Features essays that focus on Middle Turkic and Ottoman literature.

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.

Part 1: MIDDLE TURKIC 1. Qarakhanid Literature and the Beginnings of Turco-Islamic Culture. In: Central Asian Monuments (ed. Hasan B. Paksoy, Istanbul, 1992), 73-80 2. On Nature in Karakhanid Literature. Journal of Turkish Studies 4 (1980), 7-35 3. Three Turkic Verse Cycles Relating to Inner Asian Warfare. Harvard Ukrainian Studies 3/4, 1979-80 (= Eucharisterion Omeljan Pritsak, Part 1), 151-65 4. Inner Asian Wisdom Traditions in the Pre-Mongol Period. Journal of the American Oriental Society 101.1 (1981), 87-95 5. Kashgari on the Tribal and Kinship Organization of the Turks. Archivum Ottomanicum 4 (1972), 23-43 6. Kashgari on the Beliefs and Superstitions of the Turks. Journal of the American Oriental Society 95.1 (1975), 68-80 7. The Alexander Romance in the Diwan Lughat at-Turk. Humaniora Islamica 1 (1973), 233-44 8. Baraq and Buraq. Central Asiatic Journal 15.2 (1971), 102-17 9. Middle Turkic Vulgarisms. In: Aspects of Altaic Civilization II (ed. L.V. Clark and P.A. Draghi, Bloomington, Indiana, 1978), 59-64 10. Introduction to Wisdom of Royal Glory (Chicago, l983) 11. Textual Problems in Kutadgu Bilig. Journal of Turkish Studies 3 (1979), 89-99. 12. Animal Traits in the Army Commander. Journal of Turkish Studies 1 (1977), 95-112 13. Some Notes on the Middle Turkic Glosses. Journal of Turkish Studies 5 (1981), 41-44 Part 2:OTTOMAN 14. The Lyric in the Romance: The Use of Ghazals in Persian and Turkish Masnavis. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 43.1 (1984), 9-25 15. The Romance of Iskender and Gülshah. In: Turkic Culture: continuity and Change (ed. S.M. Akural, 1987 = Indiana University Turkish Studies 6), 95-103 16. Inner and Outer Oguz in Dede Korkut. Turkish Studies Association Bulletin 6.2 (1982), 21-25 17. The Seyahatname of Evliya Çelebi as a Literary Monument. Journal of Turkish Literature 2 (2005), 71-83 18. Turkic Languages and Turkish Dialects according to Evliya Çelebi. Altaica Osloensia: Proceedings from the 32nd Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference, ed. Bernt Brendemoen, Oslo, 1990, 89-102 19. The Languages of the World according to Evliya Çelebi. Journal of Turkish Studies 13 (1989 = Gerhard Doerfer Festschrift), 20. Evliya Çelebi on the Armenian Language of Sivas in 1650. Annual of Armenian Linguistics 4 (1983), 47-56 21. "Mı+"isi": An Armenian Source for the Seyahatname. Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 76 (1986 = Festschrift Andreas Tietze), 73-79 22. Marrying a Sultana: The Case of Melek Ahmed Pasha. In: Decision Making and Change in the Ottoman Empire (ed. Caesar E. Farah, Kirksville, Missouri, 1993), 169-182 23. An Unpublished Account of mum söndürmek in the Seyahatname of Evliya Chelebi. In: Bektachiyya: Études sur l'ordre mystique des Bektachis et les groupes relevant de Hadji Bektach (ed. A. Popovic and G. Veinstein, Istanbul: Isis, 1995), 69-73 24. Establishing the Text of Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname: A Critique of Recent Scholarship and Suggestions for the Future. Archivum Ottomanicum 18 (2000), 139-44 25."Shall We Tear Down That Observatory?" Evliya Çelebi and Philology. [unpublished English original of: "Şu Rasadı Yıkalım mı" Evliya Çelebi ve Filoloji. In: Evliya Çelebi ve Seyahatname (ed. Nurhan Tezcan & Kadir Atlansoy, Doğu Akdeniz Üniversitesi, 2002), 99-118 26. Some Reflections on the Editing of Book 9 of the Seyahatname. In: İzzet Gündağ Kayaoğlu Hatıra Kitabı: Makaleler (ed. Oktay Belli, Yücel Dağlı, M. Sinan Genim; Istanbul, 2005), 122-32 27. Some Reflections on the Editing of Book 10 of the Seyahatname. In: Journal of Turkish Studies 30/1 (2007 = In memoriam Şinasi Tekin, I), 225-235. 28. Two Armeno-Turkish Texts: Lament for a Dead Daughter and Game of Chance. Journal of Turkish Studies 14 (1990 = Fahir İz Festschrift I), 151-162 29."The Story of Faris and Vena": Eremya Çelebi's Turkish Version of an Old French Romance. Journal of Turkish Studies 26 (2002 = Essays in Honour of Barbara Flemming), I, 107-61.

Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemy is the first critical study of all of Pamuk's novels, including the early untranslated work. In 2005 Orhan Pamuk was charged with "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code. Eighteen months later he was awarded the Nobel Prize. After decades of criticism for wielding a depoliticized pen, Pamuk was cast as a dissident through his trial, an event that underscored his transformation from national literateur to global author. By contextualizing Pamuk's fiction into the Turkish tradition and by defining the literary and political intersections of his work, Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemy rereads Pamuk's dissidence as a factor of the form of his novels. This is not a traditional study of literature, but a book that turns to literature to ask larger questions about recent transformations in Turkish history, identity, modernity, and collective memory. As a corrective to common misreadings of Pamuk's work in its international reception, Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemy applies various analytical lenses to the politics of the Turkish novel, including gender studies, cultural translation, historiography, and Islam. The book argues that modern literature that confronts representations of the nation-state, or devlet, with those of Ottoman, Islamic, and Sufi contexts, or din, constitute "secular blasphemies" that redefine the politics of the Turkish novel. Concluding with a meditation on conditions of "untranslatability" in Turkish literature, this study provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of Pamuk's novels to date.

Based on careful study of the substantial and largely unpublished manuscript legacy left by the Halveti mystical order, one of the most influential Sufi orders in the Ottoman Empire, this is a history of the rise and spread of its Sa'baniyye branch betwee