An Introductory Essay on the Origin of the Cümcüme Sultan and a Prosaic Rewritten Manuscript of the Story

This article focuses on the narrative of Cümcüme, an imagined dialogue between Jesus and a skull, known as Cümcüme, Dastan-？ Cümcüme, Dastan-？ Cimcime Sultan, Hikayet-i Cimcime Sultan, or K？ssa-？ Cümcüme in Turkish literature. Hüsam Katib wrote the first Turkish version. Subsequent prosaic and poetic versions of the story were written and told in Eastern and Western Turkish languages throughout the centuries, including Malay, Java, and Sunda, Arabic, Persian, and Chinese. According to the narrative, Jesus prays to God to learn the story of a skull he comes across. The prayer is answered by means of the skull speaking and recounting its story. The skull describes the afterlife of a strong and generous ruler, who nonetheless ended in hell. The origin of the story dates back to very old times and differs according to geographical, religious and cultural contexts. In this article, I will first show the origin of the narrative in Turkish literature. Then I will compare twelve different versions and examine the formal and contextual changes. Finally, I will transcribe a manuscript from the Yap？ Kredi Sermet ？ifter Library