Fleet K. The Cambridge History of Turkey: Volume 1, Byzantium to Turkey, 1071-1453

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Shared social life and cultural inﬂuences

The Turks who came as conquerors to Anatolia soon became the new inhab-

itants and citizens of the region. Once the initial ﬁghting and clashes had

subsided and the Turks had settled, both sides then recognised and accepted

each other’s existence: the locals did not attempt to drive out the Turks, nor the

Turks to drive out the locals. As the years passed, they began a process of recog-

nising each other’s culture, including their languages, religions and learning.

This was a process which began simultaneously in both the urban and the rural

areas, particularly in the villages. The only people to remain aloof from the

Muslim urban circles or from the local population were the nomadic Turko-

mans. The urban and village Turks, however, the Rum, Armenians, Suriyanis

and others were not slow to see the inevitability of co-existence, made clear

to them in their town and village life, in the markets, at weddings, religious

and seasonal festivals, and to see the usefulness of it. The closeness between

the Muslim and Christian perceptions of the population eased the process of

living together, as did the Seljuk sultans’ policy of friendliness and tolerance

to their non-Muslim subjects, a policy which drew a negative reaction from

Muslim Arabs. As observed above, the Christianity of the Anatolian population

was created from an amalgam of the inﬂuences of old pagan cults and local

religions with Christianity. A similar process applied, too, to popular Islam.

Thus, the formation in the towns and villages of an Islam and a Christianity

which tended to superstition, outside the medreses and political government

circles, brought the two peoples close to each other.

106

The result of Muslim Turks and Christian Rum, Armenians and other Chris-

tian groups living together side by side was naturally, over time, a certain

exchange in cultural relations. But in this exchange who took what from

whom, what was taken and what given, and to what extent it was taken and

given has been a subject of debate among Turkish and western historians.

Thanks to the considerable progress which has been made in Islamology and

Turkology today it is at least now known that the Turks who arrived in Ana-

tolia were not a primitive tribe equipped with only a very basic culture, as was

argued by older-generation western historians, a view adopted as the result

of either conscious prejudice or innocent superﬁciality of conviction. It is a

historical fact which must be accepted that, in the words of Fuad K

opr

u, the

Turks came and settled in Anatolia ‘as a group which had synthesised Islamic

civilisation, which infused their entire way of life, with Turkish culture and

106 To ga n, Umum

ıT

urk Tarihine Giris¸,pp.207–11; Vryonis, Decline of Medieval Hellenism,

pp. 223–44.

400

Social, cultural and intellectual life, 1071–1453

traditions’.

107

They cannot, thus, be seen as merely having been incoporated

into and absorbed by the Christian culture of Anatolia. They did not become

absorbed, for in Turkey today even the Muslims who are not of Turkish ori-

gin or the Christian population, while preserving their mother tongues, still

mainly speak Turkish and write in Turkish, and most of the Muslims continue

their ties, even if superﬁcially, to Islam. The question, therefore, is not whether

the cultural inﬂuence was or was not radical enough to change the essential

identity of the Muslim Turks. The question is whether such an inﬂuence did

or did not appear in aspects of daily life, particularly among the ordinary peo-

ple, in types of food and drink, agricultural activities, housing structure, tools

and material used, and in folkloric customs. From a sociological and historical

point of view, here, as in all parts of the world, there were two-way inﬂuences.

This can be seen in various local cultures and beliefs, especially among the

lower echelons, where marriage with associated conversion was one of the

most important factors reinforcing this two-way cultural exchange.

Shared cults, saintly pilgrimages and seasonal festivals

As a result of the relations with the local population which inevitably began

shortly after their arrival, Turkish settlers in different areas came into contact

with cults, beliefs and customs which pre-dated Christianity or dated from the

Christian period. Even if not to the same degree in every region, they came

over time to be aware of aspects of these cults, particularly in the towns, which

resembled aspects of their own beliefs, and which attracted their interest. It

was the same for the local population. This interest gradually opened the way

to the birth of reciprocal exchange in saintly cults which both peoples revered

and, thus, to shared saintly cults which both groups appropriated. This fusion

around saintly cults which had already developed in Turkey in the Middle

Ages attracted the attention of western travellers who came to Anatolia in the

Ottoman period and who discussed it in their works.

