Âşık Veysel
Âşık Veysel was a Turkish Alevi ashik, bağlama virtuoso, and folk poet. He was born and died in the village of Sivrialan, Sivas Province, in the Ottoman Empire. Blind since the age of 7, Veysel's songs were typically melancholic, and dealt with a range of themes revolving around morality, love, faith, life and death, patriotism, nature, and his own perception of the world as a blind man.
Veysel is considered one of the most prominent icons of Turkish folk music and literature. Among his most popular folk songs are Uzun İnce Bir Yoldayım ; "Black Earth" ; "Let My Friends Remember Me" and "Your Beauty is Worth Nothing". In 2022, Veysel was posthumously awarded a Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Award by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in the "loyalty" category. In 2023, on the 50th anniversary of his death, Veysel was recommended to UNESCO for a year of commemoration, backed by Turkey, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. His 123rd birthday was commemorated in a Google Doodle on October 25, 2017.
Family
Veysel Şatıroğlu was born in Sivrialan, an Anatolian village in Sivas Province, in late 1894, the son of Gülizar Keçecigillerden and "Karaca" Ahmet Şatıroğlu, a farmer. He was his parents' fifth child. These included two elder sisters, both of whom died in infancy of smallpox; and two brothers, one of whom died in infancy, and the other in a childhood accident. Only one brother, Ali, survived to adulthood. In 1896, Veysel's birth was followed by that of a younger sister, Elif.His family were Alevis, whose ancestors migrated to Anatolia from Turkestan sometime during the 17-18th centuries. Initially settling in the Kars region of Anatolia, the family later moved to Divriği, eventually settling in Sivrialan when Veysel's grandfather Ali Şatıroğlu, or his great-grandfather İbrahim Şatıroğlu, migrated there from the village of Kaledibi. Karaca Ahmet, Veysel's father, was orphaned at a young age, and grew up in Sivrialan as a shepherd and farmer.
The family surname was initially Ulu, although the descendants of Ahmet Karaca were known as the "Şatıroğulları", a nickname, since at least the time of Veysel's birth. The surname was legally changed in 1934 to Şatıroğlu, after the passage of the Turkish Surname Law in that same year.
Childhood: 1894–1906
Veysel's exact date of birth is disputed. It is typically given as 25 October, but the precise day is unknown; the best estimates suggest he was born in the autumn of 1894. He spent his entire childhood in his home village of Sivrialan, where his father's family, known as the Şatıroğulları, resided in four small houses overlooking the surrounding mountains.Birth and naming
According to Veysel's mother, Gülizar, she gave birth to Veysel on the way home from milking sheep, in a nearby pasture known as Ayipınarı. Unable to return home in time, she delivered Veysel by the roadside and cut the umbilical cord herself, using a rock, then wrapped up the infant and walked back to Sivrialan.As all but one of Gülizar and Ahmet's previous children had died of smallpox, their newborn son was taken to Mount Beserek, a sacred mountain located approximately 10 km from Sivrialan. The mountain is thought to have healing properties; according to local folklore, Mount Beserek was the site where the 6th century Islamic martyr Owais al-Qarani, found some camels he had previously lost in Syria. Al-Qarani was martyred in the Battle of Siffin, where he had fought for another prominent Islamic figure, Ali ibn Abi Talib. In light of this, Ahmet and Gülizar named their newborn son Veysel, believing this name would compliment that of their older son, Ali Şatıroğlu.
Blindness
In later interviews, Veysel described his earliest childhood as being happy. In his own words, he recollected, "until the age of seven I ran and played and had fun like everybody else." Veysel had a fine voice from a young age, and from the age of 3 or 4 was frequently asked to sing.Of his father, Karaca Ahmet, Veysel recalled:
Smallpox was prolific in the region, and struck Sivas in the winter of 1901. Veysel, aged 7, had received a new robe from his mother, and went to a nearby house to show it to Muhsine, the wife of his maternal uncle. It had recently rained in Sivrialan, and the road was saturated with mud and snow. On the way home, Veysel's foot slipped. He fell and bloodied his hand, and, after lying there for some time, got up and ran home in tears. It was discovered that he had developed a fever. Veysel was undressed and quickly put to bed. The next morning, he was unable to get up; it was soon discovered that Veysel too, had contracted smallpox.
Veysel was bedridden for three months. As the disease progressed, he developed a smallpox pustule in his left eye, which eventually caused a leakage that left him completely blind on that side. Veysel's right eye was spared, but quickly began to fail as well. He was left able only to perceive changes in light. By the time the pox eventually faded, Veysel was blind and scarred for the rest of his life, and needed to be led by the hand. His first guide was his sister Elif, who would frequently lead her brother around the village, describing to him what she saw.
