Ercan Akyol

The folio 123a of the Zübdetü'l-eşʿār, registered in the Şehit Ali Paşa Collection of the Süleymaniye Manuscript Library, contains a list of books. Some of these books belonged to the early modern Ottoman ʿilmiye curriculum. The list contains books that a certain Veysī Efendi's son lent to the one who took the note.

Kıssahanlar, Süleyman peygamberin içinden istediği zaman istediği şeyi çıkartabildiği kerametli bir heybesi olduğunu rivayet ederler. Zaman zaman Osmanlı elyazmaları da eskilerin “enbân-ı Süleymân” dediği bu heybeye benzer. Örneğin katalogda gördüğünüz bir şiir külliyatını yeni şiirler bulma umuduyla açıp kurcalamaya başladığınızda, pek tabii içindeki şiirlerin
yanı sıra yazmanın sahibinin sevdiği latifeleri, kimlere ne kadar borcu olduğunu, çeşitli hastalıklara iyi gelen merhemlerin nasıl yapıldığını, muhtelif duaları ya da çeşitli yemek tariflerini bulabilirsiniz. Aşağıda vereceğim üç yemek tarifinin hikâyesi de işte bunun gibi bir elyazmasına dayanıyor.

Dijitalleşmenin beşeri bilimlerin her bir dalına sirayet ettiği günümüzde Osmanlı elyazmalarına erişimimiz eski zamanlarla kıyaslanamayacak şekilde değişti. Bu değişim, hiç şüphesiz ki bir gelişimi de beraberinde getirdi. Eskiden üstünde çalışmak için izinlerin alındığı, bu uğurda para ve ciddi zamanın harcandığı ve sadece çok kısıtlı sayıda örneğin görülebildiği el yazmalarının azımsanmayacak bir kısmına artık internet aracılığıyla kolayca ulaşabiliyoruz. Tüm bu gelişmeler Osmanlı çalışmalarını da dönüştürüyor. Şimdiye dek Osmanlı edebi geçmişini konu alan çalışmaların kahir ekseriyeti kanonik, “şaheser” kabul edilen ya da müstakil metinlerden oluşmaktayken son yıllarda ise bir zamanlar önemsiz addedilen, görmezden gelinen, kıyıda köşede kalmış metinler ve metin parçaları dahi çalışmalara dahil ediliyor.
Keshif tam da bu sapakta, dijitalleşmeyle gelişmekte olan el yazması çalışmaları konusunda bir mecra, bir dergi-veritabanı olma amacıyla yola çıkıyor. Derginin yayın kapsamında el yazmalarında bulunan vesika, mektup, şiir, hikâye, derkenar, anekdot, tarif, kişisel not, vb. gibi şimdiye kadar herhangi bir yerde yayımlanmamış kısa metinler bulunuyor. Osmanlıca dergi, gazete, matbu kitap ve standart belgelerde
(pasaport vb.) bulunan metinlerse kapsam dışı olarak tanımlanıyor.

Abstract Kafzade Abdülhay Çelebi (1589–1621), known under the pen name Faizi is, in spite of his prolificacy, an often-ignored figure in modern literary historiography. Though his oeuvre has been studied and short biographies of him have been written more than once about the main lines of his life, a closer look at 17th-century primary sources reveal that some of his poems and correspondence, including biographical information, are unstudied and can still be found in various manuscripts. Accordingly, the aims of this paper are threefold: firstly, to give an annotated translation of
an as yet unpublished poem by Faizi which parodies Veysi (1561–1628), a renowned Ottoman poet and man of letters; second, to survey through Faizi’s poem a short period of Ottoman literary culture during which a certain style of satire flourished within a narrow literary milieu; and finally, to interpret the poem within the ‘ilmiyye culture of the early 17th century.

Keywords: Ottoman Poetry, Faizi, Veysi, Lampoon, ‘İlmiyye.