108

As is well known, the ﬁrst, and still the most comprehensive, research on

this shared culture was undertaken by F. W. Hasluck. His research produced

the most interesting results on this subject.

109

Hasluck, basing his arguments

on convincing evidence, shows very clearly that just as, during the period

of the conversion of the towns and villages of Anatolia to Christianity, the

gods of the classical period, who now became Christian saints, were assured

107 See K

opr

u, T

urk Edebiyatında

Ilk Mutasavvıﬂar,p.191 n. 7.

108 For the views of western observers on this subject see, for example, A. Y. Ocak, ‘XIII–XV.

uzyıllarda Anadolu’da T

urk-Hıristiyan Din

ı Etkiles¸imler’, Belleten 214 (1991), 661–73.

109 Hasluck, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans of Konya.

401

ahmet yas¸ar ocak

a smooth transition, so too a similar process occurred in the conversion from

Christianity to Islam. For example, the graves or tombs of certain Christian

saints and particularly of martyrs of the early Christian era over time became

saintly t

urbes among the Turks. These graves and tombs were thus transformed

into shared pilgrimage sites of the two populations.

110

It is important to remember that the s¸eyhs and dervishes of the popular

Suﬁ circles, members of the syncretic tarikats which were not tied to Sunnism,

such as, in particular, the Kalenderi and the Bektas¸i, played a large role in this

transformation. They beneﬁted to a considerable degree from the saintly cults

existing among the non-Muslim population in their spread of Islam. Thus,

over time very many of these cults of Christian saints turned into an Islamic

mystic cults. Some of the saintly t

urbes became, again over time, shared places

of pilgrimage among the non-Muslim population. For example, the cult of St

Charalambos in the region of

Urg

up was combined with that of Hacı Bektas¸,

that of St Theodor and St George in the region of Amasya with the cult of

Baba

Ilyas, and, in the same way, the cult of Sarı Saltık joined with the cults of

saints such as St Spiridon and St Nikola in various places in the Balkans.

111

Another typical example of this joint cultural, religio-social environment of

the towns and villages of the Seljuk, beylik and early Ottoman period was the

sharedseasonal festivals. The most striking example of this is without doubt the

spring festival which the Christians celebrated as Aya Yorgi (Hagios Georgios,

St George) and the Muslim Turks as Hıdrellez (Hızır-

Ilyas) on the same day, 6

May, and at which there were very similar customs. It is highly likely that this

practice began earlier in the Anatolian Seljuk period. In the towns where they

settled the Turks called the green and tree-ﬁlled open spaces, known by the

name of Aya Yorgi where there was generally a small church, hıdırlık. They

traditionally celebrated Hıdrellez in these places. The legends of Aya Yorgi

intermingled with the heroic deeds of Hızır-

Ilyas whose heroic deeds in turn

intermingled with the legends of Aya Yorgi.

112

Changes of religion: conversions and apostasy

This subject, which forms an important aspect of the socio-religious his-

tory of Anatolia, is one of the most sensitive areas for western historians.

110 Hasluck, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans of Konya.

111 See Vryonis, Decline of Medieval Hellenism,p.362 (for St Charalambos and Hacı Bektas¸);

H. Dernschvam, Tagebuch, ed. Franz Babinger (Munich, 1923), p. 202 (for St Theodor, St

George and Baba

Ilyas); J. Deny, ‘Sary Saltik et le nom de la ville de Babadaghi’, M

elanges

Emile Picot, vol. II (Paris, 1913), pp. 12–14 (for Sarı Saltık, St Spiridon and St Nikola); A. Y.

Ocak, Sarı Saltık: Pop

uler

Isl

am’ın Balkanlardaki Dest

Onc

u (Ankara, 2002).

112 A. Y. Ocak,

Isl

am-T

urk

Inanc¸larında Hızır Yahut Hızır-

Ilyas K

ult

u (Istanbul, 2006).

