A comparative study of the characters of Köroğli, the epic hero of the Turkic nations and Antarat Ibn Shaddad the brave Arab

One of the important branches of literature is comparative literature which compares the literature of different nations.There are characters among the nations that their story of life originated from a single stream as of Köroğli the epic hero of the Turkic nations and Antarat Ibn Shaddad, the epic hero of the Arab nation. Elements like horse and mythical sword, love, generosity, poetry compare the characters of these two heroes. This article compare the personality of these two heroes descriptive-analytical and in a comparative method.

Among the comparable characters that have not been researched so far, it is possible to mention the epic hero of the Turkic nations, Köroğli and the brave Arab rider, Antara, whose poetry contains epic elements.Although according to some researchers, due to the historical, social, cultural and climatic conditions, there is no epic work among the Arabs such as Egypt, etc, Antara's poem - which actually describes the heroism of himself and his tribe - is boastful that can be considered an epic with a little tolerance. Both heroes, having love and taking advantage of their moral virtues, such as self-restraint, tyranny, the fight between good and evil, have expressed bravery and courage, while the mythological elements are prominent in their life stories.

Many articles and works have been written about Köroğli and Antara, like the valuable work of Köroğli in Legend and History (Raisnia, 1987) and several articles such as:''The comparative study of Köroğlu and Rostam's stories''(Rasmi, 2013), ''The dramatic and adaptive aspects of Köroğli s epic'' (Fakhri, 2013), ''Connection of love and epic in Shāhnāmeh and the story of Köroğlu''(Rasmi and Rasmi, 2015). Regarding Antara, there are also articles such as ''Investigating the sense of inferiority in 'Antarat Ibn Shaddad' character in his poems''(AfkhamiAghda et al., 2017), ''A comparative look at the position of horse in the epic of Shahnameh and Antara’s book of epic poetry” (Pirzadania et al., 2018), and ''A study of the elements of epic in Antara’s Ode''(Zibayi, 2016); however, no research has been presented so far regarding the adaptation of these two Turkic and Arabic epic characters, which having similar mythological elements and common characteristics.

This article discusses the mythological elements and common features of two characters from two nationalities in a descriptive, analytical and comparative way. The basis of the story of Köroğli  is the ''epopee of Köroğli '' composed by Sakineh Rasmi, which is published in 206 pages by the Persian Language and Literature Academy and  the basis of the research of Antarat's story is his Divan of poems,

1. Which of the mythological elements is actually used in the stories of Köroğli and Antara? 2. What is the common feature that makes compatible two Turkic and Arabic characters?

There are always heroes and brave men among different nations who, in addition to their bravery, have become popular among the people, and their names have been immortalized on the page of history as epic heroes. Köroğli, the epic hero whose name has crossed geographical and historical boundaries, is one of these heroes who is famous among the nations of Iran, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, etc., the character of this hero, due to the mythological elements of the horse and the hero's sword having heroic and fighting qualities,is comparable to the story of Antarat Ibn Shaddad.