Self and Others: The Diary of a Dervish in Seventeenth Century Istanbul and First-Person Narratives in Ottoman Literature

Ottoman literary history, indeed all Ottoman cultural history, has been traditionally viewed within the framework of a dualistic schema: courtly (high, learned, orthodox, cosmopolitan, polished, artificial, stiff, inaccessible to the masses) versus popular (folk, tainted with unorthodox beliefs-practices and superstitions, but pure and simple in the sense of preserving national spirit, natural, honest). This schema took shape under the influence of two major factors. On the one hand, there was the impact of the two-tiered model of cultural and religious studies in nineteenthcentury Europe with its relatively sharp distinction between high and low traditions.(') On the other, there were the ideological needs of incipient Turkish nationalism to distance itself from the Ottoman elite while embracing some form of populism. In relation to poetry and music, a certain allowance has been made for the traditions of Sufi orders. But this does not