15 yüzyıldan 18 yüzyıla kasidelerde ideal hükümdar portresi ve hükümdarın metaforik sunumu

Abstract

Originated from the question how the sovereignty of sultan affected and shaped the mind of “Homo-Ottomanicus”, this project focuses on the portrayal of the Ottoman sultans in qasidas in general and the metaphorical presentation of them in particular. With a specific emphasis on the importance of the perspectives qasidas can provide for the research, a number of qasidas written for the reigning sultan by Ahmad Pasha, Bâkî, Nef’î, and Nedîm in their Turkish divans have been examined in the thesis. It is observed that in qasidas the sultan is generally depicted as fair, generous, benign, and good warrior and this feature was a result of the circle of equity inherited from Persian- Arabic- Indian ruling tradition -or rather an idiosyncratic amalgamation of them. With a specific eye to the functions of the comparisons and analogies between the Ottoman sultans and heroes from Persian and Islamic mythologies, the importance of comparisons and analogies in strengthen of the power of the sultans is discussed. This being done, I attempt to examine the metaphorical presentation and representation of the Ottoman sultans in selected qasida examples from aforementioned poets. In this main part, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s influential work on metaphor, Metaphors We Live By, is applied as theoretical frame. Lakoff and Johnson assert that metaphors are not merely simple linguistic devices to add some aesthetic value to our statements and literary expressions but rather an intrinsic component of our cognitive process, hereby, could provide us an elusive resource to get a better understanding of mind, and the ways it functions. On the bases of this argument, the metaphorical employment of the language in selected qasidas are examined to get the climate of mind in terms of the relationship between sultans and their subjects in the Ottoman Empire. It has been observed that in concerning qasidas from four divans, the sultan is generally portrayed as “aloft” and “ahead” while the subject is portrayed as “beneath” and “behind”. Furthermore, the sultan is depicted in these poems as a “shadow” offers protecting, “a sanctuary” to take refuge in, and an “aesthetic creature” or an “ornament” with the power to embellish its surroundings. The frequency of using these metaphors is changing over the concerning periods whereas in Nedîm’s Divân the number of the “ornament metaphors” for the sultan increases significantly compared to the other three divans. After discussing the possible reasons and meaning of this turn in metaphorical employment, the project compares its findings with the conventional arguments regarding the Ottoman sultans in European centred readings. It is claimed that as the representative of authority and power, the Ottoman sultan is depicted contradistinctively as “protector-shelter” in qasidas rather than as “the despotic father” that the European centred readings have claimed him to be so far.