ACADEMIC SEMINAR OF THE THEOLOGY FACULTY OF KTMU (Prof. PhD Bekir TATLI)
The third seminar of the "Academic Seminar Program", which was initiated by Dean of Faculty of Theology Prof. Dr. Kemal POLAT, was held on March, 22 2022. The seminar was held with the presentation of Bekir TATLI on the theme “Could Arslan Baba, the teacher of Hoja Ahmed Yesevi, be Companion of the Prophet (s.a.s.)?” Tatlı gave information about Arslan Baba, known as the teacher of the sufi-poet Ahmed Yesevî (d. 562/1166), who had great efforts in the Turkification and Islamization of Anatolia and known as Pîr-i Turkistan. Evaluating the claims that Arslan Baba was commissioned by the Prophet (s.a.s.) for spiritual guidance of Ahmed Yesevi, Tatlı stated that such narratives, which are commonly quoted in Yesevi's verses, could not be possible in the mind or in the narrative. He said that these expressions, which were put into lines in a poetic style and in a literary way by Hoca Ahmed Yesevî in Divan-ı Hikmet, were probably the transfer of some scenes seen in dreams rather than the real meaning, and were expressed with a metaphorical and symbolic expression. The seminar, which was held with the intense participation of lecturers and graduate students, ended with a question-answer and mutual discussion part.
