16. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Kültüründe Samek Ayyar Hikâyesi ve Musavver Nüshaları

Abstract

This study examines the production and design processes of illustrated narratives that gained prominence during the intensified translation activities of the reigns of Murad III (1574-1595) and Mehmed III (1595 1603). In this context, the manuscript Kıssa-i Ferruhruz (British Library, Or. 3298), has been taken as the central focus of the research in order to understand the approaches that emerged in the writing and illustration of narratives transferred from Arabic and Persian literature into Ottoman culture. Representing the final sections of the Samak Ayyar story, which is thought to have been first committed to writing as early as the 12th century and recounting adventures and fantastic events surrounding a love affair, this work has been analyzed in detail with regard to its origins in the Ottoman world, its translation processes, modes of illustration and codicological features. The study also offers a comparative analysis with Kıssa-i Şehr-i Şatran (Istanbul University Library, T. 9303), which appears to serve as a continuation of the former manuscript in terms of both content and design. During the research process, unillustrated copies produced in the Ottoman domain were examined in order to understand the place of the work within the Ottoman literary environment. To this end, Dâsitân-ı Samak Ayyar (Cod. Turc. 202) at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich and Kitâb-ı Hurşid Şah at the Süleymaniye Library were identified and their contents have been analyzed. In this way, the narrative was reconstructed on the basis of both illustrated and unillustrated manuscripts. Furthermore, a comparative analysis was conducted between the Turkish copies and the Persian manuscript Kitâb-ı Samak Ayyar, produced during the Inju dynasty in the 1330s and preserved at the Oxford Bodleian Library, with particular attention to principles of content and visual design. The missing sections within the three volumes of the Persian version were identified and reconstructed through comparison with the Turkish translations. This dissertation offers a detailed analysis of the illustrated Ottoman versions of the Samak Ayyar story in terms of design principles, visual strategies and content, while also situating them within a holistic framework together with the unillustrated manuscripts. In addition, by presenting a thorough comparison with similar groups of works produced in the same period in terms of both design and content, it demonstrates how such narratives were reconfigured and illustrated within the Ottoman cultural and artistic milieu, while also revealing the role that stories containing love, fantasy and supernatural elements played in the visual culture of the era. Thus, by examining the Samak Ayyar translations, which have not previously been studied comprehensively, this study contributes new perspectives to the analysis of narrative and illustrative practices in Ottoman storybooks produced between the late 16th and early 17th centuries and offers fresh insights for literary history, art history and translation studies.