ONE OF ANATOLIAN LEGENDS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS: THE LEGEND OF ŞAHMERAN

ONE OF ANATOLIAN LEGENDS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS: THE LEGEND OF ŞAHMERAN

 Anatolian lands are full of legends, stories told from language to language, and thousands of years old parables.  One of the important legends of Anatolian lands is the Shahmaran Legend.  The 'Illuyanka Legend' from the Hittite period is shown as a source for the Shahmaran Legend.  Illuyanka is a serpentine dragon in Hittite mythology and its struggle with the storm god Tesup is told.  The legend of Illuyanka may also be linked to the slaying of Tiamat, the dragon in the Babylonian Epic of Creation.

 The Illuyanka Legend, which is associated with the Hittite cults and rituals, is one of the most important Hatti (Anatolian) myths, which are known to be read in temples until the Late Hittite Period as the herald of spring / Purulli in Anatolia.

 Tablets, in which the Hittite literary text was transcribed, were unearthed today during excavations in Boğazkale in Çorum.

 There are two versions of the legend, which contains many folkloric clues about the Hittites.  The first version of the legend is as follows: “Storm God and Illuyanka fight and Illuyanka prevails.  Thereupon, the Storm God summons all gods for help.  Only Inara obeys this call and goes to the city of Ziggara, organizing a festival where everything is prepared to a great extent.  In this city, he meets a person named Hupashiya and comes to the hole where Illuyanka is located and invites him, stating that a festival celebration will be held.  Illuyanka comes out of her hole with her children to attend the festival and drinks until she is drunk.  Hupashiya ties the drunk Illuyanka with a rope and the Storm God comes and kills Illuyanka. "

 “Then Inara builds a house on the rock in the city of Tarukka.  By imprisoning Hupashiya in this house, it forbids him from looking out the window.  However, twenty days later, Hupaşiya, looking out the window, sees his wife and children and, crying, states that he wants to return to his children ”.

 The phrase 'bride price' (siege) mentioned in the second version of this legend is important in terms of reflecting the continuation of a tradition seen in the Hittite world and continued as an Anatolian culture.

 Even though the name Shahmaran comes from "Shah-ı Meran", which means the king of snakes in Persian, Shahmaran appears as a female being in all myths.  Shahmaran, who is also seen in Iranian mythology, is known for his rationalist and benevolent identity.  Sahmeran, who is the head of the supernatural creatures called 'Maran' in the shape of a snake below the waist and a person on top, never ages and it is believed that his soul passes to his daughter when he dies.  It is believed that Shahmaran lived in the town of Tarsus in the Mediterranean region.  Tarsus, a district of Mersin province, has hosted countless civilizations with its history of over 10,000 years, and has been the capital of the Cilician civilization.  There is no one who does not know or hear this legend in Tarsus and different dialects describe it in different ways.  The Shahmaran legend is also common in Mardin and its surroundings.  In this region, paintings made by Sahmeran masters decorate the walls of the houses.  According to the common belief among the people, Shahmaran brings abundance and peace as long as he is not touched in his place and lives with his snakes in the underground country.  As the first person to meet Shahmaran in legends, the name Camshab comes to the fore, but other names have also been rumored.  Although the narration of the legend varies locally, the end is always the same.

 Let us cite this beautiful Anatolian legend as it is known: Long ago, a young man named Camsab lived in a small village in the fertile lands in the south of Anatolia.  Camsab had a good-looking, handsome and strong body.  He earned his bread by woodcutting, a profession he inherited from his father, and earned a living for his family consisting of his elderly father and mother.

 One day Camsab and the three friends go to the mountain to chop wood.  While wandering, they discover a well with honey inside and hang the Camsab, the strongest and the bravest of them, down.  Honey was very valuable in the region at that time;  Camsab carries the honey up with the bucket that they hang down.  Camsab calls out to his friends after he sends the last bucket, but neither the rope came back nor an answer to his call.  Mankind is deceitful and ungrateful.

 Camsap is deceived by his friends, whom he knows as 'my friend', and he is betrayed.  Their friends share the honey among themselves and leave the Camsab at the well.  As all hope is exhausted, Camsab sees light leaking from a pinhole right next to it.  He tries to widen the hole by digging it with his pocket knife, and as he digs, the hole widens and eventually enlarges it enough to crawl through.  A corridor suddenly appears before him and this corridor takes him to the land of snakes underground.  This is a very beautiful place with flowing waters and half human half snake queen Shahmaran stands in front of her, who overshadows all the beauties of the world.  There are hundreds of snakes around him who are responsible for serving him.  Thinking herself in a dream, Camsab realizes that she is in reality with the sweet voice of the queen.  Unable to take his eyes off the queen, Camsab sits next to the throne and sits on the end of Shahmaran's curled tail.  According to a rumor, Shahmaran falls in love with him.  Shahmaran tells Camsab what he has lived, seen and learned for a thousand years in the land of Maran.  Shahmaran teaches him all he knows about the cure of illnesses and herbs.  The more Shahmaran begged not to go, one day, Camshab tells that he wants to return to the earth.  At the end, Shahmaran cannot remain indifferent to his insistence, but he strictly advises people not to talk about himself and never enter the bath.  Because anyone who came across Shahmaran was covered with scales when he went to the bathhouse.  Years pass.  Having promised to Shahmaran and reunited with his family, Camshab kept his promise for many years and never told anyone about the location of Shahmaran and never went to a bathhouse.  One day, the king of the country he lives in falls ill with a relentless illness.  No physician and enchantress can be a remedy in this problem.  Then the rumor that this relentless disease will be cured by eating Şahmaran meat spreads across the country.  It is heard that Cemşab somehow knows where Shahmaran is.  Whoever lives in the country

 they are put in public baths.  Camsab tried to escape, but failed and he was caught and put into the bath.  Of course, Camsab's body is covered with scales when it enters the bathhouse.  The vizier promises Shahmaran gold and jewels in exchange for telling him where he is.  Head to the well and Shahmaran is taken out.  Sahmeran who saw Camsab ‘Here Camsab finally got into my blood.  I knew that human beings cannot be trusted.  But what a cure I was deceived again, "he said.  On the way to death, to Camsab They will boil me in an earthen pot and make you drink my first water. Do not drink it is poisonous.  "Let my second water feed my inner body to the ruler."

 Camsab, which does exactly what Shahmaran said, drinks the first water to the vizier and drinks the second one himself.  He makes his flesh to the ruler.  The vizier dies, and the king soon heals and makes Camsab his vizier.  According to a rumor, in Tarsus, he was killed in a bath called "Shahmaran Bath", but the snakes do not know that Shahmaran was killed.  Camsab, who somehow betrayed Shahmaran's love, continues to be a cure for troubles as a famous physician.

 The Legend of Shahmaran is a cultural element of ours that is widely known and loved in Anatolia, even whose paintings are hung in the hope of bringing luck and abundance to homes.  Bearing the traces of the rich culture of Anatolia for thousands of years, the legend of Shahmaran is kept alive as a motif that Anatolian people decorate the walls of their homes with their paintings, and even use them as dowry.