Mazlûm, Yûsuf u Züleyhâ (Analysis- edition critique)

This study deals with 18th-century poet Mazlûm's masnavi Yûsuf u Züleyhâ. It consists of an introduction section and four main chapters. The introduction focuses on Yûsuf's story and related religious references including a brief overview of what the Qur'an and Torah tell about Yûsuf. It presents information on poets writing the story of Yûsuf u Züleyhâ in eastern and western literature and their works. It also discusses the effect of the story on the modern Turkish literature, culture, and art. The first chapter attempts to provide information on the life of Mazlûm, about whom no information is available, on the basis of the author's works. It introduces his only known work Yûsuf u Züleyhâ and its copies. The second chapter involves an analysis of the masnavi including its structural and contextual properties, motifs, and fairy tale elements. The structural analysis deals with verse forms, rhymes, rhythms, language, style, figures of speech, proverbs, and idioms. The contextual analysis includes a summary of the masnavi and addresses characters, narrative items, methods of narration, religion, nature, social life, and human. It also presents motifs and fairy tale elements in the story. The third chapter compares Persian poet Mollâ Câmî's (also known as Djāmī) Yûsuf u Züleyhâ masnavi and Mazlûm's Yûsuf u Züleyhâ masnavi in terms of chapter titles, introduction, story, and epilogue. Finally, the fourth chapter involves an edition critique and analytical review of Yûsuf u Züleyhâ based on the two copies. It also explains the way by which the edition critique is formed and detects the spelling features of the text. All in all, this study introduced the Yûsuf u Züleyhâ masnavi written in Azerbaijani Turkish in the 18th century and its author using the pen name Mazlûm to Turkish literature. Keywords Classical Turkish Literature, Azerbaijan Area, 18th-century Masnavis, Yûsuf u Züleyhâ, Mazlûm