Commentary and Multilingualism in Ottoman Manuscripts: Three Perspectives

Abstract:

In this collaborative essay, three Arabist and Ottomanist authors sketch an approach to Ottoman multilingual commentary culture that re-integrates Arabic philology into the development of that tradition and provides context for an important stage in the reception of medieval Arabic and Persian linguistic and literary heritages. It offers three snapshots of Ottoman multilingualism: an overview of the early seventeenth-century Ottoman literary scene with a focus on commentaries; a look at seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century glosses on a medieval Arabic literary and scientific text; and a shift in commentarial and textual editing practices pioneered by a Bursa-based Sufi of the early eighteenth century.