Book | The Routledge Introduction to Literary Ottoman

Mavi Boncuk |

The Routledge Introduction to Literary Ottoman by Korkut Bugday [1] (Author), Jerold C. Frakes [2] (Translator)
Publisher Taylor and Francis, 2009
ISBN 0415493382, 9780415493383 | 226 pages

This represents the first modern introduction to literary Ottoman available in English. The author has devised this textbook to provide a course of lessons, readings and exercises to take the student from beginner to intermediate level. The book features numerous readings taken from historiography, historical, literary, journalistic and legal sources from the 16th to the 20th century.

This will be an essential tool for Ottomanists and other scholars in a broad range of academic disciplines that include Ottoman history and literature, language, art, music and architecture of the former empire.


[1] Korkut Bugday is an orientalist and speaker of the department of constitutional protection in the Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia. He also lectures at the University of Hamburg.

See Also Osmanisch: Einführung in die Grundlagen der Literatursprache, by Korkut M. Bugday. 311 pages, appendices, glossary, exercises. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1999 (Paper) ISBN 3-447-04154-4 REVIEW

There is without any doubt a growing awareness, both in Turkey and abroad, that the key to the study of the history and culture of the numerous successor states of the Ottoman Empire, including Turkey, is buried in the vast archival sources of the Empire. Thus, we are seeing various initiatives addressing the need for Ottoman language study, such as the Harvard University-led intensive summer program in Ayvalik, Turkey. Although Bugday’s book is not quite, as claimed, the first Ottoman textbook published in one-hundred years (p. xv), its publication, nevertheless, clearly signals a renewed interest in Ottoman studies.

Osmanisch aims to introduce the student to the Ottoman language by providing the essential linguistic background, that is, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian grammar. Although initially developed as lecture notes for the author’s course at the University of Hamburg, the resulting textbook, containing graded ‘authentic’ texts, glossaries, and exercises, it also includes answer keys, which makes its use for self-instruction possible. In addition to a bibliography, the book includes a helpful index of grammatical terms, the cumulative glossary, and another useful list of Persian participles and affixes used in word formation.

[2] Jerold C. Frakes has published extensively in the fields of medieval German, Latin, Norse, and Yiddish. His is currently Professor of English, SUNY Buffalo.

Also by Korkut Bugday: Evliya Celebis Anatolienreise: Aus Dem Dritten Band Des Seyahatname (german Edition) ISBN 13: 9789004104457

The book of travels by Evliya Gelebi, the "Seyyhatname, is one the richest works of Ottoman prose and belongs to the most important narrative sources for the history of the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century. In addition to numerous anecdotes it offers a plethora of information about different subjects and for most of the regions of the Ottoman Empire.
This book contains the edition of the travels made by Evliy? Gelebi in 1649-1650 from Syria to Istanbul. The edition is given in Ottoman transcription with a German translation.