Visualising the Prophet – Rhetorical and Graphic Aspects of Three Ottoman-Turkish Poems

Abstract

: Narrative and panegyric poems about the Prophet Muḥammad were among the most widely read texts in the Ottoman Empire. They made the Prophet accessible to a broad readership; they were recited during rites; and the acts of copying them with one’s own hand, reading them, and presenting them as endowments promised reward on the day of judgement. There also was a strong visual aspect to the production and usage of these manuscripts: the beauty of the Prophet, the beauty of the (spoken) word, and the beauty of the handwriting were interrelated. Much can therefore be learned about the image of the Prophet Muḥammad in Ottoman society, and specifically in Ottoman book culture, by analysing this interrelation. In my study I focus on three poems, which are preserved in large numbers in manuscript collections all over the world, and which were published in several printed editions – Süleymān Çelebi’s Vesīlet en-Necāt (812/1409), Yazıcıoğlı Muḥammed’s Muḥammedīye (853/1449), and Ḫāḳānī’s Ḥilye (1007/1598–9). These have several features in common: their topic (the biography and/or the physiognomy of Muḥammad); their form (poetry); the fact that the texts are transmitted with the signature of their author; and a precise date. However, the authors employed very different strategies to visualise the Prophet, and so did the copyists, calligraphers, and illustrators. The three texts are analysed successively. Each section begins with a short survey of the intention of the authors as described in prefaces or colophons, and, if relevant, later biographical and hagiographical texts. Then the structure of the texts and narrative, along with their poetical and rhetorical characteristics, will be described, and, in a concluding step, the interrelation with graphic aspects of selected manuscripts and printed copies is explored. Muḥammad in