Abstract
The First Verse Siyar of Turkish Literature: Veli’s Siretü’n-Nebi
The thought on protecting the news of The Prophet
Muhammed and his Companions and the events they
experienced from loss has initiated tradition of The
Prophet siyer writing. This tradition in Turkish Literature
started with a translation of the work called Siretü’n-
Nebi by Erzurumlu Kadı Darir in the 14th century
and has continued up to now. There are verses in
Siretü’n- Nebi written in prose by Darir. Veli’s Siretü’n-
Nebi, which is the subject of this article, is completely
in the form of verses and was written by a man
called Muhammed in the 15thcentury. It is estimated
that the name ‘Muhammed’ is the original name of the
author. The author in this work preferred to write under
the pseudonym of Veli. As we can see, there is no record
of all’s work in tezkires and in the other sources in the
15th century. In most catalogs, many different names
are seen as the author of Siretü’n- Nebi. Some of them
are Aşıki, Mehmed, Abdullah Zahidi Efendi, Abdurrahman,
Mehmet Halife, Muhammed, Mehmet Hakkı,
Derviş Öksüz, Molla Veli. 32 copies of this work have
been determined. Of all copies the oldest copy which has
494 page is in the rare books in the Library of IBB
Atatürk and the date of the copy is H. 939 (M. 1468).
The date of the writing of this work is H. 872 (M. 1468).
In the written sources there are no other siyar books
which were completely written in verses like Veli’s
Siretü’n- Nebi, therefore, the work is the first siyar book
which has all features of its kind and was completely
written in verses in Turkish Literature.
Keywords
Siyar, Veli, Muhammed, Abdurrahman, Rhymed couplets.