Of this period in his life, Veysel said:
At this stage, there remained hope that Veysel would be able to regain the use of his right eye. There were ophthalmologists in nearby Akdağmadeni, 71 km from Sivrialan, whose main function was to perform cataract surgery. Some years after Veysel had first contracted smallpox, itinerant ophthalmologists arrived in Sivrialan and examined Veysel's right eye. They informed Veysel's father, Karaca Ahmet, that cataract surgery would be able to restore the vision in that eye, but as they did not carry the necessary equipment, advised Ahmet to take Veysel to Sivas for surgery.
Conflicting accounts exist as to the sequence of events that followed. The most commonly cited version is the one recounted by Veysel in 1964, during an interview with TRT correspondent Rıdvan Çongur. In this recollection, Ahmet had planned to take Veysel to Akdağmadeni for surgery, but for one reason or another, was yet to make the trip. One day, Veysel was with his mother Gülizar, out milking their cows. Ahmet came up behind them and called his son by name. Veysel, who had not realized his father was close by, turned around, and was accidentally pierced in the right eye by a cattle prod his father had been holding, thereby losing the remaining vision in that eye.
The second version of events also originates from Veysel. In this second recollection, first recounted in 1936 for the magazine Yedi Gün, Veysel was in the barn, feeding grass to one of the family's cows. The trip to Sivas was to take place in the next few days; Ahmet was poor, and had been saving up for the trip. However, when the cow suddenly moved its head, it pierced Veysel's right eye with the tip of its horn. Veysel recollected the incident similarly in 1969 for the newspaper Milliyet; in this retelling, the accident occurred in 1906, when Veysel was already 12 years old. Veysel stated that the cow's horn gouged out his eye, and that he ran outside screaming, attracting the attention of his father and some of the other villagers. Veysel understood from the adults' conversation that he would remain permanently blind in his right eye. According to Veysel, he and his father went to Sivas anyway, still hopeful that something could be done—there, Veysel was sat on a couch, and his right eye examined. A brief silence followed. Veysel, understanding that he would be blind for the rest of his life, began to weep.
The veracity of either version of events has not been proven. It is possible that the second story may not have been true, and may have been invented by Veysel to absolve his father of any possible blame for his blindness. However, this does not explain why Veysel related this story in 1936, but chose to default to the first version by as late as 1964. The most probable explanation is that Veysel simply did not remember. He told both versions of the story in various interviews throughout his life, and sometimes even mixed up his eyes. When asked by an interviewer whether he remembered the days before he had gone blind, Veysel replied, "I don't remember. No. I was too young."
Introduction to the saz
Veysel's blindness meant that he was unable to work a farm, one of the only professions in Sivrialan at the time. Unable to attend school, he never learned to read or write. Veysel's bitterness at being denied an education was lifelong, and he resigned himself to learning what he could of the alphabet and the surahs, from whatever schoolwork Veysel's brother Ali would recite aloud. The newly blinded Veysel relied on the support of his brother Ali and sister Elif, who helped him to walk and provided him with constant support. However, Veysel struggled to come to terms with his blindness, and became increasingly withdrawn.Veysel's situation was a source of constant worry for his father, Ahmet, who feared that his own passing would leave no one to take care of Veysel. The Emlek region, by which the area around Sivrialan was known, was at the time a popular place for itinerant bards and ashiks to come and perform their compositions. Ahmet, who was interested in poetry, read Veysel poems in an effort to console him.
In 1904 or 1905, Ahmet made a trip to the village of Ortaköy, 21 km from Şarkışla. At the Mustafa Kemal lodge in Ortaköy, Ahmet discussed his worries with one Hakkı Baba, who gave Ahmet a broken three-stringed saz, which Ahmet later gave to Veysel. Asking what the instrument was, Veysel was told that the saz was a gift to keep him entertained.
Veysel first took saz lessons from a neighbour, Molla Hüseyin, who also tuned and replaced any broken strings. However, whilst he enjoyed the saz's sound, Veysel initially found it too difficult to learn, and tried to throw the instrument aside. Ahmet, in contrast, was adamant that his son learn; Veysel, who could not plow, sow, or harvest, but who had a fine voice, could use the saz as a way to earn a living. In a quote recounted decades later by Veysel himself, Ahmet had told his son:
Though Veysel was initially reluctant, he understood his father's concerns, and he eventually began to learn the saz in earnest, also committing traditional folk songs and poems to memory, including the works of Yunus Emre, Pir Sultan Abdal, Karacaoğlan, Kemter Baba, Veli, Visali, Kul Abdal, Emrah, Tarsuslu Sıtkı, Şahan Ağa, and other great Alevi poets and ashiks of Anatolia. Veysel also listened to the works of other ashiks; his favourite was a friend and contemporary of his, Hıdır Dede, also from Sivrialan and about Veysel's age.