Abstract
A LITERARY WORK OF CLASSICAL OTTOMAN TURKISH “ES-SELSEBÎL FÎ EVṢÂFİ’N-NÎL-İ MÜBÂREKE”
Throughout history, folk tales reflect people's feelings, thoughts, and world perceptions, because of that they are an important element of Turkish folk literature. The folk tales, whose writers are generally unknown, which continue to represent oral tradition and culture, have a special place in Turkic lands. Turkish folk culture is the main source of these stories. Besides, the products of other cultures such as Arab, Iran and Indian cultures have been the source of our folk tales. The subjects of the stories that are common in these cultures are handled by Turkish authors and many works have been made. The work we will introduce in this study is one of the works of foreign culture.
“es-Selsebîl fî Evsâfi’n-Nîl-i Mübâreke” is a work which we think it belongs to 16th century Classical Ottoman Turkish, because of its phonetical and orthographical attributes, and is a small folk story book. The events and adventures of Hâyid ibni Shâlûm during his long journey to reach the source of the Nile are described. The work has been written in a simple and lean language and has religious characteristics with the aim of teaching patience and determination to the people.
In this study, the physical features, subject, source, language, spelling and sound features of the work named "es-Selsebîl fî Evsâfi’n-Nîl-i Mübâreke" was introduced and evaluated, then its text transcribed at the end.
Keywords
Classical Ottoman Turkish, folk literature, folk tales, Nile river.