[Discussion] PUBL.: _The Age of Beloveds_ by Walter G. Andrews and Mehmet Kalpakli

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Mehmet Kalpakli hocayi kutlariz. G. Pultar


The Age of Beloveds: Love and the Beloved in Early-Modern Ottoman and
European Culture and Society
Walter G. Andrews, Mehmet Kalpakli

440 pages (December 2004)
14 illus.
ISBN 0-8223-3450-X Cloth - $89.95
ISBN 0-8223-3424-0 Paperback - $24.95

/The Age of Beloveds/ offers a rich introduction to early modern Ottoman
culture through a study of its beautiful lyric love poetry. At the same
time, it suggests provocative cross-cultural parallels in the sociology
and spirituality of love in Europe from Istanbul to London during the
long sixteenth century. Walter G. Andrews and Mehmet Kalpakli provide a
generous sampling of translations of Ottoman poems, many of which have
never before appeared in English, along with informative and inspired
close readings. The authors explain that the flourishing of Ottoman
power and culture during the "Turkish Renaissance" manifests itself, to
some degree, as an "age of beloveds," in which young men became the
focal points for the desire and attention of powerful office-holders and
artists as well as the inspiration for a rich literature of love.

The authors show that the "age of beloveds" was not just an Ottoman,
eastern European, or Islamic phenomenon; it extended into western Europe
as well. They demonstrate this by examining the cultures of Venice,
Florence, Rome, and London during the same period. Andrews and Kalpakli
contend that in an age dominated by immensely powerful absolute rulers
and troubled by war, cultural change, and religious upheaval, the
attachments of dependent courtiers and the longings of anxious commoners
aroused an intense and peculiar interest in love and the beloved. /The
Age of the Beloveds /reveals a new commonality in the cultural history
of two worlds long seen as radically different.


    "A wonderful and brave book that is so fun to read. . . . An
    astonishing account of love and the beloved where they intersect
    with sex, spirituality, politics and power. . . . Amazing!" -- Orhan
    Pamuk, author of the novels /Snow/ and /My Name Is Red/

    "The Age of Beloveds is a unique and powerful book. There is nothing
    remotely like this out there and yet as one reads it one is struck
    by the dire need for the sort of basic information and insights it
    provides about the other half of the Mediterranean during the early
    modern period." -- Maria Rosa Menocal, author of /Shards of Love:
    Exile and the Origins of the Lyric/

    "The Age of Beloveds is a treasure and a masterpiece. With
    breathtakingly extensive new, original research, it is beautifully
    written, in a style both inviting and impressive. It is the fruit of
    a lifetime's project to add Ottoman literature to the canons of
    world literature." -- Victoria Holbrook, author of /The Unreadable
    Shores of Love: Turkish Modernity and Mystic Romance/

Walter G. Andrews is Research Professor of Near Eastern Languages and
Civilization at the University of Washington. He is the author of
/Poetry's Voice, Society's Song: Ottoman Lyric Poetry/ and /An
Introduction to Ottoman Poetry/. Mehmet Kalpakli is Chair and Assistant
Professor of History and Director of the Center for Ottoman Studies at
Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. They are coauthors of /Ottoman
Lyric Poetry: An Anthology/.


Preface ix

A Guide to Ottoman Turkish Transcription, Pronunciation, Names, and
Titles xi

1. Introduction 1

2. Beloved Boys (and Girls) 32

3. Love Scripts I, Male Bonding 59

4. Love Scripts II, Poems about Poetry about Love 85

5. Love, Sex, and Poetry 113

6. Women and the Art of Love 163

7. Seduction and Reversal 217

8. To Die For...: Love and Violence in the Age of the Beloveds 251

9. Love, Law and Religion 270

10. The End of an Age 304

11. Renaissance, Renaissances, and the Age of the Beloveds 329

Appendix: Ottoman Sultans during the Age of the Beloveds 355

Notes 357

Glossary of Ottoman Terms 389

Bibliography 393

Index 411