Manzum Kroniklerde Çaldıran: Savaşın Estetiğe BürünmesiÇaldıran in Verse Chronicles: The Aestheticization of War

Abstract

Abstract: Situated at the intersection of literature and history, verse chronicles portray the Battle of Çaldıran (1514), fought between Yavuz Sultan Selim (d. 1520) and Shah Ismail (d. 1524), within a historical frame yet through a literary idiom inflected by the prevailing Ottoman ideology. Beyond their historical value, these depictions offer a vivid panorama from the vantage point of language and literature. Among the historical events that drew the attention of men of letters, the Battle of Çaldıran occupies a notable place. It is a commonplace that literary works grounded in historical narrative have retained their appeal in every period. For readers, the refashioning of the historical personae of two heroes -Yavuz Sultan Selim and Shah Ismail- within the world of literature has proved especially compelling. Classical Turkish literature, which renders reality according to its own conception of the real, presents the Battle of Çaldıran after filtering it through its characteristic features. In the verse chronicles examined in this article, Yavuz Sultan Selim and his army are affirmed in religious and sectarian terms, whereas Shah Ismail and his soldiers are depicted negatively, at times in overtly pejorative language. Likewise, Selim’s person and the strength and prowess of his army are idealized both materially and psychologically, while Ismail’s personality and his forces are described in disparaging terms with respect to both material and characterological attributes. As the chronology of the battle is narrated across the verse chronicles, one observes a shared fabric of plot and symbolism among the texts. The narrative of the war and its literary descriptions converge around several common nodes: color symbolism; auditory elements and musical motifs; animal symbolism; nature and supernatural beings; mythological, astrological, and cosmic elements; instruments of war; and facets of social life. This study argues that the literary narration of the Battle of Çaldıran in Ottoman verse chronicles is articulated in concert with the dominant Ottoman ideology, and that there exists an intertextual commonality of plot and symbolism; rather than proposing a thematic taxonomy, it focuses on the literary modes of depiction by which the event is rendered.