The "lies" of courtiers: A performative analysis of the aleppan tall tales in evliya çelebi's book of travels [Musahip "yalan"lari{dotless}: Seyahatname'deki halep mavallari{dotless}ni{dotless}n performans açi{dotless}si{dotless}ndan i̇ncelenmesi]

Abstract

Evliya Çelebi's Book of Travels (Seyāhatnāme) is not simply a record of the journeys of a traveler, but also, in many ways, the memoirs of an Ottoman courtier. As such, it records a number of instances of courtiers in the act of performing at courtly gatherings, which were, to a great extent, oral gatherings where products of oral culture were exchanged in a living environment. In this article, I will be focusing on one instance of such a gathering; namely, the section of the third volume of the Book of Travels that Robert Dankoff has called "Tall Tales in Aleppo". This section is noteworthy in that it inscribes a back-and-forth oral storytelling exchange- specifically, an exchange of tall tales-that occurred during the course of a gathering of courtiers, Evliya Çelebi being one among them, and their lord. I will analyze this exchange in terms of the oral performative environment typically associated with tall tales, in an attempt to see what this might tell us not only about the oral environment of courtly gatherings, but also about certain of Evliya Çelebi's authorial (and hence, by implication, performative) strategies in composing the Book of Travels.