An Iridescent Device: Premodern Ottoman Poetry

Christiane Czygan, Stephan Conermann, Christiane Czygan, Stephan Conermann

• Publisher: V&R Unipress
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9783847108559
• eBook ISBN: 9783847008552
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science General
• Index: Biological Sciences

Ten experts in premodern literature and history examine the style, genre, and performance of sixteenth century Ottoman poetry. A large number of poems, including a newly discovered imperial poem collection and the work of a poet fallen into oblivion, are discussed with regard to their multifarious functions and their contemporary lyrical appeal. Though most of these poets worked in conventional settings many of the articles in this volume point out how they broke taboos, glossed over violence, and promoted or questioned political rule, even as they appealed to their listeners on an emotional level. The authors provide ample evidence for the importance attributed to certain cities and places, as well as local affiliations and networks. These analyses show how premodern poetry operated as a tool of communication and formed an integral part of premodern social and political life.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Body
• Acknowledgements
• Transcription of the Ottoman Script
• Abbreviations and Illustrations
• Christiane Czygan: Introduction
• Style
• Edith Gülçin Ambros: Emotivity as a Stylistic Marker in Ottoman Lyric Poetry of the 15th and 16th Centuries
• Poetry in Prose
• Gisela Procházka-Eisl: The Insertion of Poems into Ottoman Prose: Mere Embellishment and Decoration?
• Jan Schmidt: Poetry in the Context of Prose Historiography, Illumination or Illustration?
• Gül Şen: The Function of Poetry in Sixteenth Century Historiography: A Narratological Approach to the Künhü’l-aḫbār by Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī
• Genres
• Hülya Çelik: The Connection Between Genre and Form in a Poem: The 16th Century Ottoman Elegy and the Stanzaic Poem
• Ali Emre Özyıldırm: Two Poets, Two Works. Some Conclusions from Ebkār-ı efkār and Miḥnet-keşān on the Constants and Functions of the Ottoman Mes̱nevīs from the 16th Century to the 19th Century
• Benedek Péri: “ beklerüz”: An Ottoman Paraphrase (naẓīre) Network from the 16th Century
• Ruler Poetry
• Christiane Czygan: Was Sultan Süleymān Colour-Blind? Sensuality, Power and the Unpublished Poems in the Third Dīvān (1554) of Sultan Süleymān I
• Michael Reinhard Heß: Sacrifice on the Path of the Shah Martyrdom in Ḫaṭāʾīs Turkic Dīvān
• Performance
• Hatice Aynur: Representations of Istanbul as a Literary and Cultural Space in Ottoman Texts (1520–1566)
• Authors
• Index of Poets
• Index of Titles
• Index of Terms and Genres