402

Social, cultural and intellectual life, 1071–1453

Exaggerated theses, beginning with Gibbons and continuing partly with

Hasluck, and later Speros Vryonis Jr, have made clear the signiﬁcance of the

subject. In response to these, modern Turkish historiography, which has ﬁnally

begun to be interested in this area, has not, if one puts to one side certain new

research, gone beyond the realms of conservative reaction. There is, there-

fore, a serious need for research into the inﬂuences and results, both in history

and today, of the cultural intermixing between Muslims and non-Muslims

who have lived side by side in Anatolia since the last quarter of the eleventh

century.

One characteristic of the new shared life about which we have spoken above

was the political, and gradually increasing demographic, superiority of one

side over the other. The political superiority and control of the conquerors

gradually forced this shared life to emerge. Over time social order returned.

The ‘soft’ approach of the new political hegemony began to attract the atten-

tion of the local population to the political and economic advantages which

this hegemony ensured for the non-Muslims, even if they found themselves

with the status of second-class citizen, described traditionally and legally as

ahl al-dhimma. It was thus natural that over time a process of conversion to

Islam began from the bottom upwards. In some quarters this process was

not slow to start. Was there also an opposite process, a process of apostasy?

Although it is impossible to know, it is nevertheless possible, however small

the numbers involved may have been. In fact, in neither the Turkish nor the

Christian sources of the period does one ﬁnd incidents of apostasy from Islam

to the extent that one does of conversion from Christianity to Islam. This is not

suprising, for in every place in the world conversions in history are mostly from

the bottom upwards, that is, into the religion of those who hold political power

and the dominant culture. In this context, the same sociological process must

have been at work in Anatolia, too. From the time of the Anatolian Seljuks

onwards, we see, in every period, the impact of various social, economic,

psychological and religious inﬂuences in Anatolian towns, and non-Muslims

who had become Muslims. These events even appear in the anonymous epic

romances of the period, such as the Battalname,Danis¸mendname and Saltıkname.

However, if one excludes the Ottoman period, we do not have a great deal

of reliable historical data related to conversions in the earlier periods, apart

from a limited number of short records. But for the Ottoman period, from the

ﬁfteenth century, we ﬁnd many historical examples in the archival documents,

particularly in the m

uhimme registers or the Shari‘a court orders known as the

kadı sicilleri. Thanks to these records we can learn the names of the converts in

the Ottoman period, their numbers, the social groups they came from, their

403

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family structure, what they did before conversion and after, and various other

details.

113

There were without doubt many different reasons for these apparent con-

versions which occurred in medieval Turkey. A wide variety of factors can be

listed from ensuring political and economic inﬂuence, and increasing social

status – sometimes accomplished through marriage – to conversion with true

religious aims. At least in the centuries in which this process began, there

are no surviving historical records – with the exception of the devs¸irme in the

Ottoman period – of non-Muslims being made Muslim either by the state or by

force. To the tolerance shown by the state and the economic beneﬁts assured

to converts as factors which encouraged and eased conversion, it is perhaps

necessary to add the Byzantine inability now to provide either political or eco-

nomic beneﬁts or protection to the non-Muslim population, for Byzantium,

in contrast to the Turks, was in constant retreat. In other words, the fact that

the political power of Christianity in Anatolia had at last been broken was a

further factor in conversion.

It is strikingthat conversionsoccurred through Suﬁ circles, as is generally the

case today. There is a fairly rich hagiography on this subject. The information

in the saintly menakıbnames (narratives of heroic deeds) gives interesting data

and accounts which can be checked against historical events. Thanks to these

we can see fairly clearly the conversions which occurred in the urban and

rural milies. For example, the Manakib al-Ariﬁn and Vilayetname-i Hacı Bektas¸

are two valuable sources from the point of view of understanding and proving

conversion which occurred in the circles of Mevlana and Hacı Bektas¸.

