A Millennium of Turkish Literature: A Concise History

Ottoman Glories

25 Ottoman Glories The Ottoman state had a life span of more than six centuries, from 1299 to 1922. A single dynasty reigned in unbroken continuity . Islam was not only the religious faith, but also the political ideology of the basically theocratic Ottoman state. The empire was multiracial, multinational, multireligious, multilingual. In ruling over these disparate elements, the Ottoman establishment achieved remarkable success in administrative, military, and fiscal organization. Ottoman literature, which stressed poetry as the superior art, utilized the forms and aesthetic values of Islamic Arabo-Persian literature. The educated elite, led by the sultans (many of whom were accomplished poets themselves), produced a huge body of verse whose hallmarks included refined diction, abstruse vocabulary, euphony, romantic agony, dedication to formalism and tradition, and the Sufi brand of mysticism. Although prose was not held in high esteem by the Ottoman literary establishment, it nevertheless accounts for some excellent achievements, in particular the travelogues of the seventeenth-century cultural commentator Evliya Çelebi. The Ottoman Empire also nurtured a rich theatrical tradition, which consisted of Karagöz (shadow plays), Meddah (storyteller and impersonator), and Orta oyunu (a type of commedia dell’arte). Three main literary traditions evolved: (1) Tekke (sect, denomination) literature; (2) oral folk literature; and (3) Divan (elite) literature. Oral folk literature and Divan literature hardly ever influenced each other; in fact, they remained oblivious of one another. Tekke literature, however, had an easy intercourse with both, utilizing their forms, prosody, vocabulary, and stylistic devices in a pragmatic fashion. 26  A Millennium of Turkish Literature Religious (Tekke) poetry flourished among the mystics, the Muslim clergy, and the adherents of various doctrines and denominations. It served as the main repository of theological sectarianism and was in itself a poetry of dissent and discord. It embodied the schism between the Sunni and Shiite segments of the Muslim-Turkish population and embraced a spate of unorthodox doctrines (tarikat), from tasavvuf, libertarian mysticism , to anarchical Bektashiism and the Hurufi, Yesevi, Mevlevi, Bayrami, Alevi, Kadiri, Halveti, and Melami sects that were often hotbeds of political opposition within the theocratic system and contributed to unrest and strife in Anatolia. Members of the tekkes (sect lodges, theological centers) were particularly prolific in the domain of religious verse. In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, Sultan Veled (son of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi), Âşık Pasha (also a fervent advocate of developing the literary resources of Turkish), and Gülşehrî and Şeyyad Hamza (both early masters of Islamic poetry) set the inspirational tone that would remain the hallmark of this voluminous literature. The fourteenth century produced a remarkable collection of religious epics, tales, and stories in verse marked by didacticism rather than by lyric artistry. These poems, composed principally for uneducated listeners, served to spread the Islamic faith. The magnum opus of religious literature emerged in 1409: the Mevlid-i Şerif by Süleyman Çelebi (d. 1422), an adulation of the Prophet Muhammad chanted as a requiem among Muslim Turks. The tradition that yielded this masterpiece about the Prophet’s life and the magnificence of Islam also produced many other verse narratives about the Prophet and Islam. A great poet to lose his life because of passionate mystic verse, a form that incensed the traditionalists, was Nesimi (d. early fifteenth century). Two folk poets, Kaygusuz Abdal (fifteenth century) and Pir Sultan Abdal (sixteenth century), whose poetry represented the Alevi-Bektaşi movement (long considered heretical) and expressed a strong challenge to the orthodoxy of Islam, fired the imagination of many Anatolian communities . Even God was not spared from badinage. Kaygusuz Abdal wrote several poems that have barbs against God: You produced rebel slaves and cast them aside, You just left them there and made your exit, my God. Ottoman Glories  27 You built a hair-thin bridge for your slaves to walk on, Let’s see if you’re brave enough to cross it, my God. Pir Sultan Abdal challenged imperial power and local authorities in abrasive terms: In Istanbul he must come down: The sovereign with his empire’s crown. Legend has it that Pir Sultan Abdal became the leader of a popular uprising and urged kindred spirits to join the rebellion: Come, soul brothers, let’s band together, Brandish our swords against the godless, And restore the poor people’s rights. He even lambasted a judge: You talk of faith which you don’t heed, You shun God’s truth, command and creed...