Ottoman Poets and Poetics in the Sixteenth Century

Kristof D'hulster is a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the University of Münster. He engages with the socio-political and cultural history of the pre- and early modern Islamic world, mapping processes of exchange, interaction and connectivity between the Arabic, Turkic, and Persian regions. Following his PhD on Turkic linguistics (KU Leuven, 2010), he was a research fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and of ERC projects in Ghent, Birmingham and Jena. Next to his first monograph, Browsing through the Sultan’s Bookshelves. Towards a Reconstruction of the Library of the Mamluk Sultan Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī (Bonn University Library, 2021), recent publications include “Will I be Happy, Will I be Rich? Three Lot-Books (Qur‘a) from the Library of Qāniṣawh al-Muḥammadī” (al-‘Uṣūr al-Wusṭā, 2024) and “Qayt Sharīfī’s Turkic Class Notes and Tamurbāy’s First Arabic Scribbles: Language and Education at the Mamluk Barracks in Light of MS Ayasofya 1448” (Mamlūk Studies Review, 2025).

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsNotes on ConventionsIntroduction: Reading Ottoman Biographical Dictionaries in TranslationPart I. Aşık Çelebi and His Tezkire1. The Author and his Work2. Translation of the Introduction3. Translation of Selected Entries Taken from the Main PartPart II. Latifi and His Tezkire4. The Author and his Work5. Translation of the Introduction6. Translation of Part Two on Ottoman Sultans and Princes7. Translation of Selected Entries Taken from Part Three8. Translation of the ConclusionAppendix: Suggestions for Parallel and Topical ReadingBibliographyIndices

In a manner that is both disarming in its playfulness and intimidating in its erudition, this book offers English readers their first chance to savour the high literary style of two foundational authors in sixteenth-century Ottoman Turkish – one of history’s most deliciously difficult languages.