114

Coming to the number of conversions, we do not see in any source of

the period under consideration any discussion of mass conversions. In these

sources there are only isolated events which involved those who were mem-

bers of the high strata of society, close to the government. These sources,

which were written from the centre of the state, either remained ignorant of

conversions which occurred among the people in places far from the centre

or gave no importance to them, and for this reason they were not recorded.

We should not, therefore, regard conversion as unimportant simply because it

113 For an example of these see B. and L. Bennassar, Les Chr

etiens d’Allah: l’histoire

extraordinaire des ren

egats (XVIe et XVIIe si

ecles) (Paris, 1989); O. C¸ etin, Sicillere G

ore

Bursa’da

Ihtid

a Hareketleri ve Sosyal Sonuc¸ları (1472–1909) (Ankara, 1994); K. C¸ olak, ‘XVI.

uzyılda

Istanbul’da

Ihtid

a Hareketleri’, unpublished PhD thesis, History Department,

Hacettepe University, 2000.

114 For this and similar hagiographic literature in Anatolia see Ocak, ‘Bazı

Men

akıbn

amelere’, pp. 31–42.

404

Social, cultural and intellectual life, 1071–1453

does not appear in the existing sources. At the same time, however, we should

not over-exaggerate it either.

Another highly signiﬁcant event for the social and ethnic history of medieval

Turkey in this regard is the conversion of the Mongols who, taking control

of the Anatolian Seljuk state, aimed at ending the Muslim hegemony in the

Middle East touched on earlier. The historical importance of this conversion

stems from their becoming a part of the Islamic world which they planned to

conquer and wipe from the map.

Theological encounters and debates

The existence of Islam and Christianity side by side as the religions of the

majority in Turkey in this period opened the way to another dimension of

cultural exchange. This was related to the theological encounters and debates

between the representatives of the two faiths. The ﬁrst historical records on

this subject are found in the Turkish epic romances such as Ebum

uslimname,

Battalname, Danis¸mendname and Saltıkname, which we have mentioned above.

These sources are important as they show, although they are not historical

texts, that these theological debates began very early in Anatolia and in a very

striking manner.

Such a development in the period between the twelfth and ﬁfteenth cen-

turies should be regarded as a natural process. We know of the existence of a

type of theological discussion between various Suﬁs and monks and priests in

the Seljuk period, partly from historical texts, partly from the epic romances

referred to above. For example, we know that the young Seljuk sultan

Izzeddin

Keykavus II (1246–8), who was related to the Byzantine royal house through

his mother, held theological debates between priests and experts in Islamic

canon law.

115

It is well known that Mevlana frequently visited a monastery

called Ak Manastır or Deyr-i Eﬂatun near Konya and held theological debates,

that among those who joined these discussions were various people from the

Christian and Jewish communities, and that from time to time various monks

even came from Constantinople to see him.

116

According to one anecdote

Mevlana advised a Muslim merchant who had insulted a Christian colleague

to go immediately and apologise and obtain his blessing. We learn from the

Velayetname-i Hacı Bektas¸-i Veli that Hacı Bektas¸-i Veli had relations with the

monks and Christian population of

Urg

up and the surrounding region.

117

115 See Eﬂaki, Man

akib al-‘Arif

ın, ii,pp.123–5. 116 Eﬂaki, Man

akib al-‘Arif

ın, passim.

117 Vil

ayetn

ame, Manakıb-ı H

unk

ar Hacı Bektas¸–ı Veli, ed. A. G

olpınarlı (Istanbul, 1958),

pp. 23–4.

405

ahmet yas¸ar ocak

In the early Ottoman period Orhan Gazi is said to have organised heated

theological debates in his presence and to have joined in personally.

118

It is very

well known that B

orkl

uce Mustafa, who was close to S¸eyh Bedreddin, con-

ducted theological debates with the monks on Chios in the ﬁfteenth century.

119

Another well-known example is that of Sultan Mehmed II who, after taking

Constantinople, had similar debates with Gennadios (Scholarios). Removing

Gennadios from prison, Mehmed appointed him to the position of patriarch,

and even wanted him to write a text on Christian theology. Latin writers and

Byzantine intellectuals, in particular Georgios Trapezuntios and Georgios

Amirutzes, presented similar texts to the Ottoman sultan.