In this paper, the magnetic tape collection of Austrian Turkologist Andreas Tietze (1914–2003) will be introduced. In 2016, the collection was given to the Phonogrammarchiv for the purpose of itemising, archiving and analysing its contents, which include, among other things, the voice recordings of leading Turkish poets and authors of the republican era in the 20th century, such as Naz m ikmet, Edip Cansever, Turgut Uyar, a ar Kemal, akup Kadri Kara- osmano lu, Melih Cevdet Anday, Aziz Nesin, etin Altan, etc. There are thus three primary aims of this paper: (1.) to point out the link between the mag- netic tape collection and the life of Andreas Tietze; (2.) to introduce and cat- alogue the Tietze Collection; and (3.) to evaluate the collection in terms of its uniqueness.

In the sixteenth century, Hızır Reis or, as the world knows him, Hayreddin Barbarossa was a pivotal figure for almost all the countries lying along the Mediterranean coast. Nevertheless, until recently, the oldest known manuscript(s) of the Gazavâtnâme, a biographical work written by Seyyid Muradî, a companion of Barbarossa, had not been transcribed. In fact, the Gazavâtnâme manuscripts in Madrid, Real Biblioteca del Mon-asterio  del  Escorial  (MS,  1663),  and  Paris,  Bibliothéque  Nationale  (suppl.  turc  No.1186), have not been on the radar of most historians, with the exception of a few valuable  contributions  on  the  subject  by  researchers  such  as  Aldo Gallotta, Nicolas Vatin, and a monograph by Hüseyin Serdar Tabakoğlu, which is most likely based on these  manuscripts.  In  2019,  an  attempt  to  fill  this  gap  was  made  by  Abdullah  Gündoğdu, Hüseyin Güngör Şahin, and Dilek Altun, who jointly edited the Gazavâtnâme based on these two manuscripts.

The  COVID-19  pandemic  has  dramatically  changed  our  lives  since  it  started.  Although  this change had heavy consequences, it also had positive aspects in terms of access to academic knowledge.  Acceleration  of  digitization  processes,  online  workshops,  the  expansion  of databases and the fact that access to information has become a little cheaper than before has provided  an  irreversible  convenience  for  the  academy.  This  editorial  covers  thoughts  on related topics.

In this paper, the magnetic tape collection of Austrian Turkologist Andreas Tietze (1914–2003) will be introduced. In 2016, the collection was given to the Phonogrammarchiv for the purpose of itemising, archiving and analysing its contents, which include, among other things, the voice recordings of leading Turkish poets and authors of the republican era in the 20th century, such as Naz m  ikmet, Edip Cansever, Turgut Uyar,  a ar Kemal,  akup Kadri Kara- osmano lu, Melih Cevdet Anday, Aziz Nesin,  etin Altan, etc. There are thus three primary aims of this paper: (1.) to point out the link between the mag- netic tape collection and the life of Andreas Tietze; (2.) to introduce and cat- alogue the Tietze Collection; and (3.) to evaluate the collection in terms of its uniqueness.

