Sûrnâmelerde 1582 şenliği

Abstract

A magnificent festival was held in İstanbul in 1582 for the circumcision of Şehzade Mehmed, the son of Sultan Murad III. This glorious festival did not only become the subject of many literary works but also generated the birth of a new literary genre. This genre, named “sûrnâme” (festival book), takes the imperial festivals as its subject. The first examples of these festival books are Câmi’u’l-Buhur Der Mecâlis-i Sûr (Gatherer of the Seas in the Gatherings of the Festival) of Gelibolulu Âlî and Sûrnâme-i Hümâyûn (Imperial Festival Book) of İntizâmî. The festival books serve as important sources for subjects such as the daily life of the Ottomans, court traditions, means of production and various forms of art. These texts have attracted many scholars with the value of their content. Nevertheless, these studies mainly focuse on the festival itself. How this festival is transformed into literary texts by the authors of festival books has not been thoroughly analyzed so far. This thesis introduces the genre of festival book, which flourishes related to the Ottoman tradition of imperial festival. In this study, the first examples of this new literary genre,which are Câmi’u’l-Buhur Der Mecâlis-i Sûr and Sûrnâme-i Hümâyûn, are examined in terms of their approach to the festival of 1582. The thesis also examines the way the authors of the festival books transformed the festival into literary texts, the discourse they adopt and the narrative forms they make use of. In this thesis, it has been determined that the festival books of 1582 reflect the language and literary conception of the period they were written in, both in terms of literary practices and the information they provide about the relationship between literature and the festival. It has been observed that, both of the authors aimed to form a literary language and searched for originality in transforming the festival into literary texts. Although İntizâmî and Gelibolulu Âlî narrate the same festival, their texts are very different from each other. It has been demonstrated that the authors of the festival books approach the festival differently. These different approaches are reflected by the narrative forms they made use of and also the discourse they adopted.