Abstract

This chapter explores the implications of two notions, kut and töre (rooted in the earliest available Turkish texts), as the two pillars of the Turkish rhetorical tradition. The notions first appear in the eighth-century Orkhon inscriptions and figure strongly in Yusuf Has Hacib’s eleventh-century work, Kutadgu Bilig. Both the Orkhon inscriptions and Kutadgu Bilig, directly or indirectly, imply that kut is attained by following töre in all practices - including those that are rhetorical in nature.