Turkish Literature

By category

Epic Tradition

Orhon Dede Korkut - Köroğlu

Folk Tradition

Folk literature Folklore

Ottoman Era

Poetry | Prose

Republican Era

Poetry | Prose

Turkish literature (Turkish: Türk edebiyatı or Türk yazını) is the collection of written and oral texts composed in the Turkish language, either in its Ottoman form or in less exclusively literary forms, such as that spoken in the Republic of Turkey today. For the administrative region of Azerbaijan see Fizuli Rayon; for the city in Azerbaijan see Füzuli. The Old Turkic script (also Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script; Turkish: Orhun Yazıtları, 鄂爾渾文字 The Book of Dede Korkut, also spelled as Dada Gorgud, Dede Qorqut, or Korkut ata ( Turkish: Dede Korkut Kitabı Azerbaijani: The Epic of Köroğlu ( Turkish Köroğlu destanı) is a Legend prominent in the Oral traditions of the Turkic peoples. Turkish folk literature is an Oral tradition deeply rooted in its form in Central Asian nomadic traditions The tradition of Folklore —folktales jokes legends and the like—in the Turkish language is very rich and is incorporated into every day life and events The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish This article deals with the Ottoman Divan poetry tradition For the tradition of folk poetry in the Ottoman Empire see Turkish folk literature. Roughly speaking the prose of the Ottoman Empire can be divided along the lines of two broad periods early Ottoman prose written prior to the 19th century CE and exclusively Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches For the history/introduction of Turkish Poetry covering all eras see Turkish literature. For the history/introduction of Turkish Prose covering all eras see Turkish literature. Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Ottoman Turkish (Osmanlıca or tr ''Osmanlı Türkçesi'' Ottoman Turkish ota-Latn ''lisân-ı Osmânî'' is the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches The Ottoman Turkish language, which forms the basis of much of the written corpus, was heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic and used a variant of the Perso-Arabic script. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language The Perso-Arabic script is a Writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet.

The history of Turkish literature spans a period of nearly 1,500 years. The oldest extant records of written Turkic are the Orhon inscriptions, found in the Orhon River valley in central Mongolia and dating to the 8th century. The Turkic languages constitute a Language family of some thirty languages spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the The Old Turkic script (also Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script; Turkish: Orhun Yazıtları, 鄂爾渾文字 Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape sprawls along the banks of the Orkhon River in Central Mongolia, some 360 km west from the capital Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia (mɒŋˈɡoʊliə, literally Mongol country/nation,) is a Landlocked Country in East Subsequent to this period, between the 9th and 11th centuries, there arose among the nomadic Turkic peoples of Central Asia a tradition of oral epics, such as the Book of Dede Korkut of the Oghuz Turks—the linguistic and cultural ancestors of the modern Turkish people—and the Manas epic of the Kyrgyz people. Nomadic people, (from the νομάδες nomádes, "those who let pasture herds" also known as nomads, are communities of people that The Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern central and western Eurasia who speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east and from southern Russia in the north to northern Pakistan in the south Oral literature corresponds in the sphere of the spoken (oral word to Literature as literature operates in the domain of the written word An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation The Book of Dede Korkut, also spelled as Dada Gorgud, Dede Qorqut, or Korkut ata ( Turkish: Dede Korkut Kitabı Azerbaijani: The Oghuz (variously known as Ghuzz, Guozz, Kuz, Oguz, Oğuz, Okuz, Oufoi, Ouz, Ouzoi, The Turkish people (Türk Halkı also known as " Turks " ( Türkler) are defined mainly as being speakers of Turkish as a First language The Epic of Manas is a traditional epic poem of the Kyrgyz people The Kyrgyz (also spelled Kirgiz, Kirghiz) are a Turkic Ethnic group found primarily in Kyrgyzstan.

Beginning with the victory of the Seljuks at the Battle of Manzikert in the late 11th century, the Oghuz Turks began to settle in Anatolia, and in addition to the earlier oral traditions there arose a written literary tradition issuing largely—in terms of themes, genres, and styles—from Arabic and Persian literature. The Seljuq (also Seljuq Turks, Seldjuks, Seldjuqs, Seljuks; in Turkish Selçuklular; in Ṣaljūqīyān; in The Battle of Manzikert, or Malazgirt, was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq forces led by Alp Arslan on August 26 1071 near Manzikert Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black Arabic literature ( Arabic: الأدب العربي Al-Adab Al-Arabi) is the writing produced both Prose and Poetry, by speakers Persian literature ( spans two and a half millennia though much of the pre- Islamic material has been lost For the next 900 years, until shortly before the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, the oral and written traditions would remain largely separate from one another. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish With the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the two traditions came together for the first time. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches

Contents 1 The two traditions of Turkish literature 2 Folk literature 2.1 The epic tradition 2.2 Folk poetry 2.3 Folklore 3 Ottoman literature 3.1 Divan poetry 3.2 Early Ottoman prose 3.3 The 19th century and Western influence 4 Early 20th-century Turkish literature 4.1 The New Literature movement 4.2 The Dawn of the Future movement 4.3 The National Literature movement 5 Post-independence literature 5.1 Prose 5.2 Poetry 6 Notes 7 References 8 See also 9 External links 9.1 In English 9.2 In Turkish

The two traditions of Turkish literature

Throughout most of its history, Turkish literature has been rather sharply divided into two rather different traditions, neither of which exercised much influence upon the other until the 19th century. The first of these two traditions is Turkish folk literature, and the second is Turkish written literature.

For most of the history of Turkish literature, the salient difference between the folk and the written traditions has been the variety of language employed. The folk tradition, by and large, was oral and remained free of the influence of Persian and Arabic literature, and consequently of those literatures' respective languages. In folk poetry—which is by far the tradition's dominant genre—this basic fact led to two major consequences in terms of poetic style:

• the poetic meters employed in the folk poetic tradition were different, being quantitative (i. A genre (ˈʒɑːnrə also /ˈdʒɑːnrə/ from French "kind" or "sort" from Latin: genus (stem gener-) is a loose set In Poetry, the meter or metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse. e. , syllabic) verse, as opposed to the qualitative verse employed in the written poetic tradition;
• the basic structural unit of folk poetry became the quatrain (Turkish: dörtlük) rather than the couplets (Turkish: beyit) more commonly employed in written poetry. Syllabic verse is a Poetic form having a fixed number of Syllables per Line A quatrain is a Poem, or a Stanza within a poem that consists always of four lines A couplet is a pair of lines of verse. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter

Furthermore, Turkish folk poetry has always had an intimate connection with song—most of the poetry was, in fact, expressly composed so as to be sung—and so became to a great extent inseparable from the tradition of Turkish folk music. A song is a Musical composition. Songs contain vocal parts that are performed 'sung' and generally feature Words ( Lyrics) commonly followed Turkish folk music ( Türk Halk Müziği) has combined the distinct cultural values of all those civilisations which have lived in Anatolia and the Ottoman

In contrast to the tradition of Turkish folk literature, Turkish written literature—prior to the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923—tended to embrace the influence of Persian and Arabic literature. The single-party period of the Republic of Turkey begins after the Turkish War of Independence with the declaration of the Republic on October 29, 1923. To some extent, this can be seen as far back as the Seljuk period in the late 11th to early 14th centuries, where official business was conducted in the Persian language, rather than in Turkish, and where a court poet such as Dehhanî—who served under the 13th century sultan Ala ad-Din Kay Qubadh I—wrote in a language highly inflected with Persian. Sultan (سلطان is an Islamic title with several historical meanings

When the Ottoman Empire arose early in the 14th century, in northwestern Anatolia, it continued this tradition. The standard poetic forms—for poetry was as much the dominant genre in the written tradition as in the folk tradition—were derived either directly from the Persian literary tradition (the gazel غزل; the mesnevî مسنوى), or indirectly through Persian from the Arabic (the kasîde قصيده). In Poetry, the ghazal ( Arabic / Persian / Urdu: غزل; Hindi: ग़ज़ल Turkish gazel) is a The masnavi ( Persian: مثنوی also transcribed as mathnawi; Turkish: mesnevî) is a poetic form in Persian Qasida (also spelled qasidah) in Arabic: قصيدة, plural qasā'id, قــصــائـد; in Persian: قصیده However, the decision to adopt these poetic forms wholesale led to two important further consequences:^[1]

• the poetic meters (Turkish: aruz) of Persian poetry were adopted;
• Persian- and Arabic-based words were brought into the Turkish language in great numbers, as Turkish words rarely worked well within the system of Persian poetic meter. In Poetry, the meter or metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse.

