Recâyî'nin Menâkıb-ı Çehâr-yâr'ı (Review-text 1b-53b)

Legend is a literary genre that describes the superior qualities, moral virtues and extraordinary states of religious leaders, heroes and historical figures. In Turkish-Islamic literature, the menkabes written about Hz. Ebubekir, Hz. Ömer, Hz. Osman and Hz. Ali are called "menâkıb-ı çehâr-yâr". Many works have been written in the field of Turkish-Islamic literature whose content is four caliphs. Menâkıb-ı Çehâr-yâr, written by Recâyî in the 15th century, is one of such works. There is no exact information in the sources about the life and works of Recâyî, the author of Menâkıb-ı Çehâr-yâr. This work, which talks about the events and virtues that took place in the lives of the four caliphs, is a masnavi. 1125 couplets of the work, which consists of 2372 couplets, have been studied. The work, of which a single copy can be identified, is located in the number 411 of the Kemankeş collection of the Hacı Selim Ağa Manuscripts library. Since the work was written in the 15th century, it reflects the characteristics of Old Anatolian Turkish. No headings were used when switching between the menus in the work. When switching between sections, one line of space is left. The author wrote the menkabes of the four caliphs in a very simple and understandable style. In the work, the superior characteristics of the caliphs are described. The honesty of Hz. Ebubekir, the justice of Hz. Omar, the dignity of Uthman and the courage and valor of Hz. Ali were mentioned. This work, titled Menâkıb-ı Çehâr-yâr, consists of an introduction and two following sections. In the introduction, the concept of menkabe is explained and information about the four caliphs is given. In the first part, it is tried to give information about the work and its author and to make a general analysis in the light of the work. In the second part, the transcriptional text of the work is included.