An Unkown Mawlid Written in Old Anatolian Turkish: Cevheri’s Mevlûd-ı Sultânu’l-Enbiyâ

The word mawlid, previously used as “birth, place and time of birth”, with the transformation in time has been used as a literary term for works written in masnavi form in which various sections from prophet Muhammad life, and especially his birth are depicted. The fundamental sources for the mawlids, which appeared after the death of the prophet and whose first examples were given in Arabic literature, are siyer (prophetic biography) and megazi (stories about wars of prophet Mohamad) books. This mode attracted attention and gained interest in Turkish literature and a lot of mawlids were written. It was also observed that some poets wrote more than one mawlid. It is referred in various sources that nearly 200 mawlids were written in Turkish literature. Today, although the vast majority of these works have been brought into literature by researchers, new works whose existence is unknown are also being reached every day. In this context, one of the unknown mawlids whose name is not mentioned in the sources is Mevlûd-ı Sultānu'l-Enbiyâ, which was written in 895/1490 by a poet whose true identity is known. Although there are unreadable couplets in this work, which we can evaluate in the old Anatolian Turkish period as of the date it was written, the total number of couplets is 1547. With this feature, the work is in the category of long mawlids. Considering the form and content characteristics of the work, it can be commented that it is an original literary work. The way the subjects were dealt with and the repetition couplets being different from those of the known mawlids can be expressed as the main features that make the work unique. When it is analysed in terms of language features, it is possible to comment that the work reflects sound, form and vocabulary characteristics of the period it was written. In this study, Mevlûd-ı Sultânü'l-Enbiyâ, which is an unknown mawlid in Turkish literature, was introduced and the work that can be analyzed in the Old Anatolian Turkish context was examined in terms of certain spelling and language characteristics.

Keywords

Turkish Language, Old Anatolian Turkish, Classical Turkish Literature, Mawlid, Cevheri, Mawlid-i Sultānu'l-Enbiyā