Offers an insider’s view of the literary world of the Ottoman sultanate at its heyday, from the 1540s to the 1570s
Show more
Introduces the tezkire as a key genre in Ottoman literature
Takes a partial annotated translation of Aşık Çelebi and Latifi as its two prime examples
Reflects on best practice for translating Ottoman high prose
Combines insiders’ views on 16th-century Ottoman poets and poetics with a grand history of Islamicate poetry
Historicises the position, function and legitimacy of poetry in Ottoman society
This book offers the first-ever partial English translation and commentary of what are arguably the two most important Ottoman biographical dictionaries of poets: the tezkires of Aşık Çelebi and Latifi. While tezkires are mostly culled for their factual data, this book focuses on the non-entry materials, especially the prefaces. These offer intimate glimpses into the authors’ lives, charting their professional ambitions, frustrations and feuds, set against the backdrop of the sixteenth-century Ottoman literary world – a world in which patrimonial relations made and broke careers, poetry was appraised, attacked, monetised and stolen, and the ambitions of aspiring poets were fuelled and foiled.
The two tezkires reflect this milieu, and their authors were personally acquainted, exchanging thoughts over their work and, finally, falling out over an accusation of plagiarism. The translations are supplemented with a reflection on the nature and translatability of Ottoman high prose, a discussion of the tezkire genre and a detailed presentation of the two authors and their dictionaries. Through a novel study of these interconnected works, this book provides a panorama of Ottoman literary history, as well as insights into the authors’ personal struggles.
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Conventions
Introduction
The Smell of Redhouse in the Morning… On Translating Ottoman High Prose The Ottoman Tezkire, an Introductory Ebced
Part I. Aşık Çelebi and His Tezkire
1. The Author and His Work 2. Translation of the Introduction 3. Translation of Selected Entries Taken from the Main Part
Part II. Latifi and His Tezkire
4. The Author and His Work 5. Translation of the Introduction 6. Translation of Part Two on Ottoman Sultans and Princes 7. Translation of Selected Entries Taken from Part Three 8. Translation of the Conclusion
Appendix: Suggestions for Parallel and Topical Reading Bibliography Indices
Kristof D’hulster is a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and is based at the University of Bonn. He engages with the socio-political and cultural history of the pre- and early modern Islamic world, mapping processes of exchange, interaction and connectivity between the Arabic, Turkic, and Persian regions. Following his PhD on Turkic linguistics (KU Leuven, 2010), he was a research fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and of ERC projects in Ghent, Birmingham and Jena. Next to his first monograph, Browsing through the Sultan’s Bookshelves. Towards a Reconstruction of the Library of the Mamluk Sultan Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī (Bonn University Library, 2021), recent publications include “Will I be Happy, Will I be Rich? Three Lot-Books (Qur‘a) from the Library of Qāniṣawh al-Muḥammadī” (al-‘Uṣūr al-Wusṭā, 2024) and “Qayt Sharīfī’s Turkic Class Notes and Tamurbāy’s First Arabic Scribbles: Language and Education at the Mamluk Barracks in Light of MS Ayasofya 1448” (Mamlūk Studies Review, 2025).