Out of this confluence of choices, the Ottoman Turkish language—which was always highly distinct from standard Turkish—was effectively born. This style of writing under Persian and Arabic influence came to be known as "Divan literature" (Turkish: divan edebiyatı), dîvân (ديوان) being the Ottoman Turkish word referring to the collected works of a poet. Diwan ( Persian دیوان also transliterated as Deewan or Divan, is a Persian word used also into Arabic (الدیوان and Turkish

Just as Turkish folk poetry was intimately bound up with Turkish folk music, so did Ottoman Divan poetry develop a strong connection with Turkish classical music, with the poems of the Divan poets often being taken up to serve as song lyrics. Ottoman classical music ( Klâsik Türk Mûsikîsi, Sanat Mûsikîsi, Saray Mûsikîsi) developed in palaces mosques and Mevlevi

Folk literature

Main article: Turkish Folk Literature

Turkish folk literature is an oral tradition deeply rooted, in its form, in Central Asian nomadic traditions. Turkish folk literature is an Oral tradition deeply rooted in its form in Central Asian nomadic traditions Oral tradition, oral culture and oral lore is a way for a society to transmit history, literature, law and other Knowledges However, in its themes, Turkish folk literature reflects the problems peculiar to a settling (or settled) people who have abandoned the nomadic lifestyle. One example of this is the series of folktales surrounding the figure of Keloğlan, a young boy beset with the difficulties of finding a wife, helping his mother to keep the family house intact, and dealing with the problems caused by his neighbors. History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological Another example is the rather mysterious figure of Nasreddin, a trickster who often plays jokes, of a sort, on his neighbors. Nasreddin ( Turkish "Nasreddin Hoca", Persian ملا نصرالدین, Arabic: جحا transl In Mythology, and in the study of Folklore and Religion, a trickster is a God, Goddess, spirit, man woman or anthropomorphic

Nasreddin also reflects another significant change that had occurred between the days when the Turkish people were nomadic and the days when they had largely become settled in Anatolia; namely, Nasreddin is a Muslim imam. A Muslim (مسلم pronounced Muslim, not Muzlim) is an adherent of the Religion An imam (إمام plural ائمة A'immah, امام is an Islamic leader often the leader of a Mosque and/or community The Turkic peoples had first become an Islamic people sometime around the 9th or 10th century, as is evidenced from the clear Islamic influence on the 11th century Karakhanid work the Kutadgu Bilig ("Wisdom of Royal Glory"), written by Yusuf Has Hajib. For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. This article refers to the Turkic state Kara-Khanid Khanate (also designated as Qarakhanids The Kutadgu Bilig, or Qutadğu Bilig (kuːˈtɑːdɡuː ˈbɪlɪk in English proposed Middle Turkic qʊtaðˈɢʊ bɪˈlɪɡ is a Karakhanid Yusuf Balasaghuni Yusuf_Has_Hajib Balasaghuni (full name Yūsuf Khāṣṣ Ḥājib Balasağuni; Жусуп Баласагын Yusuf Has Hacib was an 11th century The religion henceforth came to exercise an enormous influence on Turkish society and literature, particularly the heavily mystically oriented Sufi and Shi'a varieties of Islam. Mysticism (from the Greek grc μυστικός mystikos, an initiate of a Mystery religion) is the pursuit of communion with identity Sufism ( تصوّف - taṣawwuf, Persian: صوفی‌گری sufigari, Turkish: tasavvuf, Urdu: تصوف The Sufi influence, for instance, can be seen clearly not only in the tales concerning Nasreddin but also in the works of Yunus Emre, a towering figure in Turkish literature and a poet who lived at the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century, probably in the Karamanid state in south-central Anatolia. Yunus Emre (1238?–1320? was a Turkish poet and Sufi mystic. Beylik of Karaman or of Karamanoğlu ( Karamanoğulları in Turkish plural also called the Karamanid Dynasty or the Karamanids, was thumb|350px|Anatolian Turkish Beyliks map Anatolian Beyliks or Turkmen Beyliks ( Turkish: Anadolu Beylikleri, Ottoman Turkish: The Shi'a influence, on the other hand, can be seen extensively in the tradition of the aşıks, or ozans,^[2] who are roughly akin to medieval European minstrels and who traditionally have had a strong connection with the Alevi faith, which can be seen as something of a homegrown Turkish variety of Shi'a Islam. minstrel was a medieval European Bard who performed songs whose lyrics told stories about distant places or about real or imaginary historical events Alevis (Aleviler Elewî are a religious sub-ethnic and cultural community in Turkey, numbering in the millions It is, however, important to note that in Turkish culture, such a neat division into Sufi and Shi'a is scarcely possible: for instance, Yunus Emre is considered by some to have been an Alevi, while the entire Turkish aşık/ozan tradition is permeated with the thought of the Bektashi Sufi order, which is itself a blending of Shi'a and Sufi concepts. Bektashism (Bektaşilik is an Islamic Sufi order ( Tariqat) considered to be a distinct branch of Shi'a Islam Tariqah ( ar طريقه; pl طرق; Ṭuruq or Persian: Tarighat, Turkish: Tarikat) means "way" The word aşık (literally, "lover") is in fact the term used for first-level members of the Bektashi order.

Because the Turkish folk literature tradition extends in a more or less unbroken line from about the 10th or 11th century to today, it is perhaps best to consider the tradition from the perspective of genre. There are three basic genres in the tradition: epic; folk poetry; and folklore.

The epic tradition

The Turkish epic has its roots in the Central Asian epic tradition that gave rise to the Book of Dede Korkut, which is in a language recognizably similar to modern Turkish and which developed from the oral traditions of the Oghuz Turks, that branch of the Turkic peoples which migrated towards western Asia and eastern Europe through Transoxiana beginning in the 9th century. The Book of Dede Korkut, also spelled as Dada Gorgud, Dede Qorqut, or Korkut ata ( Turkish: Dede Korkut Kitabı Azerbaijani: The Oghuz (variously known as Ghuzz, Guozz, Kuz, Oguz, Oğuz, Okuz, Oufoi, Ouz, Ouzoi, Southwest Asia or Southwestern Asia (largely overlapping with the Middle East) is the southwestern portion of Asia. Eastern Europe is a general term that refers to the Geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the European continent. Transoxiana (sometimes spelled Transoxania "河中“Chinese / Ma Wara'un-Nahr ( Arabic: ما وراء النهر / Farārood (فرارود The Book of Dede Korkut continued to survive in the oral tradition after the Oghuz Turks had, by and large, settled in Anatolia.

