Moscow, November 11, AZERTAC
The Moscow-based House of the Azerbaijani community held a round table marking the 200th anniversary of the first publication of "Kitabi Dede Qorgud" epos and its German translation. The event, organized by the All-Russian Azerbaijanis Congress, was attended by representatives of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Azerbaijani Youth Association of Russia, Center of the Azerbaijani Language and Culture at Moscow State Linguistic University, and the Moscow branch of the Writers' Union of Azerbaijan.
Executive Director of All-Russian Azerbaijanis Congress Ilgar Hajiyev said Kitabi Dede Qorgud is “an indispensable source material” for the study of the history and culture of the Azerbaijani people. Speakers emphasized that the epos is the only surviving monument to the epic book of Oghuz Turks. The epos reflects the cosmological views of Oghuz tribes and the historical events that took place at that time.
Kitabi Dede Qorgud is the most famous among the epic stories of the Oghuz Turks. The stories carry morals and values significant to the social lifestyle of the nomadic Turks and their pre-Islamic beliefs. The book's mythic narrative is part of the cultural heritage of Turkic states, including Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and to a lesser degree Kyrgyzstan. The work originated as a series of epics orally told and transferred over the generations before being published in book form. There are numerous versions collected of the stories. It is thought that the first versions were in natural verse, since Turkish is an agglutinative language, but that they gradually transformed into combinations of verse and prose as the Islamic elements affected the narrative over time. Various dates have been proposed for the first written copies.
Farida Abdullayeva
Special Correspondent
