Özet:

Kutadgu Bilig is one of the first works of Turkish-Islamic literature. It was written in the masnavi style after the middle of the eleventh century (H. 462/A.D. 1069-1070). It is a work of the type of political book and gives information and advice to the head of state and senior state officials on the structure of the state and the ideal style of politics. There are four main characters in the work: Kün-Togdı as the khan/president, Ay-Toldi as the vizier/prime minister, Öğdülmiş as the prime minister's successor, and Odgurmış as the ascetic. At the same time, they represent the four basic elements of politics consisting of töre/tradition, kut/bless, understanding and hereafter. And they also represent justice, state, reason and abstinend respectively. It seems to met that Kün-Togdı and Odgurmış two heroes of the work, represent the relationship between religion and state. While the former is the chief representative and guarantor of earthly happiness and the other hereafter happiness. Although there was a clush of opinions between them at the begining, they later reconciled. Kün-Togdı respects the ascetic life in the person of Odgurmış, and Odgurmış respects the politics in the person of Kün-Togdı. Odgurmış is an ascetic who distanced himself from the people and worshiped in a deserted place. Kün-Togdı considered his life as an ascetic more valuable than anything else and saw him as the most important representative of religion. For us this couses some potential problems. Because he preferred a life outside of social life and criticized by Islam. Studies on Kutadgu Bilig have generally ignored these kind of problems. Because they idealized the relationship between religion and politics mentioned in the work. In this study, the relationship between politics and religion in the work will be discussed with a critical view. First, the information on the subject in it will be explained by describing in a simple language, then the main values that represent the main elements of the relation between the state and religion will be discussed and their relationship or unrelatedness with the Islamic political tradition will be emphasized. Finally, the positive and negative aspects of the relationship between politics and religion, which are ideally presented in the work, will be discussed.