A conference titled “From Mesopotamia to the Present: The Epic of Gilgamesh” was held by the Hasan Kalyoncu University (HKU) Islamic Civilisation Application and Research Centre.
The conference, held at the HKU Cine Amphitheatre, was attended by Dean of the HKU Faculty of Education Prof. Dr. Latife Özaydın, Asst. Prof. Dr. Murat Erkoç, faculty member in the Department of Basic Education, Faculty of Education, and students.
Speaking at the conference, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Çelik, faculty member in the Department of History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, evaluated the Epic of Gilgamesh, regarded as one of the earliest written works in human history, within the framework of modern philosophy and social dynamics. In his speech, Çelik said: “Gilgamesh’s journey, which begins as the King of Uruk, turns into a quest for wisdom and invites us to reflect on human finitude and existential questioning. This epic is not merely an ancient epic text; it offers a multi-layered field of meaning stretching from phenomenology to ecology, from post-humanism to political philosophy. The text, which builds a strong intellectual bridge between the cultural heritage of Mesopotamia and today’s world of thought, also has historical ties with the geography of Anatolia and Gaziantep; it touches local memory through elements such as the Euphrates River and the Amanos Mountains.”
The conference is intended to provide an important foundation for comprehensive scientific studies to be carried out in this field in the future. During the programme, students had the opportunity to ask questions on the subject they were interested in, and the event ended with a commemorative photograph.
