Abstract
“May You Be Bestowed with Good Health”: Zayl (Supplement) to the Sıhhatnama Literature
Written during the period of illness and recovery of statesmen, especially that of sultans and intimate friends, sıhhatnamas are understood to have an important place in Ottoman poetry tradition. These texts were generally produced to wish good health to the ill and/or recently recovered and to present them as a gift for this reason. Thus poets had a chance to indicate their loyalty and to utter their expectations from their patrons. In studies so far, a considerable number of sıhhatnamas have been ascertained and researchers have made detailed evaluations about sıhhatnama genre. It is a fact that the scope, the features, and the development of the genre throughout centuries as well as the exceptions within the genre itself can be explained in more extensive details as the number of available texts increases. Based on this, this article examines newly ascertained sıhhatnama texts in their contexts, with close comparison to previously determined sıhhatnamas, and also with ıyadetnamas, letters which were written with the same rationale. Thus we learn not only the literary tradition shaped around the practice of wishing good health, but also religious, social, cultural and political aspects of Ottoman life. It is certainly possible that this knowledge would be enriched with newly ascertained sıhhatnamas.
Keywords
Sıhhatnama, ıyadatnama, sickness, health, recovery.