Early Modern
Ottoman Culture of Learning: Popular Learning between Poetic Ambitions and
Pragmatic Concerns
The project, which was realized between 2011
and 2015, was financed by the Austrian Science Foundation FWF. It was carried out –
including this digital edition – in large parts by Gisela Procházka-Eisl and Hülya
Çelik, Oriental Institute, University of Vienna. There are some contributions by
Adnan Kadrić, Orientalni Institut, University of Sarajevo.
The intention of
this project is to explore certain aspects of the Early Modern Ottoman culture of
learning, in particular those areas of learning used and cultivated outside the
official Ottoman institutions of learning, the medreses.
Our sources for this
investigation were the encyclopaedia Netaic
ül-fünun of the 16th century scholar and poet Nevi and a number of six
multi textual manuscripts (mecmūʿas)
preserved in the Austrian national Library and the Austrian State Archives, both in
Vienna.
The project had two main aims, one basically related to cultural
history, the other to pragmatic philological issues:
As for cultural history we intended to explore the early modern
culture of what can be called the “general” or “popular learning” of educated
Ottomans with regard to its own historical context and cultural concepts. The
Netaic and the mecmūʿas were investigated with regard to
their sources, and the backgrounds of their authors and compilers, and of their
readers and users. The question of the “popularization” of learning will be
raised in particular with regard to the way in which the authors of these works
made use of their sources, how the learning was presented, and how the works
were used. Special attention is payed to the role of poetry in the Ottoman
culture of learning and the way it was applied in the Netaic and the mecmūʿas.
The philological objectives of the project include the compilation
of a full critical edition and translation of the Netaic as well as an edition and
translation of selected parts of the mecmūʿas. The results were published in 2015 in two volumes:
Gisela Procházka-Eisl, Hülya Çelik: Texts
on Popular Learning in Early Modern Ottoman Times. Part I: Hidden Treasures:
Selected Texts from Ottoman Mecmūʿas
(Miscellanies). Sources of Oriental Languages and Literatures
119. Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University,
2015.
Gisela Procházka-Eisl, Hülya Çelik: Texts on Popular Learning in Early Modern Ottoman
Times. Part II: “The Yield of the Disciplines and the Merits of the Texts”.
Nevʿī Efendi’s Encyclopaedia Netāyic el-Fünūn. In collaboration with
A. Kadrić. Sources of Oriental Languages and Literatures 120. Harvard
University, 2015.
We also created this open access digital edition which contains the
complete edition of all the six
miscellanies and the Netā'icü l-Fünūn. A
word-by-word search of the complete material is possible at that website: there
are annotated entries for personal names, place names, astronomical and
astrological terms, text genres, folio numbers, and – because of the numerous
medical/magical texts – for illnesses, plants, and the non-botanical substances
used in remedies and recipes.
Furthermore, this digital edition functions as an index for the printed Volumes
I and II, and – so we hope – additionally provides a solid tool for further
scholarship not only in Ottoman cultural and literary history, but also in
linguistics.
As this edition is a work still in progress, users who come
across any new or alternative readings, or have any suggestions or comments, are
kindly asked to contact Gisela Procházka-Eisl and Hülya Çelik at
.
