Abstract:

In Divan literature, Beggar Lover against the Beloved Sultan is the only status of which for the sake the lover can sacrifice both of the worlds. However, the situation is different in masnavis. In Masnavis where realist types take role, the lover and beloved are the characters who hear, think, grown up with certain cultural composition and present certain properties of those cultures and are chosen within the life itself. In this study, the analysis of Leyla and Zuleyha, who have been talked about for centuries for their famous stories, is performed. Through what they have experienced, they have become both heartbroken lovers and a lover desired to be met, in which even this would be the case at the end of the story for Zuleyha. Our characters who have Lover-beloved type features, behaved appropriately with the cultural composition they belonged. Thus, they followed different routes on being lovers. Leyla who is the daughter of the leader of an Arabic tribe and Zuleyha who is brought up with Western culture…Leyla who denies her love on his mother’s notice, tries to stay away from her people’s gossips and disapprovals by obeying the expectations of the community she lives in and Zuleyha who goes against his father’s will, to meet, for the sake of a dream, tries to take revenge in a way by slandering Yusuf, wants to prove her rightfulness in being lover instead of trying to come clean against the people who disapproves her, being matched with Mecnun in masnavi while she should be matched with Leyla, unites at the end eventually are lover women even if they have different characteristic features. Analyzing their love stories, defining the routes on being lovers are actually also important for defining the place of women in the community and determining the expectations of community from women based on this masnavis.

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