120

Intellectual life

The intellectual life of Turkey in the twelfth to ﬁfteenth centuries, various

aspects of which – knowledge, thought, literature and, partly, Suﬁsm – will

be discussed here in general terms, constitutes an important aspect of the

history of Turkey. This new intellectual world was created by the arrival in a

region, with its own political, social and ethnic structure, of a different society

which came in from outside and constructed its own culture with its own

beliefs, language and literature in its new homeland. Even if the result was

an intellectual and cultural unit developed by those forced into the region

from outside, and even if in the end it was Muslim, the process must also have

involved the contribution of those from different cultures and regions. Above

all, this intellectual and cultural accumulation created its own language anew

in the new lands. The language which appeared here would become a new

tongue, which we can call the Turkish of Turkey, developing along different

lines from the language spoken and written in Central Asia. Partly inﬂuenced

by Arabic and Persian, it passed through various stages and underwent various

transformations to attain the form it has today.

118 See, for example, Vryonis, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism,pp.421, 426;M.Balivet,

‘Byzantins juda

ısants et juifs islamis

es’, Byzantion 52 (1982), 24–41.

119 M. Balivet, ‘Derviches Turcs en Roumanie Latin: quelques remarques sur la circulation

des id

ees religieuses au XVe si

ecle’, Byzantinische Forschungen 11 (1987), 239–55. Using the

archives of Thessalonike, Venice and the Vatican, Michel Balivet has recently intensiﬁed

his research on this theological polemic in medieval and modern Anatolia and devoted

his work to this subject, Romanie Byzantine etPaysde Rum:histoired’un espace d’imbrication

eco-Turque(Istanbul,1994); M.Balivet, LesTurcsaumoyen-

age:descroisadesauxOttomans

(Istanbul, 2002).

120 For these texts and an analysis see M. Balivet, Pour une concorde

Isl

amo-Chr

etien: d

emarches

Byzantine et Latines

alaﬁndumoyen-

age (Rome, 1997).

406

Social, cultural and intellectual life, 1071–1453

The method of expression of intellectual life in medieval

Anatolia: the language (Arabic, Persian and Turkish)

Although Ibn Bibi writes that there were ﬁve languages spoken in thirteenth-

century Anatolia (Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Arabic and Persian), he does not

sayanything about their geographical spread.

121

This is an important indication

that the ethnic and social structure of thirteenth-century Anatolia was not yet

uniform. There is no record either about the written languages. We know

from the works produced in Anatolia which have come down to us that in

scholarly and Suﬁ circles Arabic and, partly, Persian were used. We know, too,

that diplomatic documents were written in Arabic and Persian.

122

While W.

Barthold saysthat the ofﬁcial language of the state among the Anatolian Seljuks

down to the thirteenth century was Arabic,

123

the contemporary historian

Karim al-Din Aqsara’i records that it passed from Arabic to Persian in the

palace at the time of Sahib Fahreddin Ali in the same century.

124

It has long

been accepted that the spoken language in the Seljuk courtwas Persian, but this

has not been conclusively proved. Although Turkish was probably widespread

among the Artukids, Meng

ucekids and Saltukids who ruled in Anatolia at the

same time as the Anatolian Seljuks, we do not have any works in Turkish from

these states which have survived to today. It is to be presumed that among

them, as with the Seljuks, the intellectual circles probably used Persian and

Arabic, at least ofﬁcially. However, it is extremely likely that in the courts of

both the Anatolian Seljuks, the Saltukids, Meng

ucekids and Artukids and in

those of the western Anatolian beyliks, ofﬁcial documents were written in

different languages according to the period and conditions, and the state to

which they were addressed.

It is possible to guess that there were many works written in Persian in

Anatolia in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries.