2015’in başında, Türkiye’de İskendernâme literatürü ile ilgili olarak yapılmış çalışmalara bir yenisi daha eklendi. Fars Dili ve Edebiyatı profesörü olan Nimet Yıldırım’ın Kabalcı Yayınları’ndan çıkan İskendernâme başlıklı bu çalışması iki ana bölümden meydana geliyor: i) Nimet Yıldırım’ın İskendernâme ile ilgili yazmış olduğu ansiklopedik kısım ve ii) çeviri metin. Kitabın ilk bölümü “İskender”; “Heft Hân ve İskender’in Heft Hân’ı”; “Klasik İran-İslam Tarihi Kaynaklarında İskender” ve “Firdevsî ve Şahnâme” başlıklarından oluşuyor. Bu başlıklarda Ni- met Yıldırım tarafından İskender’in tarihî kişilik olarak hayatı, Fars edebiyatın- daki algılanışı ile İskendernâme türünün tarihi ve bazı örnekleri ele alınıyor. Kitabın ikinci bölümünde ise Firdevsî’nin Şahnâme’sinde bir bölüm olarak yer alan İskender hikâyesinin/dâstânının, düzyazı olarak Türkçe çevirisi bulunuyor. 343 sayfadan oluşan kitabın ilk 171 sayfası yukarıda değindiğim birinci bölüme, geri kalan 172 sayfa ise 2565 beyitlik bir çeviri ile kitabın sonunda yer alan kaynakça ve dizine ayrılmıştır. Bu bakımdan kitabın yarısı İskender ve İskendernâmeler üze- rine Yıldırım’ın araştırmalarına, diğer yarısı ise çeviri metne ayrılmıştır.
Kitapta, çevrilen metinle ilgili olarak kitabın yarısı kadar ansiklopedik bilgiye yer verilmesi, kitabın bu bölümünün en başta İskendernâme türü üzerine araştırmalar yapan ya da bu konuda bilimsel bir merakı olan bir okuyucu kitlesi hedef alınarak yazıldığı izlenimi veriyor. Çünkü genel okur kitlesine hitap eden ve metin çevirisine dayanan bir kitapta bu kadar detaylı ve hacimli bilgi yer alması gerekli değildir. Bu bakımdan kitabın ilk bölümünün bilimsel bir kaygıyla yazılmış olduğu söylenebilir. Ayrıca bu bölümde yararlanılan Farsça kaynaklar da (bu kaynaklardan yapılan alıntılar ve kaynakların künyesinin verilmesi sebebiyle) Türkiye’de İskendernâme türü üzerine çalışan araştırmacılara yarar sağlar nitelik- tedir. Ancak ne yazık ki kitabın ilk bölümünde yer alan bilgiler birçok eksiklik, çelişki ve sorunu bünyesinde barındırmaktadır.

ÖZ
İslam edebiyatlarında adab literatürü başlığı altında yazılmış olan eserler bir hükümdarın nasıl olması gerektiğini konu alırlar. Bu eserlerde hikâyeler, anekdotlar ve nasihatler yoluyla ideal hükümdarın portresi
çizilir. İktidar eleştirisinin burada önemli bir işlevi vardır. İktidar
eleştirisi hem öznenin hakikatle kurduğu ilişkiyi göstermesi bakımından hem de iktidarı dizginleme açısından adab literatürünün temel hareket noktalarından biridir. Bu çalışmada Michel Foucault’nun parrhesia/doğruyu söylemek kavramı üzerinden XV. yüzyıl Osmanlı edebiyatının çeviri eserleri arasında yer alan Kelile ve Dimne ile Gülistân örneklerinde iktidar eleştirisinin nitelikleri ve olanakları tartışılacaktır. Anahtar Sözcükler: Parrhesia, Adab, Kelile ve Dimne, Gülistân, İktidar
Parrhesia in XV. Ottoman Literature: Cautious Viziers or Brave Dervishes
ABSTRACT
Islamic literary works written in the scope of the adab literature discuss how a sovereign should be. In these works, portraits of the ideal sovereign are drawn via stories, anecdotes and advice. Criticism of rulership has an important function here, as it is the starting point of adab literature. This starting point indicates both the relationship between the subject and truth, and the restraint put upon rulership. In this study, the characteristics and possibilities of the criticism of rulership found in the XV. century Ottoman translations of Kalila wa Demna and Golestân are discussed via Michel Foucault’s notion of parrhesia/freedom of speech.
Keywords: Parrhesia, Adab, Kalila wa Demna, Golestân, Rulership

This study provides insight into the Ottoman ulema class by using their letters. By tracing their letters (as well as their drafts), this presentation will depict their daily interactions. Various instances of their daily exchanges are visible in the letters bound in a fetva-compendium dating to the late 16th-early 17th centuries and located in Süleymaniye Library (Şehit Ali Paşa Collection, 2865). 

This fetva-compendium is ideal for the purposes of this study, as it includes hundreds of letters, messages, invitations, and memoranda gathered by an unknown compiler. This compiler pasted the original letters and, in most cases, also first drafts to the mecmua, and added explanatory notes on the context in which the letters were written. Their themes include political feuds, news, gossip, congratulatory messages, requests for help, and even for borrowing items, including books, ink, garments, or candles. As such, they reveal instances of the daily and professional life of the Ottoman scholarly elite in flesh and blood.

