Turkish literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in Turkic languages. The Ottoman and Azerbaijani forms of Turkish, which forms the basis of much of the written corpus, were highly influenced by Persian and Arabic literature, and used the Ottoman Turkish alphabet.
John Davidson was a Scottish poet, playwright and novelist, best known for his ballads. He also did translations from French and German. In 1909, financial difficulties, as well as physical and mental health problems, led to his suicide.
Mahammad bin Suleyman, better known by his pen name Fuzuli, was an Azerbaijani, of the Bayat tribes of Oghuz, poet, writer and thinker. Often considered one of the greatest contributors to the divan tradition of Azerbaijani literature, Fuzuli in fact wrote his collected poems (divan) in three different languages: in his native Azerbaijani, Arabic and Persian. He was well-versed in both the Ottoman and Chagatai Turkic literary traditions as well as mathematics and astronomy.
Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, known as H. A. R. Gibb, was a Scottish historian on Orientalism.
In Islamic cultures of the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily and South Asia, a Diwan is a collection of poems by one author, usually excluding his or her long poems (mathnawī). These poems, frequently sung or set to music, were often composed and collected in the imperial courts of various sultanates and were very well known for their ability to inspire. In modern-times, the inspirational, linguistic, verse, meter, and other design features of the Diwan or Masnavi poetry, are found echoing in other cultures, same or similar to the relaying of hidden messages, safety, and support, left for those ex-slaves on the Underground Railroad, during the American Civil War. Thus, themes that emerge from traditional Islamic origins can again portray of and evoke the persistence of life, or whatever continuances, admirable to the old or traditional ways and wisdoms. Where these are found in freeform variants, like an enigma, the modern Diwan, as powers brings a peculiar message encompassing for the divinities.
David Samuel Margoliouth, FBA was an English orientalist. He was briefly active as a priest in the Church of England. He was Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford from 1889 to 1937.
The poetry of the Ottoman Empire, or Ottoman Divan poetry, is little known outside modern Turkey, which forms the heartland of what was once the Ottoman Empire. It is, however, a rich and ancient poetic tradition that lasted for nearly 700 years, and one whose influence can still be felt in the modern Turkish poetic tradition.
Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, FBA, or R. A. Nicholson, was an eminent English orientalist, scholar of both Islamic literature and Islamic mysticism and widely regarded as one of the greatest Rumi scholars and translators in the English language.
Nefʿī (نفعى) was the pen name of an Ottoman Turkish poet and satirist whose real name was ʿÖmer (عمر).
Sa'ad al-Din Masud ibn Umar ibn Abd Allah al-Taftazani also known as Al-Taftazani and Taftazani (1322–1390) was a Muslim Persian polymath.
Akshamsaddin, was an influential Ottoman religious scholar, poet, and mystic saint. He was an influential tutor and adviser to Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. After completing his work with his master Sheikh Hacı Bayram-ı Veli, he founded the Shamsiyya-Bayramiyya Sufi order. He discovered the lost grave of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari in Constantinople preceding the Siege of Constantinople.
Yahya bey Dukagjini was an Ottoman poet and military figure. He is one of the best-known diwan poets of the 16th century. He wrote in Ottoman Turkish.
Aşık Çelebi was the name of Pir Mehmed, an Ottoman biographer, poet, and translator. Born in Prizren, he served as kadi (judge) in many towns of the Rumelia. His major work Senses of Poets (Meşairü'ş-Şuara) of 1568 is of major importance.
Tezkire, from Arabic tadhkirah meaning "something that causes one to remember" or "memorandum", is a form of bibliographical dictionary or bibliographical compendium which flourished in the 16th-century Ottoman Empire. The most known are the tezkires of poets, but they also dealt with government officials, and of artists in general. First seen in the early Arab literature before the 10th century, they came into the Persian literature and later into the Ottoman one.
Sehi Bey, (1471?–1548) was an Ottoman poet and bibliographer. He was the first one to compile a tezkire, a genre which would have many followers until the 19th century.
Ahdi of Baghdad (d.1593), also referred in Turkish as Bağdadlı Ahdi Ahmed Çelebi, was an Ottoman and Safavid era poet and bibliographer of the 16th century. He was one of the first four Ottoman poets to write a tezkire.
Latifî (1491–1582), or Kastamonulu Latifî Çelebi, was an Ottoman poet and bibliographer. Born in Kastamonu, in northern Anatolia, he became famous for his tezkireTezkiretü'ş-Şuara, the second Ottoman collection of bibliographical data on poets and poetry in overall.
Riyazi, also known as Riyazî Mehmet Efendi was an Ottoman poet and bibliographer. His Riyazü'ş Şuaratezkire, is the seventh of its kind in Ottoman history and is of great importance. Riyazi is considered the last of a group of bibliographers who tried to cover the entire field of Ottoman poetry.
İsa Necati, usually referred to as Necati or Nejati, was an Ottoman poet, and the first great lyric poet of Ottoman Turkish literature. Considered an original and eloquent poet, he won the praises of his contemporaries and later Turkish writers, securing for himself an important place in Turkish literary history.
The Gibb Memorial Series is an orientalist book series with important works of Persian, Turkish and Arab history, literature, philosophy and religion, including many works in English translation. Some works were included in the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works.
