A Medical Text Written in Old Anatolian Turkish: Manẓūme-I Ṭibb

Abstract

Old Anatolian Turkish, including the Seljuks, Principalities and the transition period to the Ottoman Empire, emerged as the first written language based on Oghuz in the 13th-15th centuries. The themes of the works written in this period are not only literary issues. In this period, when many works, including various themes other than religion, mysticism and love, were written, works on medicine also have an important place. From a historical perspective, it is seen that the terms related to medicine emerged in the Turkic written languages during the Gokturks, and the first written sources began to be given in the Uyghurs period with the increase in knowledge and application areas. With the Karakhanid period, the intense interest in medical texts increased especially in the 15th century; many names were trained in the field of medicine, particularly Turkish physicians. Increase in the number of texts related to the field was observed in parallel to the increase in these names. The masnavi named Manẓūme-i Ṭıbb, which is the subject of the study, is a medical text written in Old Anatolian Turkish. The work is a short masnavi, consisting of three folios. It was written by the famous physician, Ahî Çelebi, was raised in the 15th century and was respected enough to be close to the ruler. As far as it can be determined, all copies have been taken into account for the publication of the work, which has a total of eight copies outside of Turkey and Turkey. A text publication has been prepared based on these copies. Thus, the deficiencies identified in some copies and the couplets written without adhering to the meter were repaired and presented to the reader. © 2023, Turk Dil Kurumu. All rights reserved.