Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
TURK DILI VE EDEBIYATI DERGISI-JOURNAL OF TURKISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, sa.1, ss.157-170, 2023 (ESCI)
Many sources are used to obtain information about history. The oral and written resources from civilizations, such as inscriptions, dictionaries, and literary works, are all important for getting an idea about the past. These are no substitute for historical texts, as they contain no direct sources from which one can obtain historical information. The origin of historical texts does not date back very far. The first examples of historical texts in the Ottoman Empire in particular belong to the 15th century. The examples of Ottoman historical texts were written as a result of establishing the state, and their political, sociological, and literary maturation reveal a one-sided perspective of the Ottoman Empire that praises the sultans ad describes the glory and conquests of the empire; namely, they always involve positive features. Sikari's Karamanname [History of the Karamanids] differs from Ottoman historical texts in terms of its perpsective. Karamanname contains an understanding that focuses on and always justifies the Karamanids while criticizing the Ottomans, and predominantly features the relations and struggles between the Ottoman Empire and the Karamanids. This history of the Karamanids describes the period from the founding of the Emirate of Karaman to when the Ottoman Empire put an end to its existence and has no precedent in Ottoman sources in terms of this feature. Sikari states that Hodja Dehhani had started writing this work in Persian, that Yarcani had completed it, and that he then translated Yarcani's Persian work himself. However, no Persian version of this work has been found. Ten known copies of Karamanname are known to exist, some of which are comprehensive and others that are concise. This article examines these copies of the Karamanname and determines which copies should be used to evaluate the history of the Karamanids.