Alevi-Bektashi Ballads: Malady, Melody and Remedy

This research focuses on how ballads play a central role in the cultural and spiritual life of the Alevi-Bektashi community in Türkiye. These ballads, performed by folk poets known as aşık (minstrel) with the stringed instrument bağlama are the inseparable elements of their daily life and sacred rituals. As rooted in the path of Ali, the fourth Caliph of Islam, and the teachings of 13th-century Sufi saint Haji Bektash Veli, Alevi-Bektashi ballads express shared emotions, struggles, and hopes. Therefore, my point of view argues that these ballads do more than preserve the Anatolian ballad tradition. They create a sense of collective understanding and emotional connection, which I call "communal cognition." Through the ezgi (melody) of poetic lyrics of these ballads, Alevi-Bektashi people look for derman (remedy) for their gender, politics, and love-related dert (malady).