Abstract
The Story of a Sparrow on the Path of Love: The Mathnawi Named ‘Işk-nâme of Kadirî from the Poets of the Bayezid II Period
The reign of Sultan Bâyezid II is an important period of classical Turkish literature in terms of both the richness of subject matter and the number of works. During this period, in which Persian was used as the language of composition as well as Turkish, many literary works were written in various genres and subjects. One of these works is Kâdirî's ‘Işk-nâme, the existence of which is unknown until today.
The only known copy of this work is recorded in Kayseri Raşid Efendi Library, number 616. ‘Işk-name was written in Persian, except for a Turkish ode of 31 couplets and an Arabic prayer stanza of 2 couplets. This mathnawi, which consists of 230 couplets, together with the verses added at the beginning and end, is a love story whose protagonists are sparrows. The story consists of two parts, first the conversation between the lover and the beloved sparrow, and then the conversation between the Prophet Solomon and the lover sparrow. The conversation between Solomon and the sparrow in love is didactic in character. In this section, first of all, the four levels of the path of truth, inclination, will, affection and love are emphasized. Then, the three levels of love are briefly explained.
In the introduction of the article, the issue of patronizing literature and writing Persian poetry during the reign of Bâyezid II is briefly touched upon. In the first chapter, information about the life and works of Kâdirî, the author of ‘Işk-nâme, is given. In the second part, the copy of ‘Işk-name is introduced and information is given about the place of composition, the date of composition and to whom it was presented. Then, the form, arrangement and language features of the work were emphasized. Again in this section, a broad summary of the story is given and the sources of the masnavi are discussed.
Keywords
Bâyezid II, Kâdirî, love, mathnawi.