Mehmed Fahreddin Bursavî and his biographical work entitled Gülzâr-i İrfân (analysis–text–index)

In this study, Gülzâr-ı İrfân, which is the biographical work of Mehmed Fahreddin Bursavi, written in the middle of the 19th century is discussed. The biographical works, the first examples of which were given in the Turkish literature in the Anatolian area at the beginning of the 16th century, have evolved over time with increasing knowledge and divided into various types. One of these types is the "vefeyât-nâma", which places a city or a region in the center. The subject of this study, Gülzâr-ı İrfân, is the most voluminous one among those which were written for Bursa - the city that vefeyât-nâma was written for most.In this study, it was aimed to create the criticized text of Gülzâr-ı İrfân, to evaluate the work in terms of its shape and content features, to compare it with the two Bursa vefeyât-nâmas written before the author and which the author stated as a model for him. To analyze the work, three copies were used, which are at Ali Emiri Millet Library Şeriyye 1098, Süleymaniye Library Atıf Efendi 1923 and Kadir Atlansoy private library. According to the criticized text created, it was determined that Gülzâr-ı İrfân was written starting from the conquest of Bursa and there were 624 biographies consisting of important people from all stratifications of the society who lived and buried in this city. In this work, which was prepared in accordance with the Tabakat method and written in the classical Ottoman prose style, it was determined that Mehmed Fahreddin benefited greatly from the two Bursa vefeyât-nâmas which are Güldeste-i Riyâz-ı İrfân and Gülzâr-ı Sulehâ written before him.