Abstract

The eulogies are sad narratives sung by narrators for the deceased after deaths in society. Those who use eulogizing expressions about the martyrdom or death of the Fourteen Innocents, one of the fundamental teachings of Shiism, are called meddah. It differs from the Anatolian field in the sense that elegies are divided into sub-genres in Iran and some of these sub-genres are not yet independent genres as in Anatolia. The presence of Shi'ism and political propaganda in the background of meddah and elegy, which continue to exist as a tradition in Iran, represent the ideological aspect of the traditions. Therefore, the state's desire to gather the people around the collective memory of Shiism and create a super-identity through these traditions renders the language of the meddah performances insignificant. At this point, the fact that Turkish meddahs perform in Turkish along with Persian ensures the preservation of language and identity in the region in a natural flow. The study examines the traditions of elegy and meddah of Iranian Turks in light of the field research conducted in Iran in 2015, 2017-2018 and 2021. The study, in which the ethnographic model of qualitative research methods was used, examined the importance of these traditions for the state, society, religion, and language in the region. The aim of the research is to reveal the state of the traditions in the region and how they are used as an ideological discourse on the axis of the state religion. As a result, it has been determined that although the two traditions serve the Shiism ideology of the state, they are an important area that enables Turks to preserve their identity through language.