125

The number of Persian

works known today is probably very small in comparison with the number

actually written. However, it would be incorrect to explain the fact that works

121 Ibn Bibi, El Evamir

u’l-Ala’iyye ﬁ’l-Um

uri’l-Al

a’iyye (Tıpkıbasım), ed. A. Sadık Erzi (Ankara,

1956), p. 77; El Evamir

u’l-Ala’iyye ﬁ’l-Umuri’l-Ala’iyye (Selc¸uk Name),tr.M

ursel

Ozt

urk, 2

vols. (Ankara, 1996), i,pp.97, 141.

122 For one such document which has survived from the last period of the Anatolian Seljuks

and was written by a m

uns¸i (scribe) see Abu Bakr

Ibn al-Zaki, Ravzat al-Kutt

ab va Had

ıkat

al-Alb

ab, ed. Ali Sevim (Ankara, 1972).

123 W. Barthold, Orta Asya T

urk Tarihi Hakkında Dersler (Istanbul, 1927), p. 119;K

opr

u also

states this, T

urk Edebiyatı Tarihi,p.334.

124 Karim al-Din Aqsara’i, M

ameret,p.64.

125 For detailed information see A. Karaismailo

glu, ‘Anadolu Selc¸uklularıD

oneminde Farsc¸a

ve Farsc¸a Eserler’, in Anadolu Selc¸ukluları ve Beylikler D

onemi

Uygarlı

gı I, ed. Ocak, pp. 487–

92.

407

ahmet yas¸ar ocak

were written in Persian and Arabic only by a tie to or admiration felt among

Turkish intellectuals for these two dominant languages of Islamic culture of

the time, for we well know that the Seljuk sultans and the rulers of Karaman,

Germiyan, the Candaro

gulları and other Anatolian beyliks strove to attract

scholars and men of art and literature to their lands and that these scholars

wrote works in their own languages in this competitive environment which

was thus created.

126

There is no doubt that the semi-settled groups and the village and urban

populations spoke Turkish and that those who came and settled in Anatolia

brought with them Turkish oral traditions, legends and poetry, even though

these may not have been written down until later. Other, literate people who

knew the literary language of Central Asia also came into Anatolia and must

have learnt the Turkish which was beginning to develop there, for had they

not it would be difﬁcult to explain the original works of literature, Suﬁsm

and learning written in Turkish, or translated into Turkish from Persian and

Arabic in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

127

In the Anatolian Seljuk period, the use of Persian as the literary written

language and the language of diplomacy in ofﬁcial and intellectual circles,

and of Arabic for scientiﬁc knowledge and learning severely restricted the

area dominated by Turkish. For this reason the number of works written in

Turkish is small. We can guess, too, but without clear proof, that another

reason for this paucity is the destruction caused by the Mongol invasion. Nev-

ertheless, in the fourteenth century Yunus Emre (d. 1320), As¸ık Pas¸a (d. 1332),

Elvan C¸ elebi (d. after 1358) and other Turkoman s¸eyhs and dervishes turned

to writing their Suﬁ thoughts and ideas in Turkish which was the language

of the groups they were addressing.

128

Turkish, thus, was able to produce

its own writers and poets who from the thirteenth century wrote works

126 K

opr

u, T

urk Edebiyatı Tarihi,pp.208–9, 243–5;

Ismail Hakkı Uzunc¸ars¸ılı, Anadolu Bey-

likleri (Ankara, 1988; repr. 2003). For works written in Persian in Anatolia in this period

see A. Ates¸, ‘Hicr

ı VI–VIII. (XII–IV.) Asırlarda Anadolu’da Farsc¸a Eserler’, T

urkiyat Mec-

muası 7–8, 2 (1948), 94–135;K

opr

u, ‘Anadolu Selc¸ukluları Tarihinin Yerli Kaynakları I’;

Ismail Hakkı Uzunc¸ars¸ılı, ‘XII. ve XIII. Asırda Anadolu’daki Fikir Hareketleri ile

Ic¸tima

uesseselere Bir Bakıs¸’, III. T

urk Tarih Kongresi Tebli

gleri (Ankara, 1948), pp. 287–306.

