The History of Ottoman Poetry, first published in six volumes between 1900 and 1909, was the principal product of E.J.W. Gibb’s devotion to Ottoman Turkish literature. By the time of his early death in 1901 only the first volume had appeared in print. The remainder was almost complete and was seen through the press by Gibb’s friend and literary executor, the Persian scholar E. G. Browne. The History was designed to provide the first extended account in English of Ottoman literature. The first four volumes cover four developmental phases, largely under the influence of Persian literature, from around 1300 to the middle of the nineteenth century. The fifth volume introduces the ‘New School’ of Ottoman poetry produced in Gibb’s own era and inspired by French models. The sixth volume contains in Ottoman printed script the texts of all works quoted in English translation in the previous volumes. No comparable study has appeared in English since Gibb’s magnum opus. His History of Ottoman Poetry has become a classic work which is still widely referred to and valuable for students, scholars and anyone with a general interest in Middle Eastern literature and culture.  Volume IV (originally published 1905) covers Ottoman poets of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a period regarded by Gibb as one of transition between the classical age of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and that of the modern school beginning around 1860. Persian influences upon Ottoman verse began to give way to more Turkish styles, the Ottomans having grown weary of being, according to Gibb, ‘the parrots of the Persians’. The two trends nevertheless continued side by side for some time, a contest between the new, more sprightly Romanticism, glowing ‘with a brightness of local colour’, as represented by Nedim (d. 1730), Sheykh Ghalib (d. 1799), and Sunbulzade Vehbi (d. 1809), and the remaining Persianist tradition exemplified by the poetry of the grand vezir Mehmed Raghib Pasha (d. 1763).

A History of Ottoman Poetry Volume IV: 1700 – 1850 (Gibb Memorial Trust)

Literature & Fiction

Gibb, E. J. W.

History & Criticism

Edinburgh University Press

The History of Ottoman Poetry, first published in six volumes between 1900 and 1909, was the principal product of E.J.W. Gibb’s devotion to Ottoman Turkish literature. By the time of his early death in 1901 only the first volume had appeared in print. The remainder was almost complete and was seen through the press by Gibb’s friend and literary executor, the Persian scholar E. G. Browne. The History was designed to provide the first extended account in English of Ottoman literature. The first four volumes cover four developmental phases, largely under the influence of Persian literature, from around 1300 to the middle of the nineteenth century. The fifth volume introduces the ‘New School’ of Ottoman poetry produced in Gibb’s own era and inspired by French models. The sixth volume contains in Ottoman printed script the texts of all works quoted in English translation in the previous volumes. No comparable study has appeared in English since Gibb’s magnum opus. His History of Ottoman Poetry has become a classic work which is still widely referred to and valuable for students, scholars and anyone with a general interest in Middle Eastern literature and culture. Volume V (originally published 1907) concludes Gibb’s study of Ottoman poetry. It contains three chapters on the ‘modern school of Ottoman poetry’ drafted by him and edited by Browne. Emerging around 1860, this modern school was a product of the Ottoman tanzimat reform era and was strongly influenced by the ‘inspiring genius’ of western, particularly French, literary models. To Gibb, it signified ‘a great awakening’. Chapter I provides a general introduction to the poets of the period and their literary and political circumstances. Chapter II is devoted to Şinasi Efendi (d. 1871), ‘the master who laid the foundation of the new learning’; chapter III presents Ziya Bey, later Pasha (d. 1880), a prolific writer in both prose and verse and translator of many French literary works into Ottoman. Gibb died before he could begin an intended study of the person he considered the greatest poet of this new school, Namik Kemal (d. 1888). Volume V contains over 100 pages of indices to all five volumes: of persons and places; of books, journals and poems; of ‘technical terms and Oriental words’, and of subjects. The indices were compiled by R. A. Nicholson.

A History of Ottoman Poetry Volume V: Later 19th Century (Gibb Memorial Trust)

The History of Ottoman Poetry is the most important fruit of E.J.W. Gibb's long devotion to Turkish literature. Only one volume had appeared in print by the time of his early death in 1901 but the remainder were almost complete and was seen through the press by E.G. Browne. It was designed to give the English reader a clear account of the subject. The first volume includes discussions of themes, verse forms and rhetoric and also of the earliest West-Turkish poetry up to 1450. The story is then carried through to the revolution caused by the adoption of European models in the later 19th century. Gibb was concerned to avoid a purely biographical approach and carefully analyzed the works of the poets, tracing the development of style, which, before the Modern Movement, was to a great extent a matter of Persian influences and reaction to them. No comparable English study has appeared since and the work is still valuable to students.

A History of Ottoman Poetry VI: Containing the Turkish Originals

Poetry

Gibb Memorial Trust

The History of Ottoman Poetry, first published in six volumes between 1900 and 1909, was the principal product of E.J.W. Gibb’s devotion to Ottoman Turkish literature. By the time of his early death in 1901 only the first volume had appeared in print. The remainder was almost complete and was seen through the press by Gibb’s friend and literary executor, the Persian scholar E. G. Browne. The History was designed to provide the first extended account in English of Ottoman literature. The first four volumes cover four developmental phases, largely under the influence of Persian literature, from around 1300 to the middle of the nineteenth century. The fifth volume introduces the ‘New School’ of Ottoman poetry produced in Gibb’s own era and inspired by French models. The sixth volume contains in Ottoman printed script the texts of all works quoted in English translation in the previous volumes. No comparable study has appeared in English since Gibb’s magnum opus. His History of Ottoman Poetry has become a classic work which is still widely referred to and valuable for students, scholars and anyone with a general interest in Middle Eastern literature and culture. Volume III (originally published 1904) covers both the second part of the ‘classical age’ of Ottoman poetry, from 1520 to the early seventeenth century, and the subsequent ‘late classical age’ to c. 1700. In Gibb’s understanding, this was the era of greatest Persian influence upon Ottoman poetry, and was at its most brilliant in the reign of Süleyman (1520-66). The majority of the most well known Ottoman poets flourished in these two centuries, drawn from all walks of life and many parts of the empire, from the chief jurisconsult Yahya Efendi (d. 1644) and the chief judge Baki (d. 1600), to the Nakshbandi sufi Lami’i Çelebi of Bursa (d. 1531), Fuzuli of Baghdad (d. 1556), the Albanian-born soldier Yahya Bey (d. 1575), the satirist Nef’i from Erzurum (executed c. 1635), and the man of letters from Urfa, Nabi Efendi (d. 1712). In addition, eight of the most popular verse romances written in this period are summarised in an appendix.

A History of Ottoman Poetry Volume III: 1520 - 1600 (Gibb Memorial Trust)

Early Journeys, Forgotten Logs: The Nocturnal Iris Anthology of Ancient Ghazals in English

PAYNE, JOHN

Browne, Edward G.

Mangan, James Clarence

Jones, William

Leaf, Walter

Watkins, R. W.

Ross, E. Denison

Nicholson, R. A.

Independently published

Eastern Structures No. 22

Stone, Alison

Zwinger, Lynda

Hosseini, Mace

Baglow, John

Hepworth, Reid

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