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Nasîhat

Nasîhatnâme ({{langx|ota|نصيحت نامه}}, Naṣīḥat-nāme) were a type of guidance letter for Ottoman sultans, similar to mirrors for princes.{{cite book|title=Third Congress on the Social and Economic History of Turkey|year=1990|publisher=Varia Turcica|isbn=9780941469012}} They draw on a variety of historical and religious sources, and were influenced by the governance of previous empires such as the Seljuk Turks or the Mongols, as well as by early Muslim history and by contemporary events.

History

Nasîhatnâme became common in the sixteenth century{{cite book|last=Faroqhi|first=Suraiya|title=The Ottoman Empire and the world around it|year=2011|publisher=I. B. Tauris|isbn=978-1-84511-122-9|pages=27}} but built on earlier works such as the Kutadgu Bilig (Knowledge of Prosperity), written in 1070 by Yusuf Has Hacip. Early influences include the inşa literature of the Abbasid era.{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ePmqBgAAQBAJ|title = The Culture of Letter-Writing in Pre-Modern Islamic Society|last = Gully|first = Adrian|date = 2008-02-07|publisher = Edinburgh University Press|isbn = 9780748633746|language = en}} Some refer to Alexander the Great.{{cite journal|last=İnan|first=Kenan|title=Remembering the Good Old Days: the Ottoman Nasihatname [Advice Letters] Literature of the 17th Century|journal=Ideology, Society and Values}}

However, nasîhatnâme are different from Byzantine Chronographia, and were written for a different audience.{{cite book|title=The Ottomans and the Balkans: A Discussion of Historiography|url=https://archive.org/details/ottomansbalkansd00adan|url-access=limited|year=2002|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004119024|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ottomansbalkansd00adan/page/n207 199]}}

Nasîhatnâme were even commissioned by aspirants to Ottoman government - including, in one case, by the Phanariot Alexandros Skarlatou Kallimaki, the probable father of Skarlatos Voyvodas Alexandrou Kallimaki.{{cite book|last=Philiou|title=Biography of an Empire: Governing Ottomans in an Age of Revolution|year=2011|isbn=9780520266339|pages=30}}

By the 17th century, a sense of imperial decline began to affect the content of these texts; more than just advocating a return to some golden age (i.e. Suleyman the Magnificent) they highlighted specific systemic problems in the empire - including nepotism, revolts, military defeat, and corrupt Janissaries.

Content

Nasîhatnâme typically state a clear moral reason for why they are written and presented to leaders; whether piety, or morality, or realpolitik.{{cite journal|title=Comité international d'études pré-ottomanes et ottomanes, VIth Symposium|journal=Varia Turcica|year=1987|volume=4|pages=191}}

Examples

=Precursors=

=Nasîhatnâme texts=

See also

References

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Category:Ottoman court

Category:Wisdom literature

Category:Ottoman literature