What's True And What's Not?

Oral history has played a major role in Turkish history for centuries. Storytelling is also popular in Turkish culture. Turks can sit for hours and tell stories. No one is entirely sure whether these legends are fact or fiction, but that is where the magic lies!
Nearly every culture has its mythical monsters, animals and heroes. You can gain some real insight about a culture by reading about the local myths and superstitions. Some diplomats make it a point to acquaint themselves with a legend or two to impress their host. One wonders if President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would have done so before he left for his trip to the Horn of Africa on Jan. 22. President Erdoğan had plans to visit several African countries beginning with Ethiopia and also including places such as Djibouti and Somalia, but has had to change his plans in order to attend the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah this past Friday.
In general, African myths and legends reveal a lot about animal life. The men are known to be expert tellers of animal tales, because they knew the wildlife so well. Some of the stories I am familiar with represent, in some way, the life of the Bushmen, the Xhosa and Zulu people, etc. and famous places such as Table Mountain and the Wild Coast. You can learn much from the tales. The greedy hyena, for example, is easily fooled. The elephant is slow but reliable and thinks things over carefully. Tortoises are also very slow but wise, and the only animal able to outwit Hare, the trickster.
Usually the stories teach a lesson, and frequently the selfish person learns the lesson the hard way! In Liberia, there is one about a spider and the honey tree that deals with an animal who is a favorite throughout West Africa. The spider is known for his clever tricks, but they do not always work out the way he intends. Sound like anyone you know?
Unfortunately, it is not easy to find books in English about Turkish myths and superstitions; however, the other day while participating in a school book fair I had the chance to look through some of the children's English books we stock and enjoyed reading "100 Facts Myths and Legends" by Miles Kelly. It is a great children's book that covers popular myths from around the world, including nations in the Middle East and Europe.
I love to travel. On one of my visits to China during the 1980s, I observed quickly that dragons were important to Chinese culture. Chinese myths tell how dragons rule the seas and rivers and fly along rainbows to make thunder. The Chinese believe that each one carries a pearl -- like a raindrop -- in their throat. Every spring, the Chinese celebrate special festivals to ask the dragons to send rain.
I imagine everyone has heard of Sinbad the sailor. Myths in the Middle East tell of giant bird-like monsters called rocs. They dropped huge boulders on ships to sink them, but they could also be helpful. The story goes that Sinbad the sailor was rescued by a giant roc.
Myths and legends reveal great cultural insights about daily life. Peter Christen Asbjornsen was an inspector of forests and writer of books on natural history in the 1800s, and together with Jorgen Moe, a parson and a poet, they were the first to collect and write down Norwegian folk tales. These tales preserve the verve and ripe humor of life in the woods and valleys. Maybe you are familiar with the tale of the pancake that rolled away into the world or the story of the grumpy husband who presumed he knew how to do housework better than his wife did. Of course, every culture has its own tale of a prince and princess, and Asbjornsen and Moe tell the charming tale of the princess who always wanted to have the last word.
Another popular myth which seems to date back to ancient Arabia is that of jinns, also spelled djinns (genies). According to popular myths from ancient Arabia, these take on different shapes and forms but most often appear as snakes, dogs and humans. You are probably familiar with the collection of Middle Eastern myths and legends known as "One Thousand and One Nights," in which a genie helps the young hero Aladdin.
In my next piece we will look at some Turkish myths and superstitions.

CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON (Cihan/Today's Zaman)