Turkish Language, Literature, and History: Travelers' Tales, Sultans, and Scholars Since the Eighth Century

The twenty two essays collected in Turkish Language, Literature and History offer insights into Turkish culture in the widest sense. Written by leaders in their fields from North America, Europe and Turkey, these essays cover a broad range of topics, focusing on various aspects of Turkish language, literature and history between the eighth century and the present. The chapters move between ancient and contemporary literature, exploring Sultan Selim’s interest in dream interpretation, translating newly uncovered poetry and exploring the works of Orhan Pamuk. Linguistic complexities of the Turkish language and dialects are analysed, while new translations of 16th century decrees offer insight into Ottoman justice and power. This is a festschrift volume published for the leading scholar Bob Dankoff, and the diverse topics covered in these essays reflect Dankoff’s valuable contributions to the study of Turkish language and literature. This cross-disciplinary book offers contributions from academics specialising in linguistics, history, literature and sociology, amongst others. As such, it is of key interest to scholars working in a variety of disciplines, with a focus on Turkish Studies.

About the Author

Bill Hickman is former Associate Professor of Turkish Language and Literature at the University of California (Berkeley), now retired. He is the author of an ongoing series of articles on 15th century Anatolian poet-sheikhs, published in journals in Turkey and Europe, and his most recent publication is The Story of Joseph. A Fourteenth Century Turkish Morality Play by Sheyyad Hamza. Gary Leiser is an independent scholar. He completed graduate work in Middle Eastern history at the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. He has published widely on the social history of the Eastern Mediterranean world in the twelfth-thirteen centuries. His most recent work is Prostitution in the 　Eastern Mediterranean World: The Economics of Sex in the Late and Antique Medieval Middle East (forthcoming).