Dervişoğlu was an Alevi-Bektashi minstrel whose real name was Mehmet and who was born in the village of Diphacı near Merzifon. His life was short: during the First World War he was wounded on the Eastern front and died in Ankara. His deyiş appear frequently in the manuscript songbooks (cönk) of the region and are still sung by the zakirs in the cem today. His name is found in every list of the minstrels of the region that takes in Merzifon, Suluova and Gümüşhacıköy and is known locally as Gaziler Ovacığı; he is one of the regional minstrels named in the site's article on the minstrel tradition in Amasya.
Life
What is known of Dervişoğlu's life rests on Ali Cem Akbulut's book Gazilerovacığı Âşıkları, published in 2010; this information has been published, quoted from the book, on a site that collects deyiş. According to it, Dervişoğlu was born around 1880 in the village of Diphacı near Merzifon; his date of birth is not certain and information about his life is limited. His family too was part of the minstrel tradition: his brother Küstem and his son Hasan were also minstrels.
Called up during the mobilisation, that is, in the years of the First World War, Dervişoğlu was wounded on the Eastern front, brought to Ankara for treatment and died there. Akbulut gives the year of his death as 1915; his grave too is in Ankara.
His Minstrelsy and Circle
Dervişoğlu is counted among the important representatives of the Alevi-Bektashi tradition in the region. Necdet Kurt, in his paper on the zakirs of the Amasya region, says that Kul Fakır of Merzifon (1873-1938) contributed to the training of many minstrels of his time, such as Derviş Edna, Biçare, Mihnetî and Sersem Köle, and he counts Dervişoğlu among them as well. The two minstrels were close in age; their relationship may therefore also be seen less as one of master and pupil than as the closeness that came from growing up in the same circle and in the same Kul Hüseyin branch.
In his deyiş he sometimes also used the pen names "Mehemmet" and "Derviş Mehemmet". In Haluk Yücel's studies of 2018 and 2021 too, Dervişoğlu is named among the important figures who lived in Gaziler Ovacığı. In 2015 Akbulut brought together the poems of these two minstrels in a separate book published in Ankara, Gazilerovacığı Âşıklarından Biçare ve Dervişoğlu; we have not seen this book and know of it from the bibliography of Ali Onar's article on Biçare.
His Tie to Amasya
Dervişoğlu was born in the village of Diphacı near Merzifon and spent his whole life, until he was called up, in the Gaziler Ovacığı area. The places where his deyiş live on are likewise the songbooks and the cem gatherings of this region. His tie to Amasya is therefore direct and documented.
His Poetry
Dervişoğlu's poems are deyiş in koşma form, composed in the eleven-syllable metre. Their subjects are basic ideas of Alevi-Bektashi mysticism: separation, the cem and the station of unity, labouring on the path, the etiquette of the secret, and the heart that takes itself for a gnostic. In one deyiş the pen name appears in both the first and the last quatrain; in another, the words "edna kul", "fakır" and "biçare" coming together in the same quatrain recall the names of Derviş Edna, Kul Fakır and Biçare in his circle.
Akbulut notes that all of Dervişoğlu's deyiş in his book were published there for the first time. In this category five deyiş from a compilation site that cites Akbulut's book are given on separate pages: "Gezdim şu âlemi bir kez gülmedim", "Gelsin yanımıza arz eden canlar", "Dervişoğlu herdem devam eyliyon", "Bugün gamlı gördüm nazlı yârimi" and "Gönül sen kendini arif mi sandın". Since Dervişoğlu died in 1915, his poems are not under copyright protection.
The State of the Sources
All the information on Dervişoğlu rests on Akbulut's two books, which we have not been able to see directly; we take the biographical details and the texts of the deyiş from the compilation site that cites Akbulut. The year of birth is approximate. Which pen names his brother Küstem and his son Hasan used is not known. Nor do we have any record that would allow a link to be drawn between the name "Kul Hasan", which appears twice in the lists of Gaziler Ovacığı minstrels, and Dervişoğlu's minstrel son Hasan.
Chronology
Around 1880: Born in the village of Diphacı near Merzifon (the date is not certain).
1915: Wounded on the Eastern front during the mobilisation, he dies in Ankara, where he had been brought for treatment.
2010: His deyiş are published for the first time in Ali Cem Akbulut's book Gazilerovacığı Âşıkları.
2015: Akbulut collects the poems of Biçare and Dervişoğlu in a separate book.
Bibliography
Academic studies
- Necdet Kurt, "Zakirlik Geleneğinin Kökenleri ve Amasya Yöresinin İz Bırakan Zakirleri", Geçmişten Günümüze Uluslararası Dinî Mûsikî Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı, Amasya: Amasya University, 2017, p. 115. https://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/G00310/2017/2017_KURTN.pdf
- Haluk Yücel, "Türk Halk Müziğinde Âşıklık Geleneği: Amasya Âşıkları", TURAN-SAM Uluslararası Bilimsel Hakemli Dergisi, 10(39), 2018, p. 256. https://www.turansam.org/TURAN-SAM_39.pdf
- Haluk Yücel, "Merzifonlu Âşık Musa Aslan Türkülerinin Müzikal Analizi", Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi / The Journal of Social Sciences, 8(53), 2021, pp. 31-56. https://sobider.com/files/sobider_makaleler/6399117e-ec1c-4d60-a836-1d355be50f24.pdf
- Ali Onar, "Gaziler Ovacığından Bir Eren: Biçare'nin Hayatı ve Deyişleri", Alevilik Araştırmaları Dergisi, 17, 2019, pp. 23-78 (TR Dizin record and bibliography). https://search.trdizin.gov.tr/yayin/detay/314150/
Books
- Ali Cem Akbulut, Gazilerovacığı Âşıkları, Istanbul: KaraMavi Yayınları, 2010; quoted in: "Dervişoğlu", Alevi Deyişleri Nefesler Hakk Âşıkları, 21 August 2019. https://www.deyisler-nefesler.com/dervisoglu/
- Ali Cem Akbulut, Gazilerovacığı Âşıklarından Biçare ve Dervişoğlu, Ankara, 2015 (as cited in the bibliography of Onar 2019).
Online sources
