On the Turkish Commentaries of Mesnevi
The Mesnevî, Mavlana's famous work identified with his name, has afforded the senses and thoughts, of that Mavlana desired to express, to be shared by millions of people by being translated into and written commentaries in many languages within centuries. The Turkish language is surely coming at the head of the said languages. We see the last example of commentary process, of which we see the first commentary at the work named Muini's Mesnevî-i Muradiye in the XVth century, at the commentary of Selçuk Erayd'n, who has died on recent date, and that although contains just the first 18 verses. As we could determine, there have been written 35 Turkish commentaries within the nearly six centuries. It is an attention-attracting matter that the most of these commentaries were realized in the pre-republican period, however, both the pre-republican and post-republican period commentaries are not different from each other as their methods and contents. In this study, a literature study will be done on 35 Turkish commentaries of Mesnevî, which could be determined . In this context, at first we will provide information on the terminology of mesnevî and Mavlana's Mesnevî. Then the translations and commentaries ahead in Turkish and in other languages will be briefly introduced and finally a little more detailed information involving the 35 Turkish commentaries, commentators and their works, will be presented.
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