16. Asır Biyografi Kaynaklarının 14-15. Asırlar Türk Edebiyatı Hakkındaki Kaynaklık Değeri
Batı Türkçesinde 13. asrın ikinci yarısından itibaren eserler verilmekle beraber edebiyat tarihinin başlıca kaynağı hükmündeki şuara tezkireleri ve sair biyografi kaynakları ancak 16. asrın ilk yarısından itibaren görülmeye başlanmıştır. Aradaki yaklaşık iki buçuk asırlık boşluk dolayısıyla bu kaynakların geçmiş edebiyat hakkındaki bilgilerinde hatalar ve yanlışlıklar bulunacağı tabiidir. Bu makalede 16. asır biyografi kaynaklarında 15. asrın sonuna kadarki Türk edebiyatı hakkında verilen bilgilerin bir tenkidi yapılmaktadır. Bu maksatla ilk olarak çalışmada kullandığımız kaynaklar kısaca tanıtılmış, sonrasında mevzubahis devir 1389’da Sultan I. Bayezid’in tahta geçişine kadarki dönem, 1453’te İstanbul’un fethine kadarki dönem ve fetihten sonraki dönem olmak üzere üç ayrı devreye ayrılıp incelenmiştir. Bu tür bir taksim şuara tezkirelerinin aktardığı malumatla da uyum içindedir. Çalışmada tezkirelerin 1389’a kadar oluşan edebiyat hakkında çok yetersiz bir bilgiye sahip oldukları görülmüştür. 1389-1453 dönemini ise Osmanlı edebiyatının oluşmaya başladığı dönem olarak kabul ettikleri anlaşılmaktadır. Bu dönemden zikredilen şair ve eser isimleri öncekiyle mukayese edilemeyecek kadar fazladır. Tezkirecilerin 1453’ten itibaren yeni başşehirle beraber devletin ve sosyal hayatın takarrüründe önemli adımlar atılması sonucu edebî kültürde de mühim inkişaflar gerçekleştiğinin ve bu dönemin 16. asırda ulaşılacak olan parlak seviyenin habercisi olduğunun farkında bulunduğu müşahede edilmektedir.
The Source Value of 16th Century Biographical Dictionaries on 14th-15th Centuries Turkish Literature
While works in Western Turkish have been produced since the late 13th century, the primary sources of Western Turkish literary history, such as tezkires [biographical dictionaries] of poets and other biographical sources, did not begin to appear until the early 16th century. Due to this gap of nearly two and a half centuries, these sources naturally would contain errors and inaccuracies regarding their knowledge of past literature. This study analyzes the information the 16th-century biographical sources provide about pre-16th-century Turkish literature. Thus, this study first briefly introduces the sources it uses before analyzing the epoch in question in three stages: the period up to Sultan Bayezid I’s accession to the throne (1299-1389), the period up to the conquest of Istanbul (1389-1453), and the period ending with Necati Bey’s death (1453-1509). This study observes the tezkires to contain very little information about the literature that had formed before 1389. The period of 1389-1453 is considered the beginning of the formation of Ottoman literature. The number of poets and works known from this period is incomparably higher than that of the prior period. As a result of the new capital city and the important steps taken to establish the empire and social life, significant developments are understood to have occurred in the literary culture after 1453, with this period also understood to have been a harbinger of the advanced level that would be reached in the 16th century.
Tezkire is the name given to a biographical dictionary of poets, and this type of work forms one of the most crucial sources in the history of Turkish literature. These works began being written in Western Turkish in the 1530s. According to what is known, because Turkish works had begun being written in Anatolia at the end of the 13th century, the information these tezkires provided about the missing time in between will inevitably contain deficiencies and errors.
Biographical works are only secondary sources that come after primary sources, such as the works of the persons in question and any documents about them. Studies that take these biographical works as a mirror image of truth are bound to make some mistakes. This study analyzes the information from 16th-century biographical sources provided about Turkish literature up to the late 15th century. For this purpose, this study firstly introduces the sources it uses, these sources being the tezkires of Sehi Beg, Latifi, Aşık Çelebi, and Kınalızade; the biographical sections of Gelibolulu Âlî’s history Künhü’l-Ahbar; and Taşköprülüzade’s book on the biographies of Ottoman scholars and mystics titled Şakayıku’n-Nu’maniyye, as well as its translation by Mecdi Efendi. In addition, this study also consults various sources of secondary importance.
First of all, the tezkires should be noted to have not been written to reflect the entirety of Turkish literature. They generally pertain to poets who had written in Turkish in the Ottoman lands and who had adhered to the rules of classical literature, especially aruz. Secondly, this study should add that these authors had not followed the Arabic biographical tradition when writing their works but rather that of the so-called Herat tezkires of two Persian works and one Turkish work, all of which had been written in the last quarter of the 15th century.
The study analyzes the epoch in question in three stages: the period up to Sultan Bayezid I’s accession to the throne (1299-1389), the period up to the conquest of Istanbul (1389-1453), and the period up to the death of Necati Bey (1453-1509), whose divan form one of the cornerstones of classical Turkish poetry. As the present study will show, such a division is in harmony with the information provided by tezkires. This study indicates the poets mentioned in the sources for each period and attempts to determine the degree to which the information given about them is accurate. In addition, this study also notes the poets who are expected to have been mentioned but who were not and touches upon the interrelationship of the sources throughout, showing how the tezkire authors often repeated what their predecessors had reported, sometimes citing them but frequently not.
This study has observed the tezkires to contain very little information about the literature that had formed up until 1389, with the sources only mentioning two poets from this period. The period of 1389-1453 is considered the beginning of the formation of the Ottoman literature. The number of poets and works known from this period is incomparably higher than the previous period. As a result of the new capital city and the critical steps taken to establish the empire and social life, significant developments in literary culture are understood to have occurred after 1453, as well as this period is being understood to have been a harbinger of the advanced level that would be reached in the 16th century. Among this study’s findings, the biographers should be noted to have not paid attention to reading the works of the people they were introducing. For the tezkire authors to include tekke poets, a group that constitutes a significantly separate branch of literature from the poets of classical literature, into their works is also observed to have not been uncommon.