127 For the question of how Turkish was established and developed in Anatolia in the

thirteenth and fourteenth centuries see Muhsin Macit, ‘Anadolu Selc¸ukluları ve Beylikler

oneminde T

urkc¸e ve Gelis¸imi’, in Anadolu Selc¸ukluları ve Beylikler D

onemi Uygarlı

gı I,

ed.

Ocak, pp. 481–6.

128 As¸ık Pas¸a was one of the foremost defenders of the use of Turkish in Anatolia as

shown in his very famous verses: ‘Kamu dilde var-idı zabt u usul/Bunlara d

us¸mis¸-idi

umle ukul/T

urk diline kimsene bakmaz idı/T

urklere hergiz g

ul akmaz-idı/T

urk

dakı bilmez idi ol dilleri/Ol ince yolu ulu menzilleri.’ (In all languages there were

regulations and method/All intellectuals were caught up with them [i.e. Arabic and

Persian]/ Nobody considered the Turkish language/Nobody’s heart ﬂows out to the

408

Social, cultural and intellectual life, 1071–1453

in Anatolian Turkish, which we can call western O

guz Turkish. In partic-

ular, the dervishes of Ahmed-i Yesevi and Kutbeddin Haydar who came into

Anatolia initiated among their followers the writing of poetry in the Turk-

ish which they spoke. It is therefore hardly contentious to suggest that the

greatest contribution to the development of Turkish occurred in this envi-

ronment, and western O

guz Turkish, however much of a problem there is

with the extant written corpus, made its most important advance with the

great Suﬁ poet Yunus Emre. Apart from Yunus Emre, Hoca Dehhani, S¸eyyad

Hamza and Ahmed Fakih, who were recognised for the ﬁrst time by Fuad

opr

u as poets writing in Turkey in the thirteenth century but who are

now known to have lived in the fourteenth century, can be accepted without

dispute as among the ﬁrst poets who used Anatolian Turkish as a written

language.

129

Turkish, thus, ﬁrst through the poems of these poets and then the transla-

tions from Arabic and Persian made in literary, scholarly and religious circles

in the regions under the control of the various beyliks such as Karaman, Aydın,

Mentes¸eand Germiyan and ﬁnally the Ottomans,and the simple works written

especially in Suﬁ circles for the common people, began gradually to take over

in Anatolia in the Seljuk and beylik periods in the twelfth to ﬁfteenth centuries.

The complete domination of Turkish which occurred during the fourteenth

century was brought to fruition by the poems, literature, Suﬁ compositions

and translations which will be discussed below. Furthermore, we should not

forget the part played by the Turkoman beys, the majority of whom knew no

language other than Turkish, who, thanks to their use of this language for

their diplomatic documents, contributed to making Turkish into the excellent

and reﬁned diplomatic language that, gradually elaborated from the end of

the ﬁfteenth century, it was to become under the Ottomans.

130

The tradition that the ﬁrst active political initiative to replace Persian with

Turkish in the diplomatic arena was taken by Karamano

glu Mehmed Bey

after his capture of Konya in 1276 is generally accepted. According to this

tradition, Mehmet Bey ordered that Turkish should nowbe written and spoken

Turks/Even the Turk did not know those tongues/Those narrow paths, those great

destinations.)

129 The ﬁrst person to recognise the scholarly world of these poets was Fuad K

opr

u. After

opr

u, further research was conducted and new examples of their poems found and

published. For this subject see A. Kartal, ‘Anadolu’da Farsc¸a S¸iir S

oyleyen T

urk S

airleri’,

in T

urkler, ed. H. C. G

uzel, K. C¸ic¸ek and S. Koca (Ankara, 2002), vol. VII, pp. 680–93;

A. Kartal, ‘Anadolu Selc¸ukluları D

oneminde S¸iir ve S¸

airler’, in Anadolu Selc¸ukluları ve

Beylikler D

onemi Uygarlı

gı I, ed. Ocak, pp. 493–520.

130 See, for example, Irene B

eldiceanu-Steinherr, Recherches sur les actes des r

egnes des sultans

Osman, Orkhan et Murad I (Munich, 1967).

409