Abstract
FEDAYÎ MEHMED DEDE, HIS VERSIFIED TRANSLATION OF MANTIQ AL-TAYR: MANTIK-I ESRÂR AND ITS AUTOGRAPH COPY
Mawlawi Fedayî Dede, whose real name is Mehmed, was originally from Antep and spent many years in the Mawlawi Takiya of Tripoli. He taught verse and prose to students. His date of birth is unknown. He passed away on 15 Rajab 1065 / 16 May 1655. According to the sources, he has four literary works. The most famous of these is Tuhfe-i Fedayî, an Arabic-Turkish dictionary in verse, which he wrote in order to teach Turkish to the students of the area. His divan is mentioned in the sources, but it has not yet been revealed. And his another work in verse titled ‘Işk-nâme which is mentioned in one place, is Turkish translation of Mihr wa Mushtari, mathnawi of Attar, has not been found yet. Because Mawlana Djalaladdin said he was influenced by Farid al-din Attar, Attar has a special place among the Mawlawis and thus Fedayi translated Mantiq al-Tayr, the allegoric mathnawi of Attar, into Turkish with the title Mantık-ı Esrâr. In Mantiq al-Tayr the philosophy of wahdat-i wudjud is explained. This translation, which has nine manuscript copies today, was also printed in Ottoman Turkish. Among these nine copies, the manuscript in the Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig was obtained from Istanbul by Oskar Recher, famous German orientalist and taken to Germany. This copy is an autograph copy. The language and style of this translation is quite good, although it contains some technical errors regarding rhyme and meter. Translator did not translate the 30 sections of the original text. Contrary to earlier evaluations, the poet has sahl-i mumtani style in the translation.
Keywords
Fedayî, Mantiq al-Tayr, Mantiq-i Asrar, mathnawi, mysticism, translation, Mawlawiya.