Kürşat (hero) is a Turkish
male name based on a fictional character. He is the idealized character of a real person whose name was given as Jiesheshuai (or Chie shih shuai) in the 7th-century
Chinese chronicles.
In old Turkish, kür means "arrow" or "ambitious" Şad (shad) was the title of a clan leader of the royal blood. Şads were assistants of the khagan (emperor) or yabgu(ruler of the
west portion of the empire) Thus Kür-şat (or Kür-şad) was a compound
name. It was popularized by Turkish author Nihal Atsız. Atsız told about the Jiesheshuai event and the name Kürşat to his colleague (later opponent) Sabahattin
Ali who in 1936 wrote a
play named Esirler (Captives) based on Jiesheshuai. But it was not an epic
play and Kürşat was portrayed as a
desperate lover. Nihal Atsız criticized the
play and decided to use the name in one of his novels. Kürşat was mentioned in his 1946 epic novel named Bozkurtların Ölümü (The death of
Grey Wolves). In Turkish mythology The wolfsymbolizes honor and is also considered the mother of most Turkish peoples In the novel, the death of the
grey wolves refers to the collapse of Eastern Turkish khaganate. The first section of the novel refers to 621 events when Turks were independent. Second section is about the collapse of the khaganate and the last section is about the Jiesheshuai event. The main difference from the historic event is that the author Nihal Atsız has named the hero Kürşat instead of Jiesheshuai. The name was further popularized when Niyazi Yıldırım Gençosmanoğlu wrote a poem based on the novel.
Made by Kursat Akyuz
