“Sharkh Literature” comprises two parts: Tasavvufî and Classic. The tasavvufî sharkhs are the most common name which is used for the works that have religious context. Classical sharkhs is, on the other hand, the common name of the sharkhs that were done for some works of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Literature that were considered classics. The classical works such as Muallakatu's-Seb‘a, Kasîde-i Bürde, Divân-ı İbni Fariz from Arabic Literature and Gülistân, Bostân, Pendnâme-i Attâr, Kasâid-i Urfî from Persian Literature have been written about in this manner. After introducing sharkh and sharkh genres, this article evaluates Turkish sharkhs that were written about Arabic, Persian and Turkish works. These sharkhs have been briefly introduced and some sample documents from handwritten sharkh works in İstanbul manuscript libraries have been provided. The purpose of this article is to provide a general description of Turkish sharkhs which fall into the category of the “Classical Sharh Literature”.
OZAN YILMAZ