The Story of Joseph: A Fourteenth-Century Turkish Morality Play by Sheyyad Hamza

ISBN-13: 9780815633570 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 168 str.

Bill Hickman

Opis

At the heart of this volume is the translation of a fourteenth-century Turkish
version of the Joseph story, better known to Western readers from the
version in Genesis, first book of the Hebrew Bible. Hickman provides us
with a new lens: we see the drama of the Old Testament prophet Joseph,
son of Jacob, through Muslim eyes. The poem s author, Sheyyad Hamza,
lived in Anatolia during the early days of the Ottoman Empire. Hamza s
composition is rooted in the recondite and little-studied tradition of oral
performance a unique corner of Turkish verbal arts, situated between
minstrelsy and the "divan" tradition combining the roles of preacher and
storyteller. A cultural document as well as a literary text that reflects the
prevailing values of the time, Hamza s play reveals a picture of Ottoman
sensibility, both aesthetic and religious, at the level of popular culture in
premodern Turkey. To supplement and contextualize the story, Hickman
includes an introduction, a historical-literary afterword, and notes to the
translation, all ably assisting an unfamiliar reader s entry into this world."