The Book of Dede Korkut was the primary element of the Turkish epic tradition in Anatolia for several centuries. Another epic circulating at the same time, however, was the so-called Epic of Köroğlu, which concerns the adventures of Rüşen Ali ("Köroğlu", or "son of the blind man") to exact revenge for the blinding of his father. The Epic of Köroğlu ( Turkish Köroğlu destanı) is a Legend prominent in the Oral traditions of the Turkic peoples. The origins of this epic are somewhat more mysterious than those of the Book of Dede Korkut: many believe it to have arisen in Anatolia sometime between the 15th and 17th centuries; more reliable testimony,^[3] though, seems to indicate that the story is nearly as old as that of the Book of Dede Korkut, dating from around the dawn of the 11th century. Complicating matters somewhat is the fact that Köroğlu is also the name of a poet of the aşık/ozan tradition.

That the epic tradition in Turkish literature may not have died out entirely can be seen from the Epic of Shaykh Bedreddin (Şeyh Bedreddin Destanı), published in 1936 by the poet Nâzım Hikmet Ran (1901–1963). Sheikh, also rendered as Sheik, Cheikh, Shaikh, and other variants ( Arabic:, shaykh Sheikh Bedrettin ( 1359 - 1420) was a revolutionary theologian and charismatic preacher who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in 1416. Nazım Hikmet Ran ( November 20, 1901 – June 3, 1963) commonly known as Nazım Hikmet (nɑːˌzɯm hikˈmɛt was a Turkish This long poem—which concerns an Anatolian shaykh's rebellion against the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed I—is a sort of modern, written epic that nevertheless draws upon the same independent-minded traditions of the Anatolian people that can be seen in the Epic of Köroğlu. Sultan (سلطان is an Islamic title with several historical meanings Mehmed I Çelebi ( Ottoman: چلبی محمد IMehmet or Çelebi Mehmet) (1389 May 26 1421 Edirne, Turkey) was a sultan of the Also, many of the works of the 20th-century novelist Yaşar Kemal (1923– ), such as his long 1955 novel Memed, My Hawk (İnce Memed), can be considered modern prose epics. Yaşar Kemal (born Kemal Sadık Gökçeli He has long been a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, on the strength of Memed My Hawk. Memed My Hawk (İnce Memed is a 1955 novel by Yaşar Kemal. It was Kemal's debut novel and is the first novel in his İnce Memed tetralogy. For the Wikipedia guideline regarding editing articles see WikipediaManual of Style.

Folk poetry

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 aşık/ozan tradition, the dominant element in Turkish folk poetry has always been song. The development of folk poetry in Turkish—which began to emerge in the 13th century with such important writers as Yunus Emre, Sultan Veled, and Şeyyâd Hamza—was given a great boost when, on 13 May 1277, Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey declared Turkish the official state language of Anatolia's powerful Karamanid state;^[4] subsequently, many of the tradition's greatest poets would continue to emerge from this region. Events 1497 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.

There are, broadly speaking, two traditions of Turkish folk poetry:

• the aşık/ozan tradition, which—although 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. A khanqah, khaniqah (also transliterated as khanqa, and khaneqa Persian خانگاه khanegah and خانقاه khaneghah ribat, zawiya

Much of the poetry and song of the aşık/ozan tradition, being almost exclusively oral until the 19th century, remains anonymous. There are, however, a few well-known aşıks from before that time whose names have survived together with their works: the aforementioned Köroğlu (16th century); Karacaoğlan (1606?–1689?), who may be the best-known of the pre-19th century aşıks; Dadaloğlu (1785?–1868?), who was one of the last of the great aşıks before the tradition began to dwindle somewhat in the late 19th century; and several others. The aşıks were essentially minstrels who travelled through Anatolia performing their songs on the bağlama, a mandolin-like instrument whose paired strings are considered to have a symbolic religious significance in Alevi/Bektashi culture. The bağlama is a stringed Musical instrument shared by various Cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central A mandolin is a musical instrument in the Lute family (plucked or strummed Despite the decline of the aşık/ozan tradition in the 19th century, it experienced a significant revival in the 20th century thanks to such outstanding figures as Aşık Veysel Şatıroğlu (1894–1973), Aşık Mahzuni Şerif (1938–2002), Neşet Ertaş (1943– ), and many others. Aşık Veysel Şatıroğlu ( October 25, 1894 – March 21, 1973) also known as just Aşık Veysel Aşık Mahzuni Şerif ( 17 November 1940 — 17 May 2002) also known as Mahsuni Şerif, was a Turkish folk musician Ashik

The explicitly religious folk tradition of tekke literature shared a similar basis with the aşık/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). A hymn is a type of Song, usually religious specifically written for the purpose of praise adoration or Prayer, and typically addressed to a deity/deities One major difference from the aşık/ozan tradition, however, is that—from the very beginning—the 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 aşık/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; Süleyman Çelebi (?–1422), who wrote a highly popular long poem called Vesîletü'n-Necât (وسيلة النجاة "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. Mawlid ( Eid Milad an Nabi ( Turkish:Mevlid ( Qur'anic مَوْلِدُ آلنَبِيِّ mawlidu n-nabiyyi, “Birth of the Prophet” In Religion, a prophet (or prophetess) is a person who has encountered the Supernatural or the divine and serves as an intermediary IMPORTANT PLEASE READ ##### For all questions relating to the addition of (pbuh peace be upon him or other honorifics Pir Sultan Abdal (ca 1480 - 1550 a legendary Turkish Alevi (Sufi poet whose direct and clear language as well as the richness of his imagination and the beauty of his verses led him

Folklore

Main article: Turkish Folklore

The tradition of folklore—folktales, jokes, legends, and the like—in the Turkish language is very rich. The tradition of Folklore —folktales jokes legends and the like—in the Turkish language is very rich and is incorporated into every day life and events 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. Nasreddin ( Turkish "Nasreddin Hoca", Persian ملا نصرالدین, Arabic: جحا transl 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?"

Similar to the Nasreddin jokes, and arising from a similar religious milieu, are the Bektashi jokes, in which the members of the Bektashi religious order—represented through a character simply named Bektaşi—are 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 Karagöz and Hacivat, who both represent stock characters: Karagöz—who hails from a small village—is something of a country bumpkin, while Hacivat is a more sophisticated city-dweller. Shadow play (Chinese 皮影戏 pi ying xi or shadow puppetry is an ancient form of Storytelling and Entertainment using opaque often articulated figures Karagöz (meaning blackeye in Turkish) and Hacivat (also written Hacivad) are the lead characters of the traditional Turkish A stock character is one which relies heavily on cultural types or names for his or her personality manner of speech and other characteristics Popular legend has it that the two characters are actually based on two real persons who worked either for Osman I—the founder of the Ottoman dynasty—or for his successor Orhan I, in the construction of a palace or possibly a mosque at Bursa in the early 14th century. Osman I (1258 Sogut, Anatolia, Turkey &ndash1326 Sogut) Ottoman: عثمان بن أرطغرل Turkish: Osman The Ottoman Dynasty (or the Imperial House of Osman) ( Turkish: Osmanlı Hanedanı) ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1299 to 1922 beginning with Orhan I ( Ottoman: اورخان غازی Turkish: Orhan Gazi or Orhan Bey) (1284&ndash1359 was the second Bey, or chief of the Bursa (historically also known as Prussa, Greek: Προύσα and later as Brusa) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the seat 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. Decapitation (from Latin, caput, capitis, meaning head or beheading, is the cutting off of the head of a person or animal 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. For the Wikipedia guideline regarding editing articles see WikipediaManual of Style. Of the two, poetry—specifically, Divan poetry—was 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). Fiction is the telling of stories which are not real More specifically fiction is an imaginative form of Narrative, one of the four basic Rhetorical modes. As a Literary genre of High culture, romance or chivalric romance refers to a style of heroic Prose and verse Narrative The short story is a literary genre of Fictional Prose Narrative that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story

