Early Mystics in Turkish Literature (Routledge Sufi Series)

This book is a translation of one of the most important Turkish scholarly works of the twentieth century. It was the masterpiece of M.F. Koprulu, one of Turkey’s leading, and most prolific, intellectuals and scholars. Using a wide variety of Arabic, and especially Turkish and Persian sources, this book sheds light on the early development of Turkish literature and attempts to show the continuity in this development between the Turks and that of Anatolia. Early Mystics in Turkish Literature addresses this topic within the context of other subjects, including Sufism, Islam and the genesis of Turkish culture in the Muslim world.

This is a major contribution to the study of Turkish literature and is essential reading for scholars of Turkish literature, Islam, Sufism and Turkish history.

Gary Leiser is the Director of the Travis Air Museum at Travis AFB, California. He received a doctorate in Middle Eastern history from the university of Pennsylvania in 1976. He has been engaged in a long term project of translating into English the major historical works of M.F. Koprulu.

Robert Dankoff is Professor of Turkish and Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago. His most publications include Mahmud al-Kashgari, Compendium of the Turkic Dialects (Diwan Lugat at-Turk), edited and translated with introduction and indices by Robert Dankoff, in collaboration with James Kelly. Cambridge, Mass. and Yusuf Khass Hajib, Wisdom of Royal Glory (Kutadgu Bilig): A Turko-Islamic Mirror for Princes, translated, with an introduction and notes, by Robert Dankoff. University of Chicago Press, 1983.