For centuries, Turkish literature was a tale of two worlds that rarely ever met.

Art · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Until the 1923 founding of the Republic of Turkey, the nation’s literary life was split between an elite, Persian-influenced written tradition and a vibrant, oral folk culture. These two streams remained largely separate for nine hundred years, each following its own distinct rules, languages, and social functions.

The written tradition, often called Ottoman literature, was heavily shaped by Persian and Arabic models. From the 14th century, poets favored the gazel and the kasîde, complex forms built on couplets and strict metrical schemes. These works were highly conventional; the gazel, for instance, typically cast the poet as a nightingale singing to a rose within a garden setting. By the 17th century, poets like Cevri and Nâʾilî had solidified the monothematic nature of these poems, which often served to praise sultans or explore mystical themes.

In stark contrast, the folk tradition thrived through oral transmission, carried by minstrels and deeply intertwined with music. While the written tradition relied on qualitative verse and couplets, folk poetry utilized syllabic verse and the quatrain. This folk style remained largely free from the heavy Persian and Arabic influences that defined the courtly written works. It was only after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire that these two disparate traditions began to merge into a unified national literature.

The earliest written evidence of the Turkish language predates these traditions, appearing on the Orhon inscriptions in northern Mongolia during the early 8th century. Between the 14th and 19th centuries, the mesnevî narrative form also saw significant use, ranging from mystical allegories like Ahmed-i Dâi’s Çengname to satirical works like Sinan Şeyhi’s Harname. Despite the decline of the mesnevî by the 17th century, the form saw a late-stage revival in the 18th and 19th centuries with works like Şeyh Galib’s Hüsn ü aşk and Keçecizade İzzet Molla’s autobiography, Mihnetkeşan.

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