Abstract
QISSA-I ANTAR: INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW OF THE MANUSCRIPTS IN THE LIBRARY OF TOPKAPI PALACE MUSEUM
An epic story created about the life of Antar ibn Shaddad, who lived in VI. century and who was famous for his heroism and poetry, Sirat 'Antar traveled from one country to another for centuries. The traces of Sirat 'Antar in Turkish can be found in “Qıssa-i Antar” translated in the XV. century by the order of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. According to the information given in the preface of this translation, the story of Antar, whose adventure in Turkish was earlier than XV. century, was read by many sections of the society from the sultans to the people of the palace, from the soldiers in different ranks to the people in the coffeehouses in the Ottoman geography based on the different kinds of records mentioned in the manuscripts we have identified.
The subject of our study consists of Antar's life, the findings related to Sirat’ Antar and the information about Qıssa-i Antar and 9 manuscripts in Topkapı Palace Museum Library.
The main purpose of our study is to carry this work to the agenda of the Turkish public and scientific world. In this study, the information given in the glossary, which was the source of the Tarama Sözlüğü (the dictionary of old Turkish), was examined and the information in the Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the Topkapı Palace Museum Library was examined and the missing and incorrect places were corrected. One of the most important findings we have reached is that the Qıssa-i Antar translated by the order of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror belongs not to the XIV. century but to the XV. century.
Keywords
Qıssa-i Antar, Topkapı Palace, volume, inscription of reading.