Ali ibn Naqib Hamza and His Tuhfet ul-Leta'if (Text- Review)

Numerous works addressing every field in the Classical Turkish Literature lasted for almost seven centuries have been produced. These works have been able to reflect the literary taste of Turkish society for many centuries. While classical Turkish literature is accompanied by poetic and prosaic works, poetical works have attracted more attention from poets and society. In classical Turkish literature, although the works of poetry are more popular than others, a significant number of prosaic works have been written. In particular, there are some prosaic stories of love and heroism which have a value that is not lower than poetry, with the tone they have created and the appreciation they have earned among the people. Tuhfet ul-Leta'if's subject, plot and narrative style make it possible to find its place among these works. In this study, the information about the only available copy of Tuhfet ul-Leta'if, which is in the painted manuscripts collection of Aga Khan Museum in Ontario, Canada, and its writer Ali ibn Naqib Hamza were given. Ali ibn Naqib Hamza wrote the story of love and heroism, named Tuhfet ul-Leta'if, in the fifteenth century and presented it to Sultan Murad II. The original writing of this work which is presented to the Sultan is not available. During the Murad III period, illustrations were added to the available manuscript, but the added illustrations were stolen. Firstly, a written translation text of Tuhfet ul-Leta'if, which was written in plain language, was created. In the analyzing section, the story was discussed in terms of plot, motive structure, subject, time, place, characters, language and narrative features. In addition, while the text was being read, a glossary consisting words that are not used in today's Turkish and are not found in dictionaries but used in the text, is organized. With this thesis, Ali ibn Naqib Hamza and his only work Tuhfet ul-Leta'if were introduced, and the text titled Tuhfet ul-Leta'if has been added to the works of prosaic storytelling tradition which has remained on the background in classical Turkish literature. Keywords: Ali ibn Naqib Hamza, Tuhfet ul-Leta'if, Classic Turkish Literature, prosaic story, 15th century