Abstract: This article presents how Ali Göktürk Dede, who was a religious spe- cialist in the Alevi tradition, was taught to use manuscripts containing texts writ- ten in Ottoman Turkish and Arabic by an older relative from his village in East Anatolia. This case study illustrates several aspects of learning and teaching in a manuscript culture that is still little researched. Using both manuscripts and oral- history data as sources, the actors involved in education come to the fore and their different ways of using books and documents become apparent.

In a period of more than five years, I conducted numerous interviews with Ali Göktürk Dede (1932–2020), or Ali Dede for short, through which we tried to recover various aspects of his education and the practices of teaching and learn- ing in his village, Şeyh Hasan Köyü. This article would not have come into being without his endless patience and generosity in sharing his manuscripts, knowl- edge, and life story with me. For this I am deeply indebted to Ali Dede. Regrettably, he passed away before I could show him the result of our work. It is to his memory that this article is dedicated. In addition, I would like to express my thanks to Aydın Gültekin, Veysel Gültekin Dede, Akar Güneş, İsmail Şahin, Turabi Şahin, Baki Ulutaş and numerous others who supported my research in many ways.1

1 Köyündeki eğitim hayatı ve kendi eğitimini çeşitliaçılardan incelemeye çalıştığım Ali Göktürk

Dede (1932–2020) ile beş yılın üzerinde bir süreyle bir çok görüşme gerçekleştirdim. Bilgi birikimini, el yazmalarını ve kendi hayat hikâyesini benimle paylaşırken gösterdiği sabır ve özveri, bu çalışmanın ortaya çıkmasını sağladı. Bu sebepten Ali Göktürk Dede’ye çok minettârım. Bununla birlikte, ne yazık ki çalışmamızın sonuçlarını kendisiyle, o henüz hayattayken paylaşamadım. Dolayısıyla bu makaleyi onun anısına ithaf etmek isterim. Ayrıca bu çalışmada destek veren Aydın Gültekin, Veysel Gültekin Dede, Akar Güneş, İsmail Şahin, Turabi Şahin, Baki Ulutaş ve emeği geçen herkese minnettârım...