Since the letters include both the final versions and/or drafts, including corrections and commentary on letters, the source uncovers the many steps of letter-writing, showing us editorial interventions. Seeing the process of letter production also enables us to see the letters as material items in circulation. The source thus provides us with information on letter circulation and reciprocal writing practices, as they also include notes by the senders and recipients.

Seeing the letters as physical items in movement also begs for attention to how they traveled among members of the ulema and how the ulema chose to communicate their messages by entrusting them in the hands of intermediaries. The details in the letters and their post-scripts give us clues about the life of a letter, its intimate content, and possible path.

By analyzing this material, this presentation aims to (1) outline the content of short letters, messages, invitations, and memoranda, (2) sketch how the messages were sent and received among the members of the ulema, (3) and thereby to understand the micro world of the Ottoman intellectual elite in late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries as it is jotted down on paper.

As in many places in the world, melancholia was a ubiquitous disease/emotional state in the lives of Ottomans in the early 17th century. On the one hand, Ottoman physicians, as followers of Galenic medicine, tried to diagnose and treat melancholia with traditional methods. On the other hand, they defined it and its causes from a cultural-specific point of view. In this context, literary culture played a pivotal role in the lives of the urbanized Ottoman elites: circulation of literary works, gatherings (meclis), and oral-literary performances were crucial in the treatment as well as the construction of the concept of melancholia, and also the diseases/emotional states that were inseparably linked with it.
For the Ottoman urban elites, “self-control” was the keystone of the civilizing process. Melancholia, too, had to be experienced within this framework. Melancholia was frequently expressed and depicted in Ottoman lyric poetry (ġazel), one of the most popular genres of Ottoman literature. Consequently, ġazel created an important medium for teaching the emotions (fear, sadness, loneliness, sadness, etc.) associated with melancholia. This teaching became widespread with the popularity of lyric poetry and also included how to experience and regulate these emotions, just like in etiquette books. This study will, therefore, examine the intersection of medicine, literature, and ethical texts precisely at the cross-section where melancholia is constructed as an intellectual, men-only, and upper-class illness.
In this context, three different types of sources will be closely read and analyzed: the first work is Enmūzecü’ṭ-ṭıb (A Model of Medicine) by Emir Çelebi (d. 1638), the chief physician of the Ottoman palace for 16 years. Emir Çelebi was an Istanbulite physician, poet, and authority in medicine whose mentioned work was copied multiple times in the following decades. He was also a poet and a well-known figure in the sophisticated literary public in Istanbul. His book holds significant importance in this study as it addresses the definition, symptoms, drugs, and treatments of melancholia, drawing from traditional humoral methods and his personal experiences.
The second work is a book of etiquette (adab), Mevāʾidü'-n-Nefāʾis fī Ḳavāʾidi'l-Mecālis (Table of Delicacies Concerning the Rules of Social Gatherings). The author of the book, Gelibolulu Mustafa Ali (d. 1600), was a bureaucrat and poet, with a critical attitude against Ottoman society. In this context, his work is crucial as it aimed to teach the Ottoman elites the appropriate behavioral patterns in various situations and when dealing with different emotional states in life.
The third one, however, is not a single work but a body of literary pieces by certain poets and writers from the 17th century. These figures, including the two mentioned earlier, were part of the Ottoman ruling elite and knew each other personally. Their literary works are sine qua non for this study since they spearheaded the literary public and incorporated a myriad of melancholic elements.
Taking the works and writings of these groups under focus, this study will attempt to comprehend how melancholia and related illnesses/emotional states were defined, articulated, and, most importantly, regulated in Ottoman elite circles. Thus, this study will explore with a holistic and original approach how the greater concept of melancholia was constructed in early modern Ottoman society.

