Abstract
Humorous Calendars in Classical Turkish Literature
The fact that Turkish literature is dominated mostly by
poetry is an important factor for our humorous works
which are generally composed of poetic texts. Although the
outstanding examples of Turkish humorous literature (like
Harnâme, Sihâm-ı Kazâ, etc.) are constituted of poetic
works, we have also distinct prosaic works which contain
jokes, wits and pleasantries that aim to humor the readers
besides to make them thinking while humoring. Humorous
calendars, which are told through benefiting from the arts
such as parable, apprehension and metonymy which
whether have rare examples among the distinct humorous
works or were written up with a different perspective as
well as happen to certain profession experts and classes in
the community within one year, are remarkable. As far as
is known, three humorous calendars whose first example
belongs to Vahyî-i Evvel (d. 1520) were written throughout
our history. The second example was written by
Nasûhî (d. 1537), and the third one was written by Küfrîi
Bahâyî (d. 1660). The text of humorous calendars of
Vahyî and Nasûhî are not available and today they are just
available in small passages as far as quoted from the
collection of biographies. As of the today, five copies of the
calendar of Küfrî-i Bahâyî which are the sole surviving
examples of its type have been discovered. After giving
general information about humorous calendars and
presenting the authors of them in this article, the humorous
calendars discovered will be examined, and their texts will
be included. As far as the texts of calendars of Vahyî and
Nasûhî covered in the collection of biographies, the edition
critics of three copies of Küfrî-i Bahâyî calendar will be
made use of the researchers.
Keywords
Irony, Humour, Calendar, Vahyî, Nasûhî, Küfrî-i Bahâyî.