Selçukname

Selçukname was a 15th-century Ottoman history book.

Yazıcıoğlu Ali

The author of the book was Yazıcıoğlu Ali (literally "Ali the clerk's son") who was a civil servant during the reign of Murat II. He was sent to Mamluk Egypt as an Ottoman ambassador. But other than that there is no document about his personal life . However, there were two other Yazıcıoğlu's in the same period who are thought to be his brothers. (Ahmet Bican and Mehmet Bican) and their father was Selahattin from Gelibolu (now a district center of Çanakkale Province in Turkey) who was a katip (clerk) and the author of an astrology book.[1] Since Yazıcıoğlu means "son of clerk" the supposition about Ali's family is justified.

Legitimacy of the Ottomans

In the early days of the Ottoman Empire, Ottomans suffered from the accusations about their origin. Both Kadı Burhaneddin and Timur questioned Ottoman sovereignty in Anatolia. Kadı Burhaneddin made fun of the Ottomans by replacing the word kayıkçı ("boatman") instead of Kayı, the name of the Ottoman family's tribe. The Ottomans tried to prove their nobility. Murat II was especially uneasy about the accusations and Yazıcıoğlu Ali was tasked to write a book about the origin of the Ottoman family.[2]

Yazıcıoğlu Ali's book had been finished probably in 1436. Atthough it is popularly known as Selçukname or Oğuzname (Seljuks history or Oghuz history), it was formally titled Tevarih al'i Selçuki. There are 9 copies of the book. (seven in Turkey, one in Berlin and one in Paris) The text is in Ottoman Turkish.

Text

There are five sections and the first one is about the pre-Islamic age of the Turks. In this section Ali claims that the Ottoman dynasty is the continuation of the legendary Oghuz Khagan.[1][3] Karluks, Uygurs and Kypchaks were also mentioned in this section. The second section is about the Seljukid Empire.The third section is actually a translation of Ibn Bibi's book. The forth section is about Keyqubad I (1220-1237) of the Seljuks of Anatolia and Osman I (1298-1326) of the Ottomans. The last section is a summary of Anatolia after the death of Gazan Khan of the Mongols.(1304)[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Paper by Necati Demir (Turkish)
  2. ↑ İnalcık:Kuruluş Dönemi Osmanlı Sultanları, İSAM, ISBN 978-605-5586-06-5, pp.19-20
  3. ↑ Islam Encycloapedia vol 40, p.72 (Turkish)]
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