This research aims to scrutinize the years between 1596 and 1600 Zekeriyazade Yahya Efendi (b. 1561? – d. 1644) spent in Aleppo, Damascus and Egypt as a kadi of the Ottoman Empire. My main goal in this study is to unveil a “little-known” period of the career of a “well-known” poet on whose life many things have been written so far.
In his long life, Şeyhülislam Zekeriyazade Yahya Efendi, who had been a foremost political figure, an inspiring poet and an influential literary patron among his contemporaries, set his seal on the Ottoman political arena as well as cultural milieus in the late sixteenth and the early seventeenth centuries. Although his scholarly career begun in Istanbul where he taught at certain madrasas for several years, he changed the trajectory of his career and went to Aleppo as kadi in 1596. And in the following three years after which he was appointed to Aleppo, he conducted his duty in Damascus and Egypt, respectively.
Given the previous biographies dealing with his life, one can find no detailed information about his sojourn in Aleppo, Damascus and Egypt. However, in relation to his years in these three cities, there are some sources such as manuscripts, official documents and correspondences found in various archives in Turkey and Austria. Through the instrument of these tangible data, we can partly reconstruct if not inclusively a four-year-period of Yahya Efendi's life.

In the early 17th century, melancholia and one of its subcategories, love, were regarded as diseases within the traditional medical literature. Furthermore, in this framework, sex was designated as a stark contrast to the Ottoman concept of love. The echoes of society's response to this classification can be discerned within the pages of etiquette manuals and literary works from that era. With this perspective in mind, this course will delve into three primary themes: i) An exploration of how the Ottoman elite of the early 17th century—comprising scholars, bureaucrats, and other influential figures—defined and personally experienced melancholy, love, and sex; ii) An examination of the various forms and societal norms surrounding intimacy and sociability during this period; iii) An analysis of the boundaries imposed by social class and gender within the contexts of melancholia, love, and sex.

This study explores how the early modern Ottoman concept of inşāʾ (stylistic prose) was addressed and perceived during the late 19th century. At a time when literature became a mass medium, a pedagogical tool, and the main material for narrating the history of the nation, the Ottoman intelligentsia, in its search for a new possibility of prose, grappled with various conventional concerns, including the concept of stylistic prose, or inşāʾ. This study will analyze what anachronisms modern theorists fell into during this confrontation, what they comprehended and failed to grasp, and how they shaped literary historiography, whose influence is still decisive. Within this context, two key groups will take center stage: i) Veysi (b. 1628) and Nergisi (b. 1635), the two most canonical prose writers (münşī) of the early modern period; and ii) Namık Kemal, Abdülhalim Memduh, Ömer Ferit Kam, and others who critically examined the Ottoman literary heritage from the latter half of the 19th century through the early 20th century. By reading closely these two groups’ ideals of prose, and also the harsh criticism of the latter against the former, this study thus aspires to understand why was inşāʾ (and, also the prose literary genres in general) of secondary importance in the Ottoman literary historiography.

In this presentation, I discussed a ferman that Kafzade Faizi, the qadi of Thessaloniki in 1618 and 1619, received from Istanbul, accompanied by a poem (hasbıhal) and a letter (münşeat) written by him. I hope that this presentation will soon be published.

The main topic of this study is the place of Persian literature among the urbanized, educated, and upper-class members of the Ottoman literary culture at the turn of the 17th century. Accordingly, it focuses on the Ottoman bureaucrat-poet, Meḥmed Riyāżī Efendi’s (1572 – 1644), unpublished dictionary of poetry, Düstūru l-ʿamal, which he finished in 1607. He prepared his dictionary to explain a great number of lofty expressions, wordplays, idioms, and argot seen in contemporary Persian poetry. He thereby meant to give the Ottoman readers some clues as to the complexity of Persian literary works, especially those found in the Sabk-i Hindī (Indian Style) poetry. In order to grasp the Ottoman attitude towards Persian poetry, and thus their mindset, this study will discuss the dictionary’s impact on a group of Ottoman poets with whom Riyāżī had some ties to. To further enrich our understanding of this topic, traces of these relationships will be followed by examining the reading culture of this period, literary works of the poets concerned, their correspondence, and anonymous mecmūʿas (miscellanies). Thus, by entering a neglected area of Ottoman cultural history, this study explores the ways in which Persian poetry was received by 17th-century Ottoman poets.