Divan poetry

Further information: Poetry of the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Divan poetry was a highly ritualized and symbolic art form. This article deals with the Ottoman Divan poetry tradition For the tradition of folk poetry in the Ottoman Empire see Turkish folk literature. A ritual is a set of actions often thought to have Symbolic value the performance of which is usually prescribed by a Religion or by the Traditions "Symbolic" redirects here For other uses see Symbolism (disambiguation and Symbolic (disambiguation. From the Persian poetry that largely inspired it, it inherited a wealth of symbols whose meanings and interrelationships—both of similitude (مراعات نظير mura'ât-i nazîr / تناسب tenâsüb) and opposition (تضاد tezâd)—were more or less prescribed. The musical instrument is spelled Cymbal. A symbol is something --- such as an object, Picture, written word a sound a piece Examples of prevalent symbols that, to some extent, oppose one another include, among others:

• the nightingale (بلبل bülbül) — the rose (ﮔل gül)
• the world (جهان cihan; عالم ‘âlem) — the rosegarden (ﮔﻠﺴﺘﺎن gülistan; ﮔﻠﺸﻦ gülşen)
• the ascetic (زاهد zâhid) — the dervish (درويش derviş)

As the opposition of "the ascetic" and "the dervish" suggests, Divan poetry—much like Turkish folk poetry—was heavily influenced by Sufi thought. Darvesh or Dervish ( Arabic and Persian: درویش) as it is known in European languages refers to members of Sufi Sufism ( تصوّف - taṣawwuf, Persian: صوفی‌گری sufigari, Turkish: tasavvuf, Urdu: تصوف One of the primary characteristics of Divan poetry, however—as of the Persian poetry before it—was 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. Allah ( Arabic: الله, ʔalˤːɑːh) is the standard Arabic word for ' Heaven may refer to the physical heavens the sky or the seemingly endless expanse of the Universe beyond "The nightingale", or suffering lover, is often seen as situated—both literally and figuratively—in "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 mısra (مصراع), by the 18th-century judge and poet Hayatî Efendi:

بر گل مى وار بو گلشن ﻋالمدﻪ خارسز

Bir gül mü var bu gülşen-i ‘âlemde hârsız^[5]

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

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 (خار hâr). Qadi (also known as Qazi or Kazi or Kadi) (قاضي is a judge ruling in accordance with the Sharia, Islamic religious law 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 to the garden of Paradise).

As for the development of Divan poetry over the more than 500 years of its existence, that is—as the Ottomanist Walter G. Andrews points out—a study still in its infancy;^[6] 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 Nesîmî (?–1417?) and the Uyghur Ali Şîr Nevâî (1441–1501), both of whom offered strong arguments for the poetic status of the Turkic languages as against the much-venerated Persian. The Azerbaijanis are an Ethnic group mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran. The Uyghur (also spelled Uygur, Uighur, Uigur, Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر) are a Turkic people of Central Asia. Nizām al-Din ʿAlī Shīr Herawī ( Chagatai / Alisher Navoiy ( 9 February 1441 &ndash 3 January 1501) was a Central Asian Partly as a result of such arguments, Divan poetry in its strongest period—from the 16th to the 18th centuries—came to display a unique balance of Persian and Turkish elements, until the Persian influence began to predominate again in the early 19th century.

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:

• Fuzûlî (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
• Bâkî (1526–1600); 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 Süleyman the Magnificent
• Nef‘î (1570?–1635); a poet considered the master of the kasîde (a kind of panegyric), as well as being known for his harshly satirical poems, which led to his execution
• Nâbî (1642–1712); a poet who wrote a number of socially oriented poems critical of the stagnation period of Ottoman history
• Nedîm (1681?–1730); a revolutionary poet of the Tulip Era of Ottoman history, who infused the rather élite and abstruse language of Divan poetry with numerous simpler, populist elements
• Şeyh Gâlib (1757–1799); a poet of the Mevlevî Sufi order whose work is considered the culmination of the highly complex so-called "Indian style" (سبك هندى sebk-i hindî)

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 kasîdes. This article is about the Turkmen people of Turkmenistan. For the distinct group of Turk peoples of Iraq see Iraqi Turkmen. For the administrative region of Azerbaijan see Fizuli Rayon; for the city in Azerbaijan see Füzuli. Bâḳî (باقى was the Pen name ( Ottoman Turkish: ﻡﺨﻠﺺ mahlas) of the Ottoman Turkish poet Mahmud Abdülbâkî (محمود See also Figure of speech In linguistics trope is a rhetorical Figure of speech that consists of a play on words i Suleiman I (سليمان Sulaymān, Süleyman almost always Kanuni Sultan Süleyman) ( 6 November 1494 5/ 6 September 1566 A panegyric is a formal public speech, or (in later use written verse delivered in high praise of a Person or thing, a generally highly studied and discriminating Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. Stagnation of the Ottoman Empire ( 1683 - 1827) was a period after the territorial expansion of the Empire reached its maximum Nedîm (نديم (1681?–1730 was the Pen name ( Ottoman Turkish: ﻡﺨﻠﺺ mahlas) of one of the most celebrated The Tulip period or Tulip era ( Ottoman Turkish: لاله دورى, Turkish: Lâle Devri) is the traditional name for a period The Mevlevi Order or the Mevleviye are a Sufi order founded by the followers of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi, a 13th century Persian Tariqah ( ar طريقه; pl طرق; Ṭuruq or Persian: Tarighat, Turkish: Tarikat) means "way" Lyric poetry refers to a usually short poem that expresses personal feelings which may or may not be set to music There were, however, other common genres, most particularly the mesnevî, a kind of verse romance and thus a variety of narrative poetry; the two most notable examples of this form are the Leylî vü Mecnun (ليلى و مجنون) of Fuzûlî and the Hüsn ü Aşk (حسن و عشق; "Beauty and Love") of Şeyh Gâlib. As a Literary genre of High culture, romance or chivalric romance refers to a style of heroic Prose and verse Narrative Narrative poetry is Poetry that tells a story The poems may be short or long and the story it relates to may be simple or complex For the film see Leyli o Majnun (1936 film. Layla and Majnun, also known as The Madman of Layla - in Arabic

Early Ottoman prose

Further information: Prose of the Ottoman Empire

Until the 19th century, Ottoman prose never managed to develop to the extent that contemporary Divan poetry did. Roughly speaking the prose of the Ottoman Empire can be divided along the lines of two broad periods early Ottoman prose written prior to the 19th century CE and exclusively A large part of the reason for this was that much prose was expected to adhere to the rules of sec' (سجع, also transliterated as seci), or rhymed prose,^[7] 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. Rhymed prose is a Literary form and Literary genre, written in unmetrical Rhymes This form has been known in many different cultures Saj‘ is a form of Rhymed prose in Arabic literature. It is named so because of its evenness or monotony or from a fancied resemblance between its Rhythm This article is about the poetic technique For the form of ice see Rime ice.

