The Legend of Ararat(Ağrıdağı) | Yashar Kemal

The novel is based on Ahmet, who lives in the foothills of Mount Ararat, adopting a country horse coming to his door, falling in love with the daughter of the owner Mahmut Han, and the events that followed. The love between Mahmut Han's daughter, Gülbahar and Ahmet, and the struggle of lovers and many motifs in this folk tale take us back to the Mem u Zin Story, which appeared as written verse texts in the style of mesnevi.

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Yaşar Kemal’s novel “The Legend of Ağrıdağı” is a variant of Mem u Zin Story, which has many variants in eastern and southeastern Anatolia, quite changed from the first known text. When looking at the other variants of the story told in this novel, it is understood that the oldest version of this story is Mem-i Alan (Alanlı Mem), a story that changes from one story to another.

There are signs that the oldest and first version of Mem û Zîn, whose many variants are known, was written down by Ehmedê Kani in the 17th century. However, this story has changed and changed into many forms in folk narratives until today. In fact, many motifs of this story take us back to the early ages, revealing that the origin of the story can be traced back to three or four thousand years ago. For example, Sin, the name of the heroine of the story, is the name of the moon god in Mesopotamian civilizations. The city of Harran was dedicated to Sin, one of the three most important gods in the Sumerian and Akkadian myths, and a temple was built in Harran in the name of God Sin. This temple is the longest used temple among Mesopotamian civilizations.source

Yaşar Kemal

Even names that preserve its essential element, such as Memo, with a few motifs understood to come from the narrative, which is the basis of the novel, support this view. The flute, flute voice in the novel, the white skin of Gulbahar, who replaced Sin, being white like Ay (Sin), and the horse, which is the sun symbol of Mahmut Han, who started the events, gave Ahmet the task of lighting a great fire at the beginning of Mount Ararat. it will be enough to show how old this story can go.

The novel has been translated into many languages. It has also been adapted for film in our country. In this movie made in 1975; Hakan Balamir - Ahmet, Fatma Girik - Gülbahar -, Hayati Hamzaoğlu - Mahmut Han, Yavuz Selekman - Memo, Reha Yurdakul - Demirci took on the roles.source
In short;

Legends are old stories told. It differs for each narrator. The world of emotion and thought is very influential on the legend. If the emotions are not reflected in their proper place while telling the legends about love, the sentences remain like cold stones consisting only of words. The addition of the customs and traditions of the local people to the narration of feelings, heroism and extraordinary acts makes what is told a real legend.

In the Legend of Mount Ararat, Yaşar Kemal told the love story of two people who took place in a village close to Mount Ararat in a simple and plain style. I was amazed by the descriptions. While reading the book, which includes both nature and human descriptions, I felt that I was living there. If you can find it (from sites like amazon etc), you should definitely get it.

Excerpts from the Book

As long as these people exist in this world, they will understand everything, the flight of the eagle, the nest of the ant, the rising of the moon, the day, the sunset, the death, the stay, everything. They will make sense of darkness, light, everything, everything, they will not be able to afford a single human being. They will not be able to reach his secret.

There is a fire blend right at the top of the pain. A well in the middle of the peak goes down to the middle of the world. The first fire was taken from this shore. The first fire human beings see is the fire in the heart of Ağrıdağ. People wanted to take this fire, and they have taken it ... One of those who missed the fire took advantage of the heedlessness of the mountain, a pinch of fire broke out from the lake of fire, started to run down the mountain and went all the way down. At that moment, Ağrı woke up and he saw that the fever was gone. Immediately, his hand caught the hot man there, where he was, and stopped him. He froze both the man and the fire in his hand there at that moment.
The slopes of Ağrıdağ are full of such stone-turned men. The pain has never forgiven anyone who reaches its peak, who sees it, whether it steals its fire or not.