Folk poetry

Yunus Emre (1240-1321) has exercised immense influence on Turkish literature, from his own day until
the present.
The folk poetry tradition in Turkish literature, as indicated above, was strongly influenced by the
Islamic Sufi and Shi'a traditions. Furthermore, as partly evidenced by the prevalence of the still
existent ak/ozan tradition, the dominant element in Turkish folk poetry has always been song.
The development of folk poetry in Turkishwhich began to emerge in the 13th century with
such important writers as Yunus Emre, Sultan Veled, and eyyd Hamzawas given a great
boost when, on 13 May 1277, Karamanolu Mehmet Bey declared Turkish the official state
language of Anatolia's powerful Karamanid state;
[5]
subsequently, many of the tradition's greatest
poets would continue to emerge from this region.
There are, broadly speaking, two traditions of Turkish folk poetry:
the ak/ozan tradition, whichalthough much influenced by religion, as mentioned above
was for the most part a secular tradition;
the explicitly religious tradition, which emerged from the gathering places (tekkes) of the Sufi
religious orders and Shi'a groups.
Much of the poetry and song of the ak/ozan tradition, being almost exclusively oral until the
19th century, remains anonymous. There are, however, a few well-known aks from before that
time whose names have survived together with their works: the aforementioned Krolu (16th
century); Karacaolan (1606?1689?), who may be the best-known of the pre-19th century aks;
Dadalolu (1785?1868?), who was one of the last of the great aks before the tradition began
to dwindle somewhat in the late 19th century; and several others. The aks were essentially
minstrels who travelled through Anatolia performing their songs on the balama, a mandolin-
like instrument whose paired strings are considered to have a symbolic religious significance in
Alevi/Bektashi culture. Despite the decline of the ak/ozan tradition in the 19th century, it
experienced a significant revival in the 20th century thanks to such outstanding figures as Ak
Veysel atrolu (18941973), Ak Mahzuni erif (19382002), Neet Erta (19382012), and
many others.

Kaygusuz Abdal
The explicitly religious folk tradition of tekke literature shared a similar basis with the ak/ozan
tradition in that the poems were generally intended to be sung, generally in religious gatherings,
making them somewhat akin to Western hymns (Turkish ilahi). One major difference from the
ak/ozan tradition, however, is thatfrom the very beginningthe poems of the tekke tradition
were written down. This was because they were produced by revered religious figures in the
literate environment of the tekke, as opposed to the milieu of the ak/ozan tradition, where the
majority could not read or write. The major figures in the tradition of tekke literature are: Yunus
Emre (1240?1320?), who is one of the most important figures in all of Turkish literature;
Sleyman elebi (?1422), who wrote a highly popular long poem called Veslet'n-Nect
( "The Means of Salvation", but more commonly known as the Mevlid), concerning
the birth of the Islamic prophet Muhammad; Kaygusuz Abdal (1397?), who is widely
considered the founder of Alevi/Bektashi literature; and Pir Sultan Abdal (?1560), whom many
consider to be the pinnacle of that literature.
Folklore
Main article: Turkish Folklore

Nasreddin Hoca
The tradition of folklorefolktales, jokes, legends, and the likein the Turkish language is very
rich. Perhaps the most popular figure in the tradition is the aforementioned Nasreddin (known as
Nasreddin Hoca, or "teacher Nasreddin", in Turkish), who is the central character of thousands
of jokes. He generally appears as a person who, though seeming somewhat stupid to those who
must deal with him, actually proves to have a special wisdom all his own:
One day, Nasreddin's neighbor asked him, "Teacher, do you have any forty-year-old vinegar?"
"Yes, I do," answered Nasreddin."Can I have some?" asked the neighbor. "I need some to
make an ointment with.""No, you can't have any," answered Nasreddin. "If I gave my forty-
year-old vinegar to whoever wanted some, I wouldn't have had it for forty years, would I?"

