Images of the Mediterranean in an Ottoman Pirate Novel From the Late Seventeenth Century

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In 1942 Andreas Tietze published a German translation of an Ottoman pirate novel of the late seventeenth century, entitled “The discourse on Warden Captain Mahmud, on [his] victories over the damned dwellers of Hell, the Maltese” (Makâle-i Zındancı Mahmud Kapudan berâ-yı feth ü zafer-keştî-i Maltîz-i la’în-i dûzah-mekîn), one of the few (till now) known specimens of Ottoman ‘popular literature’ recorded in this early era. The Ottoman text was published some two decades later by Fahir İz based on the only known manuscript (Köprülü Hafız Ahmed Paşa 214, ff. 70a-107b). Strangely enough, this important text has not been studied thoroughly so far, with the notable exception of some observations by Suraiya Faroqhi and Cemal Kafadar. However, it presents immense interest for both the historian and the philologist, not only as a highly telling description of sea-faring, swashbuckling, and piracy in the Eastern Mediterranean, but also as a splendid specimen of Ottoman prose story.

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The Journal Of Ottoman Studies

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The Journal Of Ottoman Studies