Nevertheless, there was a tradition of prose in the literature of the time. This tradition was exclusively nonfictional in nature—the fiction tradition was limited to narrative poetry. Non-fiction is an account or representation of a subject which is presented as Fact. Fiction is the telling of stories which are not real More specifically fiction is an imaginative form of Narrative, one of the four basic Rhetorical modes. ^[8] A number of such nonfictional prose genres developed:

• the târih (تاريخ), or history, a tradition in which there are many notable writers, including the 15th-century historian Aşıkpaşazâde and the 17th-century historians Kâtib Çelebi and Naîmâ
• the seyâhatnâme (سياحت نامه), or travelogue, of which the outstanding example is the 17th-century Seyahâtnâme of Evliya Çelebi
• the sefâretnâme (سفارت نامه), a related genre specific to the journeys and experiences of an Ottoman ambassador, and which is best exemplified by the 1718–1720 Paris Sefâretnâmesi of Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi, ambassador to the court of Louis XV of France
• the siyâsetnâme (سياست نامه), 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 Siyāsatnāma, written in Persian by Nizam al-Mulk, vizier to the Seljuk rulers Alp Arslan and Malik Shah I
• the tezkîre (تذکره), a collection of short biographies of notable figures, some of the most notable of which were the 16th-century tezkiretü'ş-şuarâs (تذكرة الشعرا), or biographies of poets, by Latîfî and Aşık Çelebi
• the münşeât (منشآت), a collection of writings and letters similar to the Western tradition of belles-lettres
• the münâzara (مناظره), 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

By the early 19th century, the Ottoman Empire had become moribund. History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology See also History An historian is an individual who studies and writes about History, and is regarded as an Authority on it Travel literature is Travel writing considered to have value as Literature. Seyâhatnâme (سياحت نامه is a Persian term also used in Ottoman Turkish, which means Book of travels, denoting a literary form and tradition Evliya Çelebi (اوليا چلبي the son of the imperial goldsmith Derviş Mehmed Zılli ( March 25 (? 1611 &ndash 1682 was the most famous Ottoman Sefâretnâme (سفارت نامه literally the book of embassy, was a genre in the Turkish literature which was closely related to Seyahatname ( An ambassador is the highest ranking Diplomat who represents their country Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi was an Ottoman statesman who was delegated as ambassador by the Sultan Ahmed III to Louis XV 's France Louis XV (15 February 1710 &ndash 10 May 1774 ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774 Siyāsatnāma / Siyāsat nāmeh ( Persian: سياست نامه " Book of Government " also known as Siyar al-muluk For info about rulers of Hyderabad state, see the page Nizam state of Hyderabad. A Vizier ( - wazīr) (sometimes also spelled Vazir Vizir Vasir Wazir Vesir, or Vezir - grammatical vowel changes are common in many western Asian Alp Arslan (1029 &ndash December 15, 1072) was the second sultan of the Seljuk dynasty and great-grandson of Seljuk, the Eponym of Jalāl al-Dawlah Mālikshāh or simply Malik Shah ( Persian: fa ملكشاه Turkish: Melikşah) (died 1092 was the A biography (from the Greek words bíos (βίος meaning "life" and gráphein (γράφειν meaning "to write" is an account See also Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Belles-lettres or belles lettres is a term that is used to describe a category Debate ( American English) or debating ( British English) is a formal method of interactive and position representational Argument. This article deals with the Ottoman Divan poetry tradition For the tradition of folk poetry in the Ottoman Empire see Turkish folk literature. Roughly speaking the prose of the Ottoman Empire can be divided along the lines of two broad periods early Ottoman prose written prior to the 19th century CE and exclusively The term "Sick man of Europe" is a Nickname associated with a European country experiencing a time of economic difficulty and/or poverty 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. Selim III ( Ottoman Turkish: سليم ثالث Selīm-i sālis) ( December 24, 1761 &ndash July 28/29 The Janissaries (derived from Ottoman Turkish ينيچرى ( yeniçeri) meaning "new soldier" comprised Infantry units that formed 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: تنظيمات tanzîmât). Mahmud II ( Ottoman Turkish: محمود ثاني Mahmud-ı sānī) ( July 20, 1785 July 1, 1839

These reforms finally came to the empire during the Tanzimat period of 1839–1876, when much of the Ottoman system was reorganized along largely French lines. The Tanzimat ( Ottoman Turkish: تنظيمات meaning reorganization of the Ottoman Empire, was a period of reformation that began in 1839 Civil law or Romano-Germanic law or Continental law is the predominant system of law in the world. The Tanzimat reforms "were designed both to modernize the empire and to forestall foreign intervention". ^[9]

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.

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. ^[10] Meanwhile, however, the Turkish folk literature tradition of Anatolia, away from the capital Constantinople, came to be seen as an ideal. Istanbul (historically Byzantium and later Constantinople; see the other Names of Istanbul) is the largest city of Turkey 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 (1829–1880):

Our language is not Ottoman; it is Turkish. Pasha or pacha, formerly bashaw, (paşa پاشا ( Persian: پاشا ( Armenian: Փաշա was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire What makes up our poetic canon is not gazels and kasîdes, but rather kayabaşıs, üçlemes, and çöğürs^[11], 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!^[12]

At the same time as this call—which reveals something of a burgeoning national consciousness—was being made, new literary genres were being introduced into Ottoman literature, primarily the novel and the short story. The term nationalism can refer to an Ideology, a sentiment, a form of Culture, or a Social movement that focuses on the Nation This trend began in 1861, with the translation into Ottoman Turkish of François Fénelon's 1699 novel Les aventures de Télémaque, by Yusuf Kâmil Pasha, Grand Vizier to Sultan Abdülaziz. François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, more commonly known as François Fénelon ( August 6 1651 &ndash January 7 1715) was a This article is about the figure in greek mythology For the Christian saint see Saint Telemachus, and for the South African cricketer, see Roger A Vizier ( - wazīr) (sometimes also spelled Vazir Vizir Vasir Wazir Vesir, or Vezir - grammatical vowel changes are common in many western Asian Abdülaziz ( Ottoman Turkish: عبد العزيز ( February 9, 1830 June 4 1876) was the 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman What is widely recognized as the first Turkish novel, Taaşuk-u Tal'at ve Fitnat (تعشق طلعت و فطنت; "Tal'at and Fitnat In Love") by Şemsettin Sami (1850–1904), was published just ten years later, in 1872. ^[13] 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. Western culture (sometimes equated with Western Civilization) are terms which are used to refer to Cultures of European origin

Due to historically close ties with France—strengthened during the Crimean War of 1854–1856—it was French literature that came to constitute the major Western influence on Turkish literature throughout the latter half of the 19th century. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The Crimean War, also known in Russia as the Eastern War (Восточная война Vostochnaya Vojna) (March 1854–February 1856 was fought This article is a general introduction to French literature For detailed information on French literature in specific historic periods see the separate historical articles in the 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. Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Realism in the Visual arts and Literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear in Everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation Naturalism is a movement in Theatre, film, and Literature that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century Art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts Parnassianism (or less commonly parnasism) was a literary style characteristic of certain French poetry during the positivist period of the 19th century