The main topic of this study is the place of Persian literature among the urbanized, educated, and upper-class members of the Ottoman literary culture at the turn of the 17th century. Accordingly, it focuses on the Ottoman bureaucrat-poet, Meḥmed Riyāżī Efendi’s (1572 – 1644), unpublished dictionary of poetry, Düstūru l-ʿamal, which he finished in 1607. He prepared his dictionary to explain a great number of lofty expressions, wordplays, idioms, and argot seen in contemporary Persian poetry. He thereby meant to give the Ottoman readers some clues as to the complexity of Persian literary works, especially those found in the Sabk-i Hindī (Indian Style) poetry. In order to grasp the Ottoman attitude towards Persian poetry, and thus their mindset, this study will discuss the dictionary’s impact on a group of Ottoman poets with whom Riyāżī had some ties to. To further enrich our understanding of this topic, traces of these relationships will be followed by examining the reading culture of this period, literary works of the poets concerned, their correspondence, and anonymous mecmūʿas (miscellanies). Thus, by entering a neglected area of Ottoman cultural history, this study explores the ways in which Persian poetry was received by 17th-century Ottoman poets.

Bu çalışmada Osmanlı edebiyat tarihlerinde üzerinde pek durulmamış bir bürokrat-şair olan Ḳafzāde Fāizī’nin (d. 1598 – d. 1622) edebî kariyeri içinde bulunduğu sosyal ortam açısından incelenecektir.
İstanbullu bir ulema ailesinin oğlu olarak dünyaya gelen Fāizī, ilmiye kariyerinde hızlı bir yükseliş ile kısa bir süre içerisinde Osmanlı yönetici eliti arasında kendine bir yer edinmiştir. Çağdaşı olan birçok meslektaşının da yaptığı gibi ilmiyedeki ilerlemesine paralel olarak edebî eserler de yazmıştır. Ancak onun edebî eserleri bugüne dek içinde bulunduğu sosyo-kültürel ortam açısından değerlendirilmemiştir. Bu edebî eserler Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun büyük çaplı değişimler yaşadığı 17. yüzyılın çalkantılı atmosferinde üretilmiştir. Böyle bir ortamda Osmanlı devlet ve toplum yapısında meydana gelen değişimler ise bazı iktidar odakları arasındaki politik güç dengelerinin dalgalanmasına sebep olmuştu. Bu dönemde sürekli değişen, yeni ortaya çıkan birçok patronaj/hâmilik ağları bunun bir sonucuydu.
Kendisi de bir bürokrat-şair olan Fāizī bu ilişki ağlarının içinde hem himaye sunan bir hâmi hem de himayeye ihtiyaç duyan bir mahmi olarak yer almıştı. Bu sebeple bu sosyal ağları incelemek edebî eser üretiminin bağlamsallaştırılması konusunda değerli bilgiler sunacaktır. Bunu gerçekleştirmek için, Fāizī’nin yazdığı tüm eserler, ona yazılmış/ithaf edilmiş ürünler ve yazara ait veya ona yazılmış münşeat kullanılacaktır. Böylece bu çalışmada 17. başındaki Osmanlı edebiyat tarihinin prosopografik bir kesiti sunulmaya çalışılacaktır.

This study assesses the professional and literary career of Ḳafzāde Fāizī (b. 1589 - d. 1622) in terms of the social circle he engaged with.
As a highly-educated scion of an Istanbulite ʿulemā family Fāizī achieved a rapid promotion in ʿilmiye career and gained a foothold among the Ottoman ruling elite in a short span of time. In parallel with his career path he authored some literary works, as most of his counterparts did. His complete works, however, have not been evaluated yet in regard to their socio-cultural contexts. These literary works have been produced in the turbulent atmosphere of the early 17th century in which Ottoman Empire have undergone some profound transformations. In such an atmosphere these ensued changes in the structure of the Ottoman state and society gave rise to fluctuation of the political power between several loci of power. A great many newly-occurred patronage links between patrons and protégés were a result of it.
Bureaucrat and poet that he is, Fāizī had successfully woven a web of patronage in which he took part both as a patron and protégé. Investigating these social networks, therefore, will provide a considerable insight into the contextualization of the literary production. To receive such information, inter alia, Fāizī's oeuvre being in the first place, the literary works written/dedicated to him and various archival sources will be used. This survey, thus, seeks to present a prosopographic sequence of the Ottoman literary history.

