Abstract
A Story of Yusuf, whose Author is Unknown, and Its Peculiarities
Works on Yûsuf u Züleyhâ have been written by many authors since the beginning of Turkish literature. The first known work is the text titled Kıssa-i Yûsuf, written by Âli with syllabic meter and in quatrains. In the classical period, Yûsuf u Züleyhâ written by Hamdi in mathnawi form, is the most select example of the story. There are many prose versions of the story that are included in the tafsirs and kısas-ı enbiyâ type works, or written independently. The fact that the story is mentioned in the Bible, and is described as "ahsenü'l-kasas" in the Holy Quran is the main reason why it has been respected so much. The stories of Yûsuf u Züleyhâ, written in the early period, were handled closer to the “kıssa” genre in terms of content. As a requirement of the genre, these works were presented to the reader without any artistic concern, keeping the counseling side at the forefront, and the subject was diversified by adding side stories, keeping the main story mentioned in the Quran at the center.
Many studies have been done on the texts about Yûsuf u Züleyhâ so far. The stories were transcribed, examined in terms of form and content, and the differences between the texts were determined through comparative studies. However, manuscript libraries still contain particularly relevant prose texts that have not been subjected to any scrutiny.
This study is about a story of Kıssa-i Yûsuf, written in old Anatolian Turkish, mixed in verse and prose, and whose author is not known. The only accessible copy of the work is registered at number K0475 at the Atatürk Library, Bel. Yz. In this article, firstly, the stories of Yûsuf u Züleyhâ in general were mentioned, and then the form and content of the work was examined. The story has been evaluated through the concept of “kıssa”, through the subjects it includes, and examples of the transcribed text have been added to the article.
Keywords
Mathnawi, Kıssa, Yûsuf u Züleyhâ, Prose stories of Yûsuf.