The Ottoman Empire was one of the most significant forces in world history and yet little attention is paid to its rich cultural life. For the people of the Ottoman Empire, lyrical poetry was the most prized literary activity. People from all walks of life aspired to be poets. Ottoman poetry was highly complex and sophisticated and was used to express all manner of things, from feelings of love to a plea for employment. This collection offers free verse translations of 75 lyric poems from the mid-fourteenth to the early twentieth centuries, along with the Ottoman Turkish texts and, new to this expanded edition, photographs of printed, lithographed, and hand-written Ottoman script versions of several of the texts--a bonus for those studying Ottoman Turkish. Biographies of the poets and background information on Ottoman history and literature complete the volume.
Elias John Wilkinson Gibb (1857-1901) was a Scottish Orientalist who was born and educated in Glasgow. After studying Arabic and Persian, he developed an interest in Turkish language and literature, especially poetry, and in 1882 he published Ottoman Poems Translated into English Verse in the Original Forms. This was a forerunner to the six-volume classic presented here, A History of Ottoman Poetry, published in London between 1900 and 1909. Gibb died in London of scarlet fever at the age of 44, and only the first volume of his masterpiece appeared before his death. His family entrusted to his friend Edward Granville Browne (1862-1926), a distinguished Orientalist in his own right who had made a special study of Babism, the task of posthumously publishing the five remaining volumes. Browne characterized the work as "one of the most important, if not the most important, critical studies of any Muhammadan literature produced in Europe during the last half-century." The first volume contains a long and compelling introduction by Gibb on the entire subject, in which he argues that Ottoman poetry often rose and fell in tandem with Ottoman power. Gibb divides Ottoman poetry into two great schools, the Old or Asiatic (circa 1300-1859), which generally was characterized by its deference to Persian influences; and the New or European (from 1859 onward), which was influenced by French and other Western poetry. According to Gibb, the Old or Asiatic School went through a four periods: a formative period (1300-1450); a period (1450-1600) in which works were modeled after the Persian poet Jami; a period (1600-1700) dominated by the influences of Persian poets Urfi Shirazi and Saʼib Tabrizi; and a period of uncertainty that lasted until 1859. The European school that followed was inaugurated by Ibrahim Sinasi (1826-71), who in 1859 produced a small but momentous collection of French poetry translated into Turkish verse. The influence of the collection was far-reaching and eventually changed the course of Ottoman poetry. Gibb is known for his masterful translations that brilliantly render into English both the meaning and the form of Ottoman, Persian, and Arabic poetry. For almost a century after his death, a family trust financed the Gibb Memorial Series of editions and translations into English of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish texts.
An anthology of notable poetry and poets in the history of Turkey. Some discussion of the general character, the verse-form, the meters, and the development of Ottoman poetry is included in the beginning of the collection.
From Orhon inscriptions to Orhan Pamuk, the story of Turkish literature from the eighth century A.D. to the present day is rich and complex, full of firm traditions and daring transformations. Spanning a wide geographic range from Outer Mongolia and the environs of China through the Middle East all the way to Europe, the history of Turkish literature embraces a multitude of traditions and influences. All have left their imprint on the distinctive amalgam that is uniquely Turkish. Always receptive to the nurturing values, aesthetic tastes, and literary penchants of diverse civilizations, Turkish culture succeeded in evolving a sui generis personality. It clung to its own established traits, yet it was flexible enough to welcome innovations—and even revolutionary change. A Millennium of Turkish Literature tells the story of how literature evolved and grew in stature on the Turkish mainland over the course of a thousand years. The book features numerous poems and extracts in fluid translations by Halman and others. This volume provides a concise and captivating introduction to Turkish literature and, with selections from its extensive “Suggested Reading” section, serves as an invaluable guide to Turkish literature for course adoption.
The early modern Ottoman poet Mihrî Hatun (1460–1515) succeeded in drawing an admiring audience and considerable renown during a time when few women were accepted into the male-dominated intellectual circles. Her poetry collection is among the earliest bodies of women’s writing in the Middle East and Islamicate literature, providing an exceptional vantage point on intellectual history. With this volume, Havlioglu not only gives readers access to this rare text but also investigates the factors that allowed Mihri to survive and thrive despite her clear departure from the cultural norms of the time. Placing the poet in the context of her era and environment, Havlioglu finds that the poet’s dramatic, masterful performance and subversiveness are the very reasons for her endurance and acclaim in intellectual history. Mihri Hatun performed in a way that embraced her marginal position as a woman and leveraged it to her advantage. Havlioglu’s astute and nuanced portrait gives readers a fascinating glimpse into the life of a woman poet in a highly gendered society and suggests that women have been part of intellectual history long before the modern period.
In The Last of an Age, Sooyong Kim explores the relationship between social change and the development of an Ottoman literary canon in the course of the sixteenth century by examining the work and reception of a popular poet, Zati (1471–1546). Kim argues that a newly emergent group of bureaucratic literati, through the production of authoritative biographical dictionaries, ultimately relegated Zati to a lesser literary age, driven by a self-fashioning that privileged broad linguistic ability, above all else, with poetry serving as the main vehicle for demonstrating that. This study is interdisciplinary in approach, taking insights from literary studies, cultural history, and social theory. It adds to the scholarship on the rise of early modern Ottoman canons in the fields of visual arts and music and complements recent work on court patronage. Framed by ongoing critiques of canon formation among specialists of early modern Europe and late imperial China, the study offers a comparative perspective on those issues.
The twenty two essays collected in Turkish Language, Literature and History offer insights into Turkish culture in the widest sense. Written by leaders in their fields from North America, Europe and Turkey, these essays cover a broad range of topics, focusing on various aspects of Turkish language, literature and history between the eighth century and the present. The chapters move between ancient and contemporary literature, exploring Sultan Selim’s interest in dream interpretation, translating newly uncovered poetry and exploring the works of Orhan Pamuk. Linguistic complexities of the Turkish language and dialects are analysed, while new translations of 16th century decrees offer insight into Ottoman justice and power. This is a festschrift volume published for the leading scholar Bob Dankoff, and the diverse topics covered in these essays reflect Dankoff’s valuable contributions to the study of Turkish language and literature. This cross-disciplinary book offers contributions from academics specialising in linguistics, history, literature and sociology, amongst others. As such, it is of key interest to scholars working in a variety of disciplines, with a focus on Turkish Studies.
