The Symbolic Construction of the Body in Saint Legends: The Case of Ahmet Yesevî

Abstract

Every civilisation is elevated, advanced, and sustained by certain distinguished figures. One of these figures in Turkish civilisation is Ahmet Yesevî, known as Pîr-i Türkistan, a great scholar and Sufi who had a profound influence on the spiritual and mystical life of the Turkic world and is recognised as the founder of the first Sufi path among the Turks. Writing in Turkish in an environment where the languages of scholarship were Persian and Arabic, Ahmet Yesevî played a major role in the spread of Islam through his understanding of knowledge and religion, his scholarship, and his Dîvân-ı Hikmet. The saint legends interwoven with extraordinary events elevated Ahmet Yesevî to a sacred position in popular belief, and this understanding of sacredness enabled the Yesevî legends to spread across a wide area and to be preserved. The body is a phenomenon shaped by the norms of the society into which one is born. Bodylore, on the other hand, examines the ways in which society interprets and gives meaning to the body. One of the greatest factors shaping the body and attributing meanings to it is society itself. A society’s understanding of the body and every form of sacredness attributed to it are shaped within the framework of that society’s way of life, belief systems, customs, traditions, and practices. As a result of this formation, the image of the “sacred” that finds resonance within society generates new meanings attributed to the body. In this study, how the “sacred body” is constructed in the saint legends, how meanings are attributed to it, and how the body becomes a “sacred body” are examined within the context of body folklore through the saint legends of Ahmet Yesevî. The study is limited to the full texts of four legends of Ahmet Yesevî and brief excerpts from the legends of certain important Sufis. The meanings attributed to the body by society in the saint legends and how these meanings evolve into “sacredness” are presented. Content analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was employed in the study. The findings indicate that in Sufi thought, the body is conceptualised not merely as a biological being but as a symbolic centre in which divine truth is manifested, guiding nature and society, and transcending time and space.