Summary View

Country

Turkey

City

Ankara

Institution

Türk Dil Kurumu Kütüphanesi

Collection

Yazma Eserler

Shelfmark

142

Contents

Work 16: Ḥikāyet-i Ebū Derdā (Kirdeci Ali)

LOC subject headings

Turkish language To 1500

Masnavis

Islamic poetry, Turkish

Muslim saints (Biography)

lccn:sh85075790

Author

Kirdeci Ali

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Show other names

Kirdeci ʿAlī (fl. 13th-14th century)

Kirdeci Ali (authorised)

Kirdeci, Ali (variant)

Ali, Kirdeci (variant)

Biographical notes

Kirdeci ʿAlī is known as the author of three religious stories (dāstān): The Kesik Bāş Destānı, the Güvercin Destānı, the Ejderhā Destānı. The only information about his life is also given by him in those stories. Nothing else is known about his life. He mentions the names of Mevlānā (Rūmī) (d. 672/1273) , Shams-i Tabrīzī (d. 645/1247 ?) and Aḥmed Faḳīh (d. 618/1221 or 628/1230) in his works, which is often accepted as evidence of his belonging to Mawlaw'īyya sect. His name Kirdeci, meaning the maker of pitta bread/bread, might suggest his role as the baker in a dervish convent. Vasfi Mahir Kocatürk argues that he lived between the 13th and 15th centuries [1200-1499 CE] based on the general characteristics of the language used in his stories. This is emphasizes by one of the manuscripts dated 1461 [1461 CE] where the Ejderhā Destānı is included. However, Halit Biltekin has noted that there is an earlier manuscript dated 760 AH [1359 CE], where another story by Kirdeci ʿAlī the ʿÖmer b. Ḥaṭṭāb Destānı is included. So it might be possible to suggest that he was active in 13th or 14th centuries [1200-1399 CE]. Although some other stories such as the Ḥikāye-i Delletü’l-Muḫtel, the Ḥikāye-i Geyik and the Dāstān-ı İsmāʿil are usually included in the manuscripts containing the works mentioned above, the attribution of these last three works to Kirdeci ʿAlī is no clear, since his name doesn’t appear in those stories. Further, despite the fact that his name appears in the works mentioned above, there is no way to be certain if Kirdeci is the person who is simply putting in writing already existing folk stories or if he is the author of them.

Title

Ḥikāyet-i Ebū Derdā

ﺣﻜﺎﻳﺖﹺ ﺍﺑﻮ ﺩﺭﺪﺍ

Notes

A mes̱nevī of 111 couplets on the spiritual levels of Abu’l- Dardāʾ al-Anşārī al-Khazrajī and his wife, who are generally considered among the Companions (Ṣaḥāba). According to the story, they lived in great poverty and had no wish for wealth. By miracle, the Prophet increased the size of their house and their source of food, allowing them to give a feast to the Companions. He then shrank their house to its original size and turned a marble column in their house into a source of milk and honey. Among the three versions of the story in Turkish, the single extant manuscript of the version attributed to Kirdeci ʿAlī includes only the name of ʿAlī and may thus be a misattribution. Another version is the one written by Aḳsarāylı ʿĪsā . A third version is part of the Menāḳıb-ı Mevlānā written by Loḳmānī Dede in 910 AH [1504 CE].

Main language of text

Turkish

Foliation

212b-215b ff.

Columns

2

Ruled lines

17

Bibliography

Editions

Büyükkarcı-Yılmaz, Fatma. "İki Şair Bir Eser: Ebu’d-Derdâ Hikâyesi." Journal of Turkish Studies: Türklük Bilgisi Araştırmaları. I, no. 33 2009: 127-152.

Studies

Ersoylu, Halil. "Ḥikāyet-i Ebū Derdā ve Ḫatun." İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Dergisi. , no. XXVIII 1998: 289-340.

History

Date of copy

20th. century