The Multiple Faces of the One: The Invocation Section of Ottoman Literary Introductions as a Locus for the Central Argument of the Text

Invocations of God in introductory sections of Ottoman literary texts produced for a royal audience are some of the most difficult parts of Ottoman texts to translate and are usually ignored with the assumption that they must include nothing but conventional praises to God. Yet some very elaborate invocations of God that one finds in such works actually tell the reader something about the topic of the work they are prefacing by the attributes of God that they emphasize. Sometimes readers may even get a chance to foresee the central argument of such a text, especially if they are familiar with the issue that the book is addressing, or the socio-political context in which it is situated. These invocations also underline the pluralistic potential that the Muslim representation of God implies.