The Ajaib in the Sixteenth Century Turkish Travelogue Texts

Abstract

Ajaib is a term used to express the feelings of astonishment that were arose from natural and/or supernatural objects, people, attitudes, and events. One of the literary genres that the ajaib frequently found itself a place is the travelogue. This article discusses the ajaib in the Turkish travelogue texts that were penned in the sixteenth century. It refutes the aj5.'ib literature thesis that tends to imply the existence of a specific genre in Arabic literature. Instead, it argues that, along with a similar line. to Shrinx von Hees, there are different literary genres contained ajaib and according to these genres ajaib may also differentiate and diversify. To demonStrate this point, this article firstly summarizes the discussion around the ajaib literature thesis. Then, it attempts to give a definition of the ajaib and shows how it was used in the sixteenth century Turkish travelogue texts. To exemplify the diversity of the texts and the usage of the ajaib this article also provides some extracts from the Turkish travelogue texts that intersected with different literary genres such as geography, commemorative texts (sergiizegtname), and bondage literature (esh.retname). It is argued that such extracts will be particularly useful as original accounts and observations of the Arab geographers and travelers in the Middle Ages and how they were translated and transferred to the sixteenth century Ottoman mentality.