Abstract:

After converting to Islam, Turks wrote and translated works in order to teach the prohibitions and principles of the religion of Islam, and to make people adopt the rules their new faith. In these works, sections from the lives of prominent personalities of the Islamic religion are presented. Epics and folk tales are the major genres written for this purpose. These works are generally not known by whom they were written and they are considered the common property of the people. Because of their shortness, the stories and epics that appear in the mecmuas are similar in terms of their subjects, but may differ in terms of phonetics, form and vocabulary depending on the dialectic characteristics of the author and the copyist [müstensih] or the dialect region. In this work, which is the subject of our study which is titled Dâstân-ı İbrâhîm, explains the short life of Abraham, and the Prophet Mohammed’s feelings regarding this. The manuscript is between the pages 7a-11b of a mecmua which is registered at Paris Biblioteque Nationale number 252. Although the work is dated to the 17th century according to the catalogue information, it has the characteristics of the transition period from Old Anatolian Turkish to Ottoman Turkish in terms of linguistic characteristics. In this research, the mentioned work was introduced and it was aimed to contribute to the studies on the historical development of the Turkish language.