Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies

Abstract

Although there is a prevailing perception that the history of Turkish literature has been constructed predominantly around poetic works, the role and significance of prose as well as mixed prose–verse compositions within the literary tradition are too substantial to be overlooked. Especially when it comes to tracing and examining the developmental phases and historical evolution of classical Turkish language and literature, it is essential to consider prose texts alongside poetic works with equal diligence and scholarly attention. Indeed, literary historiography that disregards prose literature will inevitably remain incomplete. In this context, alongside other prose genres such as biographical dictionaries, travelogues, letter collections (münşeats), and historical chronicles, commentary literature holds a particularly prominent position. Although often perceived as mere elaborations or repetitions of earlier texts, commentaries written on various works have served critical functions, including deepening the understanding of the base text, determining the literary tastes and intellectual orientations of the period, and tracking the linguistic developments of the language. Among the versified works that were frequently annotated by scholars is the creed poem Nazmü’l-Le‘ālī, authored by İshak Rızâ‘î (d. 1100/1688), who is also known as Zencânî or Tokâdî. Rızâ’î was a prominent seventeenth-century scholar and poet, known for his didactic verse compositions that aimed to educate the public on religious and intellectual matters. The genre of versified creed treatises, which originated in Arabic literature, found its most renowned representative in al-Amālī by ʿUthmān al-Ūshī. Such texts were adopted and imitated by Turkish scholars and poets, leading to the production of similar works in Ottoman Turkish. Among these, Nazmü’l-Leʾālī occupies a significant position. In concise couplets, this treatise rejects the views of the so-called Fırak-ı Dâlle (deviant sects) and expounds the creed of Ahl al-Sunna wa’l-Jamāʿa. It enjoyed considerable popularity both in its own time and in later centuries, being widely circulated, read, and studied in scholarly circles. The poem was composed in the mesnevī style, and more than seventy manuscript copies are preserved today in libraries across Turkey and abroad are an indicator of its scholarly reception. Moreover, it attracted the attention of numerous commentators, resulting in several commentaries written in both Turkish and Arabic at different times. Notable among these are the commentaries by Muḥammad Rāʾif Efendi, Muṣṭafā Kalecikī, Bālī Fīrūz Bey, and Aḥmad al-Behisnī. This study focuses on the commentary by Aḥmad al-Behisnī. Behisnī, who appears to have been an accomplished scholar, served as a mudarris (lecturer) at various madrasas, including one in Tokat, during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His only known to date work is Sharḥu Naẓmi’l-Laʾālī, in which he elaborately comments on the couplets of the base text by drawing upon foundational sources of Islamic theology (ʿaqāʾid). In the course of our research, eleven manuscript copies of Behisnī’s commentary were identified, including one highly likely to be the author’s own copy. In addition, a printed edition in Arabic script was also located. By comparing these manuscripts, it becomes possible to establish a critical edition of the text and make it accessible to the scholarly community. As a result, this previously overlooked work an integral part of Turkish cultural and intellectual history is brought to light. The first section of the study presents biographical information about the commentator derived from manuscript evidence. Subsequent sections introduce the extant copies of the work, examine its linguistic and stylistic features, and offer an overview of its content. Ultimately, this study aims to evaluate the commentary's significance within the broader traditions of language, literature, prose writing, Islamic theology, and commentary culture in classical Turkish literature.