Hello,
it became a very interesting issue for me, after I read the sentence on this link below:
http://www.turkcewiki.org/wiki/Tartışma:Susa_(antik_kent)
It is about the word SUSA, meaning in many dialects fo Turkish language the way, the gateway the passage, etc...
But slowly.
What is all about here?
It is about 3 points/words/terms in ALI BABA and the 40 THIEVES, a folk tale added to the 1001 Nights Tales!
These points are:
1. OPEN SESAME
2. ALI BABA
3. 40 (FOURTY) THIEVES
A short story about this tale how it was added to 1001 Nights Tales.
Antoine Galland, a French Orientalist who heard this tale from a Maronite Story-Teller Hanna Diyab from Aleppo in 18. Century and added it to 1001 Nights.
The Arabic Dialect of Aleppo of Ottoman Syria was influenced by Aramaic and Turkish at that time and Hanna Diyab could speak a little bit Turkish (according to Galland).
Shortly the Turkish Language was not foreign to Diyab.
He told Galland the story of Ali Baba and 40 Thieves AND the most famous short sentence of the Tale World
'OPEN SESAME',
'SESAM ÖFFNE DICH',
'ACIL SUSAM ACIL'
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1st Point: But how can a sesame open? There were many explanations about this sentence like (wiki)
Or an explanation in Turkish
And above, at the beginning of this blog, you read one by a nameless Turkish writer. He says on this pic "SUSA is a word in Turkish that means WAY, GATEWAY or PASSAGE. An other writer supports him and you can find this word in many other Turkish dictionaries. Yes SUSA is not SESAME.
SUSA-M is the word for SESAME in Turkish, right. But more important is the word SUSA now with the possessive affix M belonging to 1. Person Singular. That results SUSA-M means MY WAY, MY PASSAGE, MY GATEWAY.
I think Mr. Diyab knew this word SUSAM meaning "my way" and he told the tale with this meaning and then Galland said it in the form of
" Sésame, ouvre-toi !" in English OPEN SESAME.
I think a way or a passage/way/gateway opens better than a sesame. I can assume that it was in this way, that SESAME does not mean SESAME but SUSAM as "my way" as a Turkish word...
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2nd Point is that the hero of this tale is called ALI BABA. In Arabic and Persian languages (the languages of the region of Gallands'/Diyab's times) you call first the title and than the name like:
For example:
Uncle Ali means in Persian AMU ALI or DAI ALI
and in Arabic KHALI ALI
Our hero's name is NOT BABA ALI, no, his name is ALI BABA.
A typical Turkish style of calling somebody with a title.
First the name than the title like:
Uncle Ali would be ALI AMCA or ALI DAYI, or Captain Ahmet would be Ahmet Yüzbasi, and so on.
That is why I can say, the name of the hero fits into the Turkish language rules.
ALI BABA worked with the Turks maybe or grew up with the Turks :)
Shortly the name and the title sound like as if they were Turkish.
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3. Point is about the origin of the 40 Thieves.
It is "THEIR" sentence in Turkish language that opens you the way to treasure!
And this is the sentence that brought me to write this blog.
MY WAY OPEN - MEIN WEG ÖFFNE DICH - ACIL SUSAM ACIL
At least the chieftain could speak Turkish and the rest 39 maybe not, but they could understand the meaning, most probably (ALi BABA's brother Kassim didn't know the meaning and forgot the sentence and paid this with his life).
40 is/was a holy number in Old Turkish Culture and in Islam and of course in Christianity, too.
I think the Turks had this holy number not from the moslem Arabs because there are many "holy 40"s in many old Turkish Cultures all around the world and the christian Turks have this holy Number, too. And of course a very good example is a Turks People called Kirghiz is derived from 40 (Forty=KIRK).
These dirty 40 knew a Turkish Sentence and the 40 could indicate the Turkishness of this troop. It has a secondarily importance but an indicator, too.
Wiki says:
There is a good pdf about 40 in Turkish Culture
http://turkoloji.cu.edu.tr/HALK%20EDEBIYATI/ahmet_ozgur_guvenc_kirk_sayisi_halk_edebiyati_kullanim.pdf
and
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/TurkSoylenceSozlugu.pdf
I think, it is not very wrong to say there is surely something very Turkish about ALI BABA and the 40 THIEVES!!!
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Uzunbacak Adem
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