Many of the writers in the Tanzimat period wrote in several different genres simultaneously: for instance, the poet Nâmık Kemal (1840–1888) also wrote the important 1876 novel İntibâh (انتباه; "Awakening"), while the journalist Şinasi (1826–1871) is noted for writing, in 1860, the first modern Turkish play, the one-act comedy "Şair Evlenmesi" (شاعر اولنمسى; "The Poet's Marriage"). Namık Kemal, born as Mehmed Kemal ( December 21 1840 - December 2 1888) was a Turkish Nationalist Poet A journalist (also called a newspaperman) is a person who practices Journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events trends A play, or stageplay, is a form of Literature written by a Playwright, almost always consisting of Dialogue between Fictional characters For the Dallas TX instrumental post rock band see One Act Play (band A one act play, or more commonly in the US " one act " or " Comedy (from the Greek κωμωδίαkomodia has a popular meaning (any discourse generally intended to amuse especially in Television, Film, and In a similar vein, the novelist Ahmed Midhat Efendi (1844–1912) wrote important novels in each of the major movements: Romanticism (حسن ملاح ياخود سر ايچيكده اسرار Hasan Mellâh yâhud Sırr İçinde Esrâr, 1873; "Hasan the Sailor, or The Mystery Within the Mystery"), Realism (هﻨﻮز اون يدى يشکده Henüz On Yedi Yaşında, 1881; "Just Seventeen Years Old"), and Naturalism (مشاهدات Müşâhedât, 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. Social structure is a term frequently used in Sociology and Social theory — yet rarely defined or clearly conceptualised (Abercrombie et al ^[14]

Early 20th-century Turkish literature

Further information: Poetry of the Ottoman Empire, Prose of the Ottoman Empire

Most of the roots of modern Turkish literature were formed between the years 1896—when the first collective literary movement arose—and 1923, when the Republic of Turkey was officially founded. This article deals with the Ottoman Divan poetry tradition For the tradition of folk poetry in the Ottoman Empire see Turkish folk literature. Roughly speaking the prose of the Ottoman Empire can be divided along the lines of two broad periods early Ottoman prose written prior to the 19th century CE and exclusively Broadly, there were three primary literary movements during this period:

• the Edebiyyât-ı Cedîde (ادبيات جدیده; "New Literature") movement
• the Fecr-i Âtî (فجر آتى; "Dawn of the Future") movement
• the Millî Edebiyyât (ملى ادبيات; "National Literature") movement

The New Literature movement

The Edebiyyât-ı Cedîde, or "New Literature", movement began with the founding in 1891 of the magazine Servet-i Fünûn (ﺛﺮوت ﻓﻨﻮن; "Scientific Wealth"), which was largely devoted to progress—both intellectual and scientific—along the Western model. Accordingly, the magazine's literary ventures, under the direction of the poet Tevfik Fikret (1867–1915), were geared towards creating a Western-style "high art" in Turkey. Tevfik Fikret ( December 26, 1867 &ndash August 19, 1915) (توفیق فکرت was the pseudonym of Turkish poet Mehmed Tevfik High culture is a term now used in a number of different ways in Academic discourse whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products mainly in the The poetry of the group—of which Tevfik Fikret and Cenâb Şehâbeddîn (1870–1934) were the most influential proponents—was heavily influenced by the French Parnassian movement and the so-called "Decadent" poets. Decadence can refer to a personal trait or to the state of a society (or segment of it The group's prose writers, on the other hand—particularly Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil (1867–1945)—were primarily influenced by Realism, although the writer Mehmed Rauf (1875–1931) did write the first Turkish example of a psychological novel, 1901's Eylül (ايلول; "September"). A psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of Prose Fiction which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior The language of the Edebiyyât-ı Cedîde movement remained strongly influenced by Ottoman Turkish.

In 1901, as a result of the article "Edebiyyât ve Hukuk" (ادبيات و ﺣﻘﻮق; "Literature and Law"), translated from French and published in Servet-i Fünûn, the pressure of censorship was brought to bear and the magazine was closed down by the government of the Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II. Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable harmful or sensitive as determined by a censor Abdülhamid II His Imperial Majesty Sultan of the Ottoman Empire ( Ottoman Turkish: عبد الحميد ثانی `Abdü’l-Ḥamīd-i sânî, İkinci Abdülhamit Though it was closed for only six months, the group's writers each went their own way in the meantime, and the Edebiyyât-ı Cedîde movement came to an end.

The Dawn of the Future movement

In the 24 February 1909 edition of the Servet-i Fünûn magazine, a gathering of young writers—soon to be known as the Fecr-i Âtî ("Dawn of the Future") group—released a manifesto in which they declared their opposition to the Edebiyyât-ı Cedîde movement and their adherence to the credo, "Sanat şahsî ve muhteremdir" (صنعت شخصى و محترمدر; "Art is personal and sacred"). For the Roxy Music album see Manifesto (album. A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions often ^[15] Though this credo was little more than a variation of the French writer Théophile Gautier's doctrine of "l'art pour l'art", or "art for art's sake", the group was nonetheless opposed to the blanket importation of Western forms and styles, and essentially sought to create a recognizably Turkish literature. See also Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( August 30, 1811 – October 23, 1872) was a French Poet, Dramatist " Art for art's sake " is the usual English rendition of a French Slogan, from the early 19th century l'art pour l'art and expresses a philosophy The Fecr-i Âtî group, however, never made a clear and unequivocal declaration of its goals and principles, and so lasted only a few years before its adherents each went their own individual way. The two outstanding figures to emerge from the movement were, in poetry, Ahmed Hâşim (1884–1933), and in prose, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu (1889–1974). Ahmet Haşim (also written as Ahmed Hâşim; احمد هاشم; 1884? 4 June 1933) was an influential Turkish Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu ( March 27, 1889 in Cairo - December 13, 1974 in Ankara) was a Turkish Novelist

The National Literature movement

In 1908, Sultan Abdülhamid II had instituted a constitutional government, and the parliament subsequently elected was composed almost entirely of members of the Committee of Union and Progress (also known as the "Young Turks"). A constitutional monarchy, or a limited monarchy, is a form of Constitutional Government, wherein either an elected or hereditary Monarch is The Second Constitutional Era (ايکنجى مشروطيت دورى İkinci Meşrûtiyyet Devri) of the Ottoman Empire began shortly after Sultan Abdülhamid The Young Turks ( Turkish: Jön Türkler (plural from French: Jeunes Turcs) were a coalition of various groups favoring reforming the The Young Turks (ژون تورکلر Jön Türkler) had opposed themselves to the increasingly authoritarian Ottoman government, and soon came to identify themselves with a specifically Turkish national identity. Authoritarianism describes a Form of government characterized by an emphasis on the Authority of the State in a republic or union Along with this notion developed the idea of a Turkish and even pan-Turkish nation (Turkish: millet), and so the literature of this period came to be known as "National Literature" (Turkish: millî edebiyyât). Pan-Turkism is a political movement aiming to unite the various Turkic peoples into a modern political State, a Confederation, or an economic union closely A nation is a Human Cultural and Social Community. In as much as most members never meet each other yet feel a common bond it may be considered It was during this period that the Persian- and Arabic-inflected Ottoman Turkish language was definitively turned away from as a vehicle for written literature, and that literature began to assert itself as being specifically Turkish, rather than Ottoman.

At first, this movement crystallized around the magazine Genç Kalemler (کنج قلملر; "Young Pens"), which was begun in the city of Selânik in 1911 by the three writers who were most representative of the movement: Ziya Gökalp (1876–1924), a sociologist and thinker; Ömer Seyfettin (1884–1920), a short-story writer; and Ali Canip Yöntem (1887–1967), a poet. Thessaloniki (Θεσσαλονίκη), Thessalonica, or Salonica is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of Macedonia Ziya Gökalp (born Mehmed Ziya; March 23 1876, Diyarbakır — October 25 1924, İstanbul) was a sociologist Ömer Seyfettin, also Omer Seyfeddin, ( March 11 1884, Balıkesir &ndash March 6 1920, Istanbul) was a In Genç Kalemler's first issue, an article entitled "New Language" (Turkish: "Yeni Lisan") pointed out that Turkish literature had previously looked for inspiration either to the East as in the Ottoman Divan tradition, or to the West as in the Edebiyyât-ı Cedîde and Fecr-i Âtî movements, without ever turning to Turkey itself. The term Eastern world refers very broadly to the various Cultures social structures and philosophical systems of " the East " The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings ^[16] This latter was the National Literature movement's primary aim.

