Millennium of Turkish Literature : a concise History

Kutadgu Bilig
(Wisdom of Royal Glory)
and 
Divanü Lügâti’t 
Türk
(Compendium and Lexicon of Turkish), made their advent. If one 
disregards all the preceding works (inscriptions, lyric poetry, myths, tales, 
etc.), these two substantial books mark the outset of Turkish literature.
Th
e story of Turkish literature from the eleventh century to the 
twenty-fi rst is rich and complex, full of fi rm traditions and daring trans-
formations. It straddles the creative endeavors of small states, tribal com-
munities, and principalities; a major state such as the Selçuk, the expansive 
and enduring Ottoman Empire, the modern Turkish Republic, and the 
newly independent Cypriot Turkish and Central Asian Turkic republics.
Th
is literature achieved an impressive élan with the work of the 
humanistic mystic folk poet Yunus Emre, who lived in the late thirteenth 
and early fourteenth centuries. Ottoman literary creativity matured in the 
fi ft eenth century and produced its best works until the end of the eigh-
teenth century. In the classical age of Ottoman culture, the urban elite 
distinguished itself with its prolifi c corpus of formal lyrics that dealt 
with empyreal themes but without ignoring real life. Although verse was 
regarded as intrinsically superior to prose, numerous prose works, princi-
pally the ten-volume 
Seyahatname
(Book of Travels) by Evliya Çelebi in the 
seventeenth century, achieved an enduring place of pride.
As the power of the Ottoman Empire waned, intellectuals and writ-
ers engaged in a dynamic search for Western aesthetics, genres, and 
techniques. In the second half of the nineteenth century, European-type 
fi ction, drama, criticism, and newspaper writing gained popularity. As a 
consequence, Turkish literature embraced Europeanization.
With the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, modern liter-
ature gained ascendancy. Th
e left ist poet-playwright Nazım Hikmet revo-
lutionized Turkish poetry and attained to world-class stature. Th
e female 
novelist Halide Edib (Adıvar) made an impact with her works, some of 
which she wrote in English and published in England and the United 
States. Th
e genre of fi ction was dominated in the second half of the twenti-
eth century by Yaşar Kemal, whose prolifi c output came close to securing 

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Foreword
ix
a Nobel Prize for him. Th
at honor ultimately was won by a stimulating 
younger novelist, Orhan Pamuk, in 2006, the fi rst Nobel ever for a Turk 
in any fi eld. It stands as the culmination of a nation’s passion for literature 
through many centuries and heralds future triumphs for Turkish poets, 
playwrights, essayists, and critics as well as for fi ction writers.
Th
is book tells the story of how those genres evolved and grew in stat-
ure on the Turkish mainland in the course of a thousand years. It stands 
as the fi rst short history of that literature. It ineluctably glosses over many 
themes and leaves out innumerable authors and titles but strives to provide 
a balanced view, if not a comprehensive panorama, of a literature that has 
always served as a faithful mirror of a time-honored nation’s culture.
Th
e poems and excerpts have been translated by Talat S. Halman unless 
otherwise indicated. Portions of the author’s earlier publications have been 
incorporated in this volume.
Th
e author is grateful to Dr. Jayne L. Warner, a longtime colleague and 
collaborator, for her excellent editing. Th
anks also go to Demet Güzelsoy 
Chafra, Öykü Terzioğlu, and Ceyda Akpolat for their help.

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xi
n o t e on t u r k i sh 
spel l i n g a n d n a m e s
or Turkish authors, place-names, publications, and special terms, this 
volume employs modern Turkish spelling. Th
e entries in Suggested 
Reading and the index are arranged according to the modern Turkish 
alphabet that appears below.
Exceptions include words that have become common in English and 
appear in English dictionaries in anglicized forms. Proper names have 
been kept in modern Turkish with two major exceptions—the names 
İstanbul and Izmir have been rendered with normal English spelling using