History-Writing in Arabic in the Context of Language-History Relationship in the Ottornan Turks (With Speclal Reference to 16'band 17'b Century Examples)

Abstract

History-Writing in Arabic in the Context of Language-History Relationshipin theOttornan Turks (With Speclal Reference to16'band17'bCentury Examples). OttomanState, thanks to its Islamic identity, interacted with cultures of various other Muslim nations sinceits inception. Ottoman Turks, who had this interaetion most in the area of language, used Arabicas the medium of instruction at the madrasa. Even though Persian was dominant in literature, theygenerally used Arabic in the ir scientific works, especially in the field of Islamic sciences.This study focused on the examples written in the 16'" and 17'" centuries because of the fact thatthe interaction mentioned above was felt most intensively in that period. The study concludes thatit was not Arabic -as being the language of the religion- that was the most effeetive in choosingit as the language of the text in writing a given book, but it was rather scientific and personalchoices. The fact that, among our examples, excep for Taşköprülüzadewritings in Arabic, Mustafa Cenabi, Katip Çelebi and Müneccimbaşı authored also Turkish booksconfirms this conclusion