Karagz and Hacivat
Similar to the Nasreddin jokes, and arising from a similar religious milieu, are the Bektashi
jokes, in which the members of the Bektashi religious orderrepresented through a character
simply named Bektaiare depicted as having an unusual and unorthodox wisdom, one that
often challenges the values of Islam and of society.
Another popular element of Turkish folklore is the shadow theater centered around the two
characters of Karagz and Hacivat, who both represent stock characters: Karagzwho hails
from a small villageis something of a country bumpkin, while Hacivat is a more sophisticated
city-dweller. Popular legend has it that the two characters are actually based on two real persons
who worked either for Osman Ithe founder of the Ottoman dynastyor for his successor
Orhan I, in the construction of a palace or possibly a mosque at Bursa in the early 14th century.
The two workers supposedly spent much of their time entertaining the other workers, and were
so funny and popular that they interfered with work on the palace, and were subsequently
beheaded. Supposedly, however, their bodies then picked up their severed heads and walked
away.
Ottoman literature
The two primary streams of Ottoman written literature are poetry and prose. Of the two,
poetryspecifically, Divan poetrywas by far the dominant stream. Moreover, it should be
noted that, until the 19th century, Ottoman prose did not contain any examples of fiction; that is,
there were no counterparts to, for instance, the European romance, short story, or novel (though
analogous genres did, to some extent, exist in both the Turkish folk tradition and in Divan
poetry).
Divan poetry
Further information: Poetry of the Ottoman Empire

An Ottoman garden party, with poet, guest, and winebearer; from the 16th-century Dvn- Bk
Ottoman Divan poetry was a highly ritualized and symbolic art form. From the Persian poetry
that largely inspired it, it inherited a wealth of symbols whose meanings and interrelationships
both of similitude ( mura't-i nazr / tensb) and opposition (
tezd)were more or less prescribed. Examples of prevalent symbols that, to some extent,
oppose one another include, among others:
the nightingale ( blbl) the rose ( gl)
the world ( cihan; lem) the rosegarden ( glistan; glen)
the ascetic ( zhid) the dervish ( dervi)
As the opposition of "the ascetic" and "the dervish" suggests, Divan poetrymuch like Turkish
folk poetrywas heavily influenced by Sufi thought. One of the primary characteristics of Divan
poetry, howeveras of the Persian poetry before itwas its mingling of the mystical Sufi
element with a profane and even erotic element. Thus, the pairing of "the nightingale" and "the
rose" simultaneously suggests two different relationships:
the relationship between the fervent lover ("the nightingale") and the inconstant beloved ("the
rose")
the relationship between the individual Sufi practitioner (who is often characterized in Sufism as
a lover) and God (who is considered the ultimate source and object of love)
Similarly, "the world" refers simultaneously to the physical world and to this physical world
considered as the abode of sorrow and impermanence, while "the rosegarden" refers
simultaneously to a literal garden and to the garden of Paradise. "The nightingale", or suffering
lover, is often seen as situatedboth literally and figurativelyin "the world", while "the rose",
or beloved, is seen as being in "the rosegarden".
Divan poetry was composed through the constant juxtaposition of many such images within a
strict metrical framework, thus allowing numerous potential meanings to emerge. A brief
example is the following line of verse, or msra (), by the 18th-century judge and poet
Hayat Efendi:

Bir gl m var bu glen-i lemde hrsz
[6]

("Does any rose, in this rosegarden world, lack thorns?")

A page from Nava'i's diwan. From the library of Suleiman the Magnificent.
Here, the nightingale is only implied (as being the poet/lover), while the rose, or beloved, is
shown to be capable of inflicting pain with its thorns ( hr). The world, as a result, is seen as
having both positive aspects (it is a rosegarden, and thus analogous to the garden of Paradise)
and negative aspects (it is a rosegarden full of thorns, and thus different from the garden of
Paradise).
As for the development of Divan poetry over the more than 500 years of its existence, that isas
the Ottomanist Walter G. Andrews points outa study still in its infancy;
[7]
clearly defined
movements and periods have not yet been decided upon. Early in the history of the tradition, the
Persian influence was very strong, but this was mitigated somewhat through the influence of
poets such as the Azerbaijani Nesm (?1417?) and the Uyghur Ali r Nev (14411501), both
of whom offered strong arguments for the poetic status of the Turkic languages as against the
much-venerated Persian. Partly as a result of such arguments, Divan poetry in its strongest
periodfrom the 16th to the 18th centuriescame to display a unique balance of Persian and
Turkish elements, until the Persian influence began to predominate again in the early 19th
century.
Turkish poets,(Ottoman and Chagatay), although they had been inspired and influenced by
classical Persian poetry, it would be a superficial judgment to consider the former as blind
imitators of the latters, as is often done. A limited vocabulary and common technique, and the
same world of imagery and subject matter based mainly on Islamic sources were shared by all
poets of Islamic literature.
[8]

