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GENESIS OF ARGUMENTATIVE POETRY IN TURKIC LITERATURE:
EVIDENCE FROM “DIVANU LUGATI-T-TURK”
Rahmatova Gavhar
Head of the Department of Oriental Languages, Oriental
University, PhD, Associate Professor
Annotation:
Controversy is one of the oldest genres in our history. The genre of discussion
will play the role of a leading tool in the preservation of stories, proverbs and wisdom, and
the manifestation of national identity, which will continue to be anarchic to the next
generation. It can be viewed through the discussion of “Winter and Summer” in “Divanu
lugati-t-turk”.
Key words
: genre, polemic, argument, Turkic oral literature.
The system of genres of the oral literature of the Turkic peoples has undergone a long
process of development. Debate is one of such perfect genres.
The first examples of fragments of the debate genre are found in Makhmud Khashgari’s
work “Divanu lugati-t-turk”. We find this in the poem about the dispute between Winter and
Summer, which is given as an example. In this debate, scenes of Winter and Summer
flaunting their blessings and defending their activities with words are given in artistic
images.
“A debate is a work of art built on the basis of a strong argument, a dispute between two
opposing sides who want to show their superiority” [5].
The term debate was originally used in folk oral literature as شْرُرُشْسَ sanduruš – “argument”
[4:468]. In “Divanu lugati-t-turk” an example from “Qish va yaz tortishuvi” is given to
explain the word
sanduwač
– nightingale. The terms of literary genres that existed before
the 11
th
century, noted by Makhmud Kkashgari, differ from the terms of Arab-Persian
literary studies. This allows us to see that the Turkic terms of literary genres existed before
the 11
th
century and were only called by different names.
“In fact, the spirit of debate was present in the very ancient songs of our people. “The
Winter and Summer Debate” was also sung as a song with dance and music at public
gatherings, and served as a stage” [2:10].
The writer Yusuf Khos Hhajib was the first to introduce the term debate into classical
written literature. He emphasizes that his work is a work written in the form of a debate.
Not all of the quatrains dedicated to the description of nature and war given in “Divanu
lugati-t-turk” are debates. However, the debate has a dialogical character. The number of
debates among the quatrains is limited. They consist of 8 verses rhymed in the form a-a-a-b.
The debate presented in the work consists of three interconnected parts: 1) the introductory
part contains paragraphs about the meeting of winter and summer.:
Qïš yay bilä toquštï,
Qïŋïr közin baqïštï,
Tutušqalï yaqïštï,
Utğalïmat oğrašur.
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Meaning: Winter clashed with summer, they looked at each other with evil eyes. They tried
to catch (each other), they tried to devour (each other) [4:82].
The characteristics of human behavior are transferred to the world of animals, creatures and
plants through allegorical images. In addition to the allegorical nature of the images,
humorous question-answer is also characteristic of the language and style of parables. Often,
in the introductory part of the parable, sometimes at the end, a moral conclusion is drawn
from the story [3:108].
In the “Winter and Summer Debate”, the moral conclusions are not drawn in the
introductory part, but develop from the main part of the debate to the conclusion.
2) In the songs in the main part, summer and winter are opposed to each other, they fight
with each other. In this situation, the relationship between Winter and Summer becomes
strained, and both enter into an argument, wanting to win:
Yay qïš bilä qarïštï,
Erdäm yasïn qurïštï,
Čerig tutub körüštï,
Oqtağalï otrušur
.
Meaning: Summer and Winter met and argued, each one drawing the string of his boasting
bow. Each one became so heated that he would kill the other in battle, each one came close
to shooting the other with an arrow. Summer met Winter, each one drew the bow of his craft
and art [4:236].
In this debate, Winter and Summer strive to show their superiority over each other with the
best qualities they possess. For example, in the following passage, Winter boasts of her good
qualities:
Öl qar qamuğ qïšïn inär,
Ašlïq tarïğ anïn ünär,
Yawlaq yağï menda tïnar,
Sen kelipän tebräšür
.
Content: He describes the conflict between summer and winter: All the snow and rain fall in
winter, and the crops and grain sprout from it. Evil enemies rest in me, they are calm, they
do not fight, but when you come, O summer, they are in action [4:269].
Summer also responds to this as follows:
Sendä qačar sundïlač,
Mendä tïnar qarğïlač,
Tatlïğ/tatluğ ötär sanduvač
Erkäk tiši učrašur
.
Content: The poet describes the debate between summer and winter: Summer says to winter:
The swallow flees from you, and the swallow delights in me. The nightingale delights with
her various songs. In me (in summer), the male and female mate [4:207].
Thus, the debate between Winter and Summer continues.
3) The third part is the concluding part. The quatrains in “Divonu Lugati-t-Turk” do not
contain the final part of the “Winter and Summer Debate”. However, it can be understood
from the content of the debate that Winter “defeats” in this struggle, and Summer “wins”.
In the debate, the warm taste of Summer, the fact that it encourages people to action, and the
reasons for the heating up of labor processes during this period arouse a positive attitude
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870
towards it in people. Therefore, in this debate, Summer’s opportunities increase. People who
faced various difficulties in the winter season had a positive attitude towards summer and a
negative attitude towards winter, and welcomed the summer season with joy, while they
considered winter to be a season of terror and misfortune. As a result, summer and winter
are contrasted in songs, and they fight with each other.
With the victory of summer, nature seems to come to life again, the hills are covered with
carpet-like grass and greenery, the snow on the mountains melts, the waters begin to flow,
various flowers bloom, giving beauty to the earth, birds, insects and ants come out of their
nests and start a new life in flocks. This revival in nature brings great joy to people, the
victory of summer becomes the victory of people, people joyfully sing and applaud summer
in their songs, and compose poems describing the landscapes of nature.
In conclusion, it can be said that the debate genre in Turkish literature has a very ancient
history. That is, the roots of the debate genre go back to the oral creativity of the people. We
learn about this through the work of Makhmud Khashgari “Divanu lugati-t-turk”.
In general, the debate genre in Turkish literature was initially spoken by the people, and
when it reached its perfect level, it moved to written literature, and we can see this through
the debates “Bang va chogi‘ir”, “O‘q va yoy”, “Qushlar munozarasi” and a number of other
debates..
Reference:
1.
Abduvohidova M. O‘zbek adabiyotida munozara. – Toshkent, 1984.
2.
Abduvohidova M. O‘zbek xalq og‘zaki ijodiyoti va munozara janrining
shakllanishi. – Toshkent, 1974.
3.
Adabiyotshunoslik terminlari lug‘ati. – Toshkent, 1967.
4.
Mahmud Koshg‘ariy. Devonu lug‘ati-t-turk. Nashrga tayyorlovchi: Q.Sodiqov. –
Toshkent: Fan, 2017.
5.
Rustamov E. Uzbekskaya poeziya v pervoy polovine XV veka. – Moskva, 1963.
6.
SODIQOV, Q., & RAHMATOVA, G. (2021). SEMANTICS OF POEM IN
«DIVANI LUGATI-T-TURK».
The Light of Islam
,
2021
(2), 4.
7.
Rahmatova, G. (2021). The genre of odes in the oral work of the turkic peoples
and its genesis.
ACADEMICIA: An International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
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(8),
194-196.