Bâbur, who was a Timurid descendant, wrote his autobiography that took place between 1494-1530, in his well known memoirs Bâburnâme. The memoirs include the annual military, political and cultural incidences of Bâbur's life.
The link between Bâbur and literature is very strong, because he was raised in an environment where Islamic Iranian literature classics were well known. Poets such as Ferdowsî, Nezâmî-e Ganjavî, Hâfez-e Shirazî, Sa‘di-e Shirazî had directly influenced Bâbur's perception of regency. This impact can be perceived by analyzing Bâbur's memoir.
In this study, by considering the Iranian adab literature in the first place, Bâbur's perception of sovereignty has been discussed by evaluating his memoirs to understand to what extent Bâburnâme was influenced from Iranian adab literature and how Bâbur used and transformed this influence.

In the 17th century, the century which Evliya Çelebi also lived, Ottoman Empire had such a cosmopolit social structure. A good many groups, which were distinctive from each other in lingual, religious and cultural aspects, were leading their lives in the Empire’s land within the frame of the social norms. In this variety, there were types who were in contradiction with daily life and social routine of the time. Lunatics, killers, thieves/ pickpockets, executioners, legendary figures, drunkards, dervishes, abdals, soothsayers, opium addicts, panders/ procurers, mentally deranged people, grave diggers and more were the components of the society who lived within the great  tolerance of their medium. And his example explicitly shows that the common idea of Ottoman Empire’s being too conservative has been established on wrong basis. In Evliya Çelebi’s 10-volume book The Seyahatname, it is possible to trace the structure of a society that lives heterogeneously ranging from back countries to important cities. The cities both from Anatolia and Thrace, primarily İstanbul, like Edirne, Bursa, Konya, Trabzon, Kayseri, Urfa, Maraş, Sivas which are within the boundaries of Republic of Turkey were chosen for the subject of the study.                                                                                                        The aim of the study is to represent how these divergent figures are depicted and take place in society in one of the intellectual’ s, Evliya Çelebi, exposition and also how they have been perceived by public. In addition, it aims to show the relationship between the society and these figures to make people reconsider the common idea of Ottoman conservatism and to make a small scale comparison between the modern Turkey and Ottoman Empire in the 17th century by means of the cities mentioned.

Bugün adına Osmanlıca dediğimiz dil, hin-i hacette yemek üzere dipfrizde sakladığımız o donmuş katık değildi. Diğer tüm toplumsal diller gibi o da organik, akışkan, değişip duran, artan ve azalan, süreğen bir dildi. İşte biz bu süreğenliği ıskalıyoruz. Hem de tüm bir Osmanlıca çalışmaları disiplinin temelinde...

Yıl 1609, uzuncadır Anadolu’nun çeşitli yerlerinde ve Rumeli’de tarihçilerin verdiği adıyla “Celâlî” ayaklanmaları yaşanmakta. Çeşitli tarihçilere göre bu “isyanlar” (devlet tarafından bakınca isyan; diğer taraftan bakınca ise mücadeleler) siyasî ve ekonomik sebeplerden dolayı çıkmış.  Bunları burada sıralayacak değilim ancak tarihçi Mustafa Akdağ’ın bu olaylar için kullandığı terimi aktarmakta yarar görüyorum: “Türk halkının dirlik düzenlik kavgası”. Bu isyanların sayısı az değil; Moğolların atlarla yoldaş olmasından dillerinde ata dair birçok kelimesi olması gibi, bu dönemde de Osmanlı devlet vakanüvislerinin kelime haznesi isyan ve asilerle haşır neşir olmaktan bu konuda  benzer  bir zenginliğe sahip.