The intrinsically nationalistic character of Genç Kalemler, however, quickly took a decidedly chauvinistic turn,^[17] and other writers—many of whom, like Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, had been a part of the Fecr-i Âtî movement—began to emerge from within the matrix of the National Literature movement to counter this trend. Chauvinism (ˈʃoʊvɨnɪzəm is extreme and unreasoning Partisanship on behalf of a group to which one belongs especially when the partisanship includes malice and hatred Some of the more influential writers to come out of this less far-rightist branch of the National Literature movement were the poet Mehmet Emin Yurdakul (1869–1944), the early feminist novelist Halide Edip Adıvar (1884–1964), and the short-story writer and novelist Reşat Nuri Güntekin (1889–1956). Far right, extreme right, ultra-right, or radical right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group Feminism is a discourse that involves various movements theories, and Philosophies which are concerned with the issue of Gender difference, advocate Halide Edip Adıvar ( Ottoman Turkish: خالده اديب اديوار hɑːliˈdɛ ɛˈdip ɑdɯˈvɑɹ (1884&ndash1964 was a Turkish novelist and feminist

Post-independence literature

Following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in the First World War of 1914–1918, the victorious Entente Powers began the process of carving up the empire's lands and placing them under their own spheres of influence. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All The Entente Powers (from Triple Entente) were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. A sphere of influence ( SOI) is an area or region over which an organization or state exerts some kind of indirect cultural economic military or political domination In opposition to this process, the military leader Mustafa Kemal (1881–1938), in command of the growing Turkish national movement whose roots lay partly in the Young Turks, organized the 1919–1923 Turkish War of Independence. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (19 May 1881 &ndash 10 November 1938 was an army officer revolutionary Statesman The Turkish National Movement encompasses the political and military activities of the Turkish revolutionaries which resulted with the creation and shaping of the Republic The Turkish War of Independence (Kurtuluş Savaşı May 19, 1919 October 29, 1923) refers to the political and military resistance developed This war ended with the official ending of the Ottoman Empire, the expulsion of the Entente Powers, and the founding of the Republic of Turkey.

The literature of the new republic emerged largely from the pre-independence National Literature movement, with its roots simultaneously in the Turkish folk tradition and in the Western notion of progress. One important change to Turkish literature was enacted in 1928, when Mustafa Kemal initiated the creation and dissemination of a modified version of the Latin alphabet to replace the Arabic-based Ottoman script. The Turkish alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet used for writing the Turkish language, consisting of 29 letters a certain number of which ( Ç, Over time, this change—together with changes in Turkey's system of education—would lead to more widespread literacy in the country. traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write or the ability to use Language to read, write, listen, ^[18]

Prose

Main article: Prose of the Republic of Turkey

Stylistically, the prose of the early years of the Republic of Turkey was essentially a continuation of the National Literature movement, with Realism and Naturalism predominating. For the history/introduction of Turkish Prose covering all eras see Turkish literature. Yaşar Kemal (born Kemal Sadık Gökçeli He has long been a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, on the strength of Memed My Hawk. This trend culminated in the 1932 novel Yaban ("The Wilds"), by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu. This novel can be seen as the precursor to two trends that would soon develop:^[19] social realism, and the "village novel" (köy romanı). Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an Artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts Working class

The social realist movement is perhaps best represented by the short-story writer Sait Faik Abasıyanık (1906–1954), whose work sensitively and realistically treats the lives of cosmopolitan Istanbul's lower classes and ethnic minorities, subjects which led to some criticism in the contemporary nationalistic atmosphere. Sait Faik Abasıyanık ( 18 November 1906 - 11 May 1954) was one of the greatest Turkish writers of short stories and poetry Working class is a term used in academic Sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe depending on context and speaker those employed in specific fields or types ^[20] The tradition of the "village novel", on the other hand, arose somewhat later. As its name suggests, the "village novel" deals, in a generally realistic manner, with life in the villages and small towns of Turkey. The major writers in this tradition are Kemal Tahir (1910–1973), Orhan Kemal (1914–1970), and Yaşar Kemal (1923– ). Yaşar Kemal, in particular, has earned fame outside of Turkey not only for his novels—many of which, such as 1955's İnce Memed ("Memed, My Hawk"), elevate local tales to the level of epic—but also for his firmly leftist political stance. In a very different tradition, but evincing a similar strong political viewpoint, was the satirical short-story writer Aziz Nesin (1915–1995). Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human Aziz Nesin (b Mehmet Nusret, December 20, 1915 &mdash July 6, 1995) was a popular Turkish Humorist and

Another novelist contemporary to, but outside of, the social realist and "village novel" traditions is Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar (1901–1962). Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born on 7 June 1952 in Istanbul) generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish Novelist and professor of Comparative The Nobel Prize in Literature (Nobelpriset i litteratur is awarded annually since 1901 to an author from any country who has in the words from the will of Alfred Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar ( 23 June, 1901 - 24 January, 1962) was one of the most important modern Novelists and Essayists of In addition to being an important essayist and poet, Tanpınar wrote a number of novels—such as Huzur ("Tranquillity", 1949) and Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü ("The Time Regulation Institute", 1961)—which dramatize the clash between East and West in modern Turkish culture and society. An essay is usually a short piece of writing It is often written from an author's personal point of view. Similar problems are explored by the novelist and short-story writer Oğuz Atay (1934–1977). Oğuz Atay (1934-1977 was a Pioneer of the modern Novel in Turkey Unlike Tanpınar, however, Atay—in such works as his long novel Tutunamayanlar ("The Disconnected", 1971–1972) and his short story "Beyaz Mantolu Adam" ("Man in a White Coat", 1975)—wrote in a more modernist and existentialist vein. Tutunamayanlar (in Eng The Disconnected) is the first novel of Oguz Atay, one of the most prominent Turkish authors Modernist literature is the literary form of Modernism and especially High modernism; it should not be confused with modern literature, which is the history Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives and that this essence follows from their existence On the other hand, Onat Kutlar's İshak ("Isaac", 1959), composed of nine short stories which are written mainly from a child's point of view and are often surrealistic and mystical, represent a very early example of magic realism. Mehmet Arif Onat Kutlar ( January 25, 1936 &ndash January 11, 1995) also known as Onat Kutlar, was a prominent Turkish Magic realism, or magical realism, is an artistic Genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even "normal"

The tradition of literary modernism also informs the work of novelist Adalet Ağaoğlu (1929– ). Her trilogy of novels collectively entitled Dar Zamanlar ("Tight Times", 1973–1987), for instance, examines the changes that occurred in Turkish society between the 1930s and the 1980s in a formally and technically innovative style. Orhan Pamuk (1952– ), winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, is another such innovative novelist, though his works—such as 1990's Beyaz Kale ("The White Castle") and Kara Kitap ("The Black Book") and 1998's Benim Adım Kırmızı ("My Name is Red")—are influenced more by postmodernism than by modernism. Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born on 7 June 1952 in Istanbul) generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish Novelist and professor of Comparative The Nobel Prize in Literature (Nobelpriset i litteratur is awarded annually since 1901 to an author from any country who has in the words from the will of Alfred The White Castle (original Turkish title Beyaz Kale) is a novel by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk. The Black Book ( Kara Kitap in Turkish) is a novel by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk. My Name Is Red ( Benim Adım Kırmızı) is a Turkish Novel by Nobel laureate author Orhan Pamuk. The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain tendencies in post- World War II literature This is true also of Latife Tekin (1957– ), whose first novel Sevgili Arsız Ölüm ("Dear Shameless Death", 1983) shows the influence not only of postmodernism, but also of magic realism. Latife Tekin is one of the most influential Turkish female authors

