Reworking history into nationalism: Ömer Seyfettin's primary sources for "Heroes of Yore"

This thesis addresses the contents and original sources of Ömer Seyfettin's series of "Heroes of Yore" (Eski Kahramanlar) stories. In terms of the historical contexts and incidents which these stories rework into heroic fiction, revolving around powerful protagonists, they range from Early Islamic history to the "classical age," so-called, of the Ottoman Empire. In the existing scholarly literature on this subject, it has been repeatedly noted that Ömer Seyfettin was inspired by mostly 17th century Ottoman accounts of events in 16th and 17th century Ottoman history. By way of pursuing, deepening and concretising this idea, Ömer Seyfettin's stories of past heroism will be subjected to close readings in terms of their setting, time-frame, and cast of characters. Subsequently, their narrative will be compared with the "real" events as described by Ottoman historians such as Naima or Peçevi. This will pave the way for a discussion of the similarities and differences between fiction and the historical evidence. Keywords: Ömer Seyfettin, Heroes of Yore, Nationalism, Peçevi's History, Naima's History