1446 yılının sıcak Ağustos’unda Bursa’dayız. Sultan Murad, vezirleri Çandarlı Halil, Saruca ve İshak paşaların şahitliğinde Molla Hüsrev’e vasiyetini yazdırıyor. Belki de Ece Ayhan’ın dediği gibi ölümün üstüne kurulmuş bir Osmanlı otağında gerçekleşmişti bu sahne. Bu yıllar Murad’ın tahta üçüncü defa çıkışı ve bu sefer belki de son zamanları olduğunu düşündüğünden bir vasiyetnameye ihtiyaç duyuyor. Onun tahta neden üçüncü kez geçtiği kadar vasiyetinin içeriği de ilgi çekici. Vasiyeti sona bırakarak devam edelim.

Yazıya başlar başlamaz termodinamikten bahsederek kimseyi korkutmak niyetinde değilim. En nihayetinde her seferinde “birinci yasa neydi?” diye ben de soruyorum. Ancak burada termodinamiğin birinci yasası sayesinde Lucretius’un iki bin yıl önce yazdığı bir şiiri daha iyi anlayabileceğimizi iddia etme cüretinde bulunuyorum. Termodinamiğin birinci yasası, enerjinin korunumu ilkesini ifade eder yani bir etkileşim sırasında enerjinin bir biçimden başka bir biçime dönüşebileceğini, fakat toplam miktarının sabit kalacağını belirtir. Başka bir deyişle, enerji yaratılamaz veya yok edilemez; sürekli başka bir şeye dönüşür.

Anayurt Oteli‘nde geçen ve şimdiye kadar bazı araştırmacıların[1] dikkatini çekmiş olan beş adet önemli tarih vardır: 1839, 1876, 1908, 1923, 10 Kasım. Bu konuda yazı yazan Berna Moran da Ahmet Oktay da tarihlerin neye karşılık geldiğini belirtmiş, ancak bunun ötesine geçen yorumlarda bulunmamışlardır. Bu tarihlerin dört tanesi romanda geçer, bir tanesi ise (1876) romanda geçmemesine rağmen Yusuf Atılgan tarafından belirtilir:

The history of comings and goings for a variety of reasons such as travel, business, migration, taking refuge etc. between Turkey and Vienna go back a long time. The footsteps of the background of these sojourns and compulsory accommodations can be traced with intermediacy of some still existing documents and narrations. Accordingly, the aim of this survey is to sketch a backdrop for the present-day "otherness" question through the experiences of four different Ottoman individuals, namely, Evliya Çelebi, Temeşvarlı Osman Ağa, Zülfikar Paşa and Ebubekir Ratib Efendi.

Geniş topraklara yayılmış Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun tarihi araştırılırken ihmal edilen alanların belki de en başında çevre tarihi geliyor. Onur İnal ve Yavuz Köse’nin derledikleri İktidar Tohumları-Osmanlı Çevre Tarihi Üzerine İncelemeler, alanında yetkin birçok ismin katkılarıyla değerli bir kaynak sağlamayı hedefliyor. Uzun süre hüküm sürmüş Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun çevre tarihine birçok farklı açıdan, kapsayıcı bir anlayışla bakıyor.

İngilizce akademik literatürde Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun sosyokültürel geç mişi hakkında yayınlar hâlâ küçük bir yer tutuyor. Helen Pfeifer’ın etraflı bir çalışmanın neticesi olan kitabı (Meclisler İmparatorluğu: Erken Modern Osmanlı - Topraklarında Fetih ve Toplum) bu az araştırılmış alana çoktandır gereken, elzem bir katkı sunuyor. Empire of Salons, on altıncı asırda Osmanlıların Memluk topraklarının hakimiyetini ele geçirdiği dönemde devletin bu topraklardaki nüfuzunu meclisler aracılığıyla nasıl pekiştirdiğini gösterip buradan hareketle meclislerin politik, sosyal ve entelektüel işlevlerini ortaya koyuyor. Yazar Şam’da yaşamış bir alim olan Bedreddîn el-Gazzî (ö. 1577) ve yakın çevresindeki bazı isimlerin eserleri üzerinden Osmanlı ve Arap dünyaları arasındaki ilişki ve geçişlilikleri
neredeyse bir yüzyıla varan bir zaman dilimi içerisinde inceliyor.