Masnavies

In classical Turkish literature masnavies are written with and composed of various language features, writing forms, writing goals, composition properties and are carried out with respect to different categories. According to Agah Sirri Levend, when examining the origin and nature of masnavies, the nature of the subject are divided into seven categories: 1. Religious issues, 2. Love, 3. Heroes from history, 4. Representation, 5. Sufism, 6. Romance, 7. Adventure. According to another researcher, Tolasa, masnavies are divided into these following seven categories: 1. Religious-mystical-moral, 2. Love, 3. History and life, 4. Adventure, 5. Beauties and wonders of a specific place, 6. Whimsical, 7. Wisdom and culture. On the other hand, Iz and Kut divide masnavies into three categories: 1. Epic, 2. Lyrical and 3. Informative. Cem Dilcin’s classification of the origin and nature of masnavies is nearly identical to those of Tolasa. According to Ismail Unver the purpose of masnavies is to 1. Provide information and educate the reader, 2. Address the reader with a sense of heroism, 3. Put forth the artistic quality of tales of love and romance, 4. Provide readers of the poets’ personal experiences in life. As you can see, one is not the same as the other, but the most important similarity between all of these classifications of masnavies is love and researchers have assessed love as a separate group on its own. Love masnavies are based on real love stories of the past, their lyrical aspect is much more dominant when compared to other masnavies, and because elements of conflict and tension that springs the factor of curiosity is present, readers are steered towards their imaginary world. Thus, when masnavies are mentioned, love masnavies constitute the first group that comes to mind.