Hasan Şu'uri Efendi's translation of Pend-Name-i Attar : text and textual analysis

Abstract

Ferîduddîn Attâr is undoubtedly one of the most famous and influential classical Persian poets whose influences can be observed in many literatures over the world. His Pend-nâme is a short mathnawi which focuses on ethical and religious issues by giving advices and listing things to be done and things to be avoided. Over the centuries Pend-nâme has become one of the most widely read and translated literary work with its all-time and worldwide valid content. Especially in the Ottoman literature it was translated and annotated over and over by various poets and writers. The book can be taken as a compilation of advices about the issues which can be deemed as essential in order to lead a pious and moral life. Those issues can be listed as: dispraising nafs (the evil part of human soul), good deeds such as abondoning the earthly delights, ascetism, endurance to neediness, taciturnity, generosity, integrity, godliness, hospitality, contentment; and bad habits like greediness, foolishness, rage, stinginess and so forth. In this study, a seventeenth century writer Hasan Şuʻûrî Efendi’s verse translation of Pend-nâme is to be transliterated and examined. In the first chapter, Ferîduddîn Attâr and his works, pend-nâme tradition and Hasan Şu’ûrî Efendi have been examined. In the second chapter, the thematic, structural and translational qualities of the work at question have been described and evaluated. And in the final chapter, the manuscripts used in preparing the text have been described and the transcribed text has been given.