Nevres-i Kadîm's Münşeât (Examination-text)

Münşeâts (collections of elegant prose compositions), consisting of texts written in inşâ (epistolography/elegant prose composition) style called also as stylistic/elegant prose and containing mostly official or private correspondences, began to be seen as of 15th century and continued as a genre until the 20th century in classical Turkish literature. The subject of this thesis is the Nevres-i Kadîm's Münşeât, which contains texts of various genres, mostly letters, written in inşâ style. Nevres-i Kadîm, who lived in the 18th century and is originally from Kirkuk, served as a judge in several places. When he began to advance in his career, he was first exiled to Resmo (Rethymno/Crete) and then to Bursa twice, because of the allegations that he satirized state officials in high positions. He wrote most of his letters in Münşeât in these cities where he was in exile. In these letters, which he wrote to the people of higher positions and to his friends mainly for the purposes of asking for forgiveness, moral and pecuniary support, issues such as exile, homesickness, difficulties experienced in foreign lands, separation, longing, loneliness, illness, poverty etc. are main topics. Aims of the thesis are to transcribe Münşeât creating a critical text of it and to examine it in terms of content, language and style. The thesis consists of two main chapters: "review" and "text". Before these chapters, there is an "introduction" section, in which some introductory information concerning the author's life and works, prose and tradition of letter-writing in classical Turkish literature were presented. In the "review" chapter, Münşeât was examined in several respects, under the main headings of content, language and style. In the "text" chapter, manuscripts of Münşeât were introduced and transcription of its critical text created by taking nine manuscripts of it into consideration was presented. In the "appendices", an index of proper names found in Münşeât and a facsimile of Münşeât were included. Key Words: Nevres-i Kadîm, Prose, Münşeât, Letter, Exile