Dabke Folk Dance With Lyrics And Music in Hatay Arab Alawite Culture

Ethnic communities with different religions and languages live together in harmony in Hatay. Individuals belonging to these communities maintain their cultural ethnic identity along with their national Turkish citizenship identity. The Arab Alawite community is the largest community in Hatay who speak the local dialect Arabic. The dabke, as a folkdance, whose lyrics are spoken in their unique local Arabic dialect, is seen as an indicator of their cultural differences and cultural identities. The musical structure of dabke, which is sung in Arabic in other ethnic communities in Hatay and danced as line called halay in Turkish, is widely danced in Middle Eastern countries and cultures such as Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Syria, and also in Europe and America where these communities live through immigration. Until now, there has been no academic study on the folkdance of dabke music and lyrics in Hatay that emerged from events such as cultural life and social solidarity. In this study, the subject of dabke dance’s lyrics and music in Hatay Arabic Alawite culture was examined and musical notes were written for the first time. The information obtained by conducting field research with the subject participant-observer method was analyzed within the framework of cultural theories from an academic perspective. The most widespread dabke pieces were determined, musicologically, to consist of six musical works which were compiled and recorded. It was determined that Ala delo’una was the most common work in the Middle East and Hatay region. In this academic study about dabke as a folk dance common in a multicultural region among the folk dances included in the UNESCO sustainable intangible cultural heritage list, the subject was examined in terms of term, etymology, history, cultural, social and social aspects.