Despite the lack of certainty regarding the stylistic movements and periods of Divan poetry,
however, certain highly different styles are clear enough, and can perhaps be seen as exemplified
by certain poets:

Fuzl (1483?1556), a Divan poet of Turkmen origin
Fuzl (1483?1556); a unique poet who wrote with equal skill in Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and
Arabic, and who came to be as influential in Persian as in Divan poetry
Bk (15261600); a poet of great rhetorical power and linguistic subtlety whose skill in using the
pre-established tropes of the Divan tradition is quite representative of the poetry in the time of
Sleyman the Magnificent
Nef (1570?1635); a poet considered the master of the kasde (a kind of panegyric), as well as
being known for his harshly satirical poems, which led to his execution
Nb (16421712); a poet who wrote a number of socially oriented poems critical of the
stagnation period of Ottoman history
Nedm (1681?1730); a revolutionary poet of the Tulip Era of Ottoman history, who infused the
rather lite and abstruse language of Divan poetry with numerous simpler, populist elements
eyh Glib (17571799); a poet of the Mevlev Sufi order whose work is considered the
culmination of the highly complex so-called "Indian style" ( sebk-i hind)
The vast majority of Divan poetry was lyric in nature: either gazels (which make up the greatest
part of the repertoire of the tradition), or kasdes. There were, however, other common genres,
most particularly the mesnev, a kind of verse romance and thus a variety of narrative poetry; the
two most notable examples of this form are the Leyl v Mecnun ( ) of Fuzl and
the Hsn Ak ( ; "Beauty and Love") of eyh Glib.
Early Ottoman prose
Further information: Prose of the Ottoman Empire

Evliya elebi (16111682?), an Ottoman travel writer
Until the 19th century, Ottoman prose never managed to develop to the extent that contemporary
Divan poetry did. A large part of the reason for this was that much prose was expected to adhere
to the rules of sec' (, also transliterated as seci), or rhymed prose,
[9]
a type of writing
descended from the Arabic saj' and which prescribed that between each adjective and noun in a
sentence, there must be a rhyme.
Nevertheless, there was a tradition of prose in the literature of the time. This tradition was
exclusively nonfictional in naturethe fiction tradition was limited to narrative poetry.
[10]
A
number of such nonfictional prose genres developed:
the trih ( ), or history, a tradition in which there are many notable writers, including the
15th-century historian Akpaazde and the 17th-century historians Ktib elebi and Nam
the seyhatnme ( ), or travelogue, of which the outstanding example is the 17th-
century Seyahtnme of Evliya elebi
the sefretnme ( ), a related genre specific to the journeys and experiences of an
Ottoman ambassador, and which is best exemplified by the 17181720 Paris Sefretnmesi of
Yirmisekiz Mehmed elebi, ambassador to the court of Louis XV of France
the siysetnme ( ), a kind of political treatise describing the functionings of state
and offering advice for rulers, an early Seljuk example of which is the 11th-century Siysatnma,
written in Persian by Nizam al-Mulk, vizier to the Seljuk rulers Alp Arslan and Malik Shah I
the tezkre ( ), a collection of short biographies of notable figures, some of the most
notable of which were the 16th-century tezkiret'-uars ( ), or biographies of
poets, by Latf and Ak elebi
the mnet ( ), a collection of writings and letters similar to the Western tradition of
belles-lettres
the mnzara ( ), a collection of debates of either a religious or a philosophical nature
The 19th century and Western influence
Further information: Poetry of the Ottoman Empire, Prose of the Ottoman Empire

