, which is very rare, Firdevsi and his masterwork Şehnâme is introduced with a comprehensive summary. Mythic, epic and historical aspects of two works are analyzed in the chapter of comparison of Oğuzname and Şehname. Characteristics and typology of protagonists in Şehname and Oğuzname are mentioned. Heroines within the cadre of protagonists and the other heroes are elaborated. Despite of the fact that these two masterworks seem quite different from each other, these epics share similarities on interesting points. After discussing mythic nuances, concepts of place and time, plots and motive structure, concepts of rulership and sultanate and Islamic nuances, our thesis is ended up with the definition and sorting of the results of the comparison. Keywords: Oğuznâme- Şehnâme- Turkish, Persian Relations- Epics- Similarities and Differences- Comparison.