Poetry

Main article: Poetry of the Republic of Turkey

In the early years of the Republic of Turkey, there were a number of poetic trends. For the history/introduction of Turkish Poetry covering all eras see Turkish literature. Authors such as Ahmed Hâşim and Yahyâ Kemâl Beyatlı (1884–1958) continued to write important formal verse whose language was, to a great extent, a continuation of the late Ottoman tradition. By far the majority of the poetry of the time, however, was in the tradition of the folk-inspired "syllabist" movement (Beş Hececiler), which had emerged from the National Literature movement and which tended to express patriotic themes couched in the syllabic meter associated with Turkish folk poetry. Patriotism is commonly defined as love of and/or devotion to one's country

The first radical step away from this trend was taken by Nâzım Hikmet Ran, who—during his time as a student in the Soviet Union from 1921 to 1924—was exposed to the modernist poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky and others, which inspired him to start writing verse in a less formal style. Nazım Hikmet Ran ( November 20, 1901 – June 3, 1963) commonly known as Nazım Hikmet (nɑːˌzɯm hikˈmɛt was a Turkish The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский ( &ndash April 14, 1930) was a Russian poet and At this time, he wrote the poem "Açların Gözbebekleri" ("Pupils of the Hungry"), which introduced free verse into the Turkish language for, essentially, the first time. Free verse is a term describing various styles of Poetry that are written without using strict meter or Rhyme, but that still are recognizable as poetry ^[21] Much of Nâzım Hikmet's poetry subsequent to this breakthrough would continue to be written in free verse, though his work exerted little influence for some time due largely to censorship of his work owing to his Communist political stance, which also led to his spending several years in prison. Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable harmful or sensitive as determined by a censor Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based Over time, in such books as Simavne Kadısı Oğlu Şeyh Bedreddin Destanı ("The Epic of Shaykh Bedreddin, Son of Judge Simavne", 1936) and Memleketimden İnsan Manzaraları ("Human Landscapes from My Country", 1939), he developed a voice simultaneously proclamatory and subtle.

Another revolution in Turkish poetry came about in 1941 with the publication of a small volume of verse preceded by an essay and entitled Garip ("Strange"). Garip (strange or peculiar was a group of Turkish poets Also known as I The authors were Orhan Veli Kanık (1914–1950), Melih Cevdet Anday (1915–2002), and Oktay Rifat (1914–1988). Orhan Veli Kanık (born April 13, 1914 in Istanbul; died November 14, 1950) was a Turkish Poet. Oktay Rifat Horozcu, better known as Oktay Rifat, ( 10 July 1914 – 18 April 1988) was a Turkish writer and Explicitly opposing themselves to everything that had gone in poetry before, they sought instead to create a popular art, "to explore the people's tastes, to determine them, and to make them reign supreme over art". ^[22] To this end, and inspired in part by contemporary French poets like Jacques Prévert, they employed not only a variant of the free verse introduced by Nâzım Hikmet, but also highly colloquial language, and wrote primarily about mundane daily subjects and the ordinary man on the street. Jacques Prévert (ʒak pʀeˈvɛʀ in French February 4, 1900 - April 11, 1977) was a French Poet and Screenwriter A colloquialism is an expression not used in formal speech, writing or Paralinguistics. The reaction was immediate and polarized: most of the academic establishment and older poets vilified them, while much of the Turkish population embraced them wholeheartedly. Though the movement itself lasted only ten years—until Orhan Veli's death in 1950, after which Melih Cevdet Anday and Oktay Rifat moved on to other styles—its effect on Turkish poetry continues to be felt today.

Just as the Garip movement was a reaction against earlier poetry, so—in the 1950s and afterwards—was there a reaction against the Garip movement. The poets of this movement, soon known as İkinci Yeni ("Second New"^[23]), opposed themselves to the social aspects prevalent in the poetry of Nâzım Hikmet and the Garip poets, and instead—partly inspired by the disruption of language in such Western movements as Dada and Surrealism—sought to create a more abstract poetry through the use of jarring and unexpected language, complex images, and the association of ideas. For other meanings see Dada (disambiguation DaDa is a Concept album by Alice Cooper, released Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members To some extent, the movement can be seen as bearing some of the characteristics of postmodern literature. The most well-known poets writing in the "Second New" vein were Turgut Uyar (1927–1985), Edip Cansever (1928–1986), Cemal Süreya (1931–1990), Ece Ayhan (1931–2002), Sezai Karakoç (1933- ) and İlhan Berk (1918– ). Cemal Süreya (born 1931 in Erzincan; died 1990 in Istanbul) was a Kurdish origin Turkish Poet and Writer. İlhan Berk ( 18 November 1918 &ndash 28 August 2008) was a leading contemporary Turkish Poet.

Outside of the Garip and "Second New" movements also, a number of significant poets have flourished, such as Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca (1914– ), who wrote poems dealing with fundamental concepts like life, death, God, time, and the cosmos; Behçet Necatigil (1916–1979), whose somewhat allegorical poems explore the significance of middle-class daily life; Can Yücel (1926–1999), who—in addition to his own highly colloquial and varied poetry—was also a translator into Turkish of a variety of world literature; and İsmet Özel (1944– ), whose early poetry was highly leftist but whose poetry since the 1970s has shown a strong mystical and even Islamist influence. An allegory (from αλλος allos "other" and el αγορευειν agoreuein "to speak in public" is a figurative mode of representation The middle class, in colloquial usage consists of those who have some economic independence but not a great deal of social Influence or power. İsmet Özel (born 19 September 1944 in Kayseri) is a Turkish Poet and Islamist thinker Mysticism (from the Greek grc μυστικός mystikos, an initiate of a Mystery religion) is the pursuit of communion with identity Islamism ( Islam + ism; Arabic: al-'islāmiyya) a set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only

Notes

References

See also

• Azerbaijani literature
• Chagatai language
• List of Ottoman poets

External links

In English

• Encyclopedia of Turkish Authors—a very comprehensive encyclopedia from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism
• Contemporary Turkish Literature—an excellent and well-translated selection of contemporary Turkish literature hosted by Boğaziçi University in Istanbul
• Turkish Poetry in Translation—a website with a good selection of both contemporary and somewhat older Turkish poems
• Turkish Cultural Foundation—a website with a great deal of information on a number of Turkish authors and literary genres
• Selected Literatures and Authors Page: Turkish Literature—a website with a number of Turkish literature-related links
• Guest of Honour Frankfurt Bookfair 2008

In Turkish

• Divan Edebiyatı—a website with many examples of Ottoman Divan poetry
• Uysal-Walker Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative—a searchable archive of oral literature based at Texas Tech University and containing links to numerous MP3 files

The Chagatai language ( جغتای - Jaĝatāy; Uyghur: چاغاتاي Chaghatay; Uzbek: ﭼﯩﻐﻪتاي This is a list of poets who wrote under the auspices of the Ottoman Empire, or—more broadly—who wrote in the tradition of Ottoman Dîvân poetry. Boğaziçi University (Boğaziçi Üniversitesi is one of the most prominent educational institutions in Turkey. Istanbul (historically Byzantium and later Constantinople; see the other Names of Istanbul) is the largest city of Turkey Texas Tech University is a public, coeducational research university in Lubbock Texas.

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