Edict of Glhane was an 1839 proclamation by Ottoman sultan Abdlmecid I that launched the Tanzimt
period of reforms and reorganization in the Ottoman Empire.
By the early 19th century, the Ottoman Empire had become moribund. Attempts to right this
situation had begun during the reign of Sultan Selim III, from 1789 to 1807, but were
continuously thwarted by the powerful Janissary corps. As a result, only after Sultan Mahmud II
had abolished the Janissary corps in 1826 was the way paved for truly effective reforms
(Ottoman Turkish: tanzmt).
These reforms finally came to the empire during the Tanzimat period of 18391876, when much
of the Ottoman system was reorganized along largely French lines. The Tanzimat reforms "were
designed both to modernize the empire and to forestall foreign intervention".
[11]

Along with reforms to the Ottoman system, serious reforms were also undertaken in the
literature, which had become nearly as moribund as the empire itself. Broadly, these literary
reforms can be grouped into two areas:
changes brought to the language of Ottoman written literature;
the introduction into Ottoman literature of previously unknown genres.

Ziya Pasha (18291880), Turkish poet and reformist

Namk Kemal (1840-1888), Turkish writer, intellectual, reformer, journalist and political activist
The reforms to the literary language were undertaken because the Ottoman Turkish language was
thought by the reformists to have effectively lost its way. It had become more divorced than ever
from its original basis in Turkish, with writers using more and more words and even grammatical
structures derived from Persian and Arabic, rather than Turkish.
[12]
Meanwhile, however, the
Turkish folk literature tradition of Anatolia, away from the capital Constantinople, came to be
seen as an ideal. Accordingly, many of the reformists called for written literature to turn away
from the Divan tradition and towards the folk tradition; this call for change can be seen, for
example, in a famous statement by the poet and reformist Ziya Pasha (18291880):
Our language is not Ottoman; it is Turkish. What makes up our poetic canon is not gazels and
kasdes, but rather kayabas, lemes, and rs
[13]
, which some of our poets dislike, thinking
them crude. But just let those with the ability exert the effort on this road [of change], and what
powerful personalities will soon be born!
[14]

At the same time as this callwhich reveals something of a burgeoning national
consciousnesswas being made, new literary genres were being introduced into Ottoman
literature, primarily the novel and the short story. This trend began in 1861, with the translation
into Ottoman Turkish of Franois Fnelon's 1699 novel Les aventures de Tlmaque, by Yusuf
Kmil Pasha, Grand Vizier to Sultan Abdlaziz. What is widely recognized as the first Turkish
novel, Taauk-u Tal'at ve Fitnat ( ; "Tal'at and Fitnat In Love") by
emsettin Sami (18501904), was published just ten years later, in 1872.
[15]
The introduction of
such new genres into Turkish literature can be seen as part of a trend towards Westernization that
continues to be felt in Turkey to this day.
Due to historically close ties with Francestrengthened during the Crimean War of 1854
1856it was French literature that came to constitute the major Western influence on Turkish
literature throughout the latter half of the 19th century. As a result, many of the same movements
prevalent in France during this period also had their equivalents in the Ottoman Empire: in the
developing Ottoman prose tradition, for instance, the influence of Romanticism can be seen
during the Tanzimat period, and that of the Realist and Naturalist movements in subsequent
periods; in the poetic tradition, on the other hand, it was the influence of the Symbolist and
Parnassian movements that became paramount.
Many of the writers in the Tanzimat period wrote in several different genres simultaneously: for
instance, the poet Nmk Kemal (18401888) also wrote the important 1876 novel ntibh
(; "Awakening"), while the journalist brahim inasi (18261871) is noted for writing, in
1860, the first modern Turkish play, the one-act comedy "air Evlenmesi" ( ; "The
Poet's Marriage").
[16]
In a similar vein, the novelist Ahmed Midhat Efendi (18441912) wrote
important novels in each of the major movements: Romanticism (
Hasan Mellh yhud Srr inde Esrr, 1873; "Hasan the Sailor, or The Mystery Within
the Mystery"), Realism ( Henz On Yedi Yanda, 1881; "Just Seventeen
Years Old"), and Naturalism ( Mhedt, 1891; "Observations"). This diversity was, in
part, due to the Tanzimat writers' wish to disseminate as much of the new literature as possible,
in the hopes that it would contribute to a revitalization of Ottoman social structures.
[17]