Abstract:

The late 13th century sees the parallel emergence of Turkish literature in both Anatolia and the Golden Horde. Later in the 14th century, Turkish starts to be written at the court of the Mamluk sultanate in Cairo. The parallel emergence of Turkish literatures in three different dialects is usually treated separately. In this presentation based on his recently published monograph entitled Islam Literature and Society in Mongol Anatolia, Andrew Peacock will examine the ways in which the processes in the three dialects were linked, the reasons for the common emergence of these literary languages in this period, and their contribution to our understanding of the origins of Turkish literacy but also processes of vernacularisation more broadly.

Bio:

Andrew Peacock is Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic History at the University of St Andrews in the UK. He completed his PhD in History at the University of Cambridge. Between 2012-2017, Peacock was the principal investigator on the ERC funded project IslamAnatolia, which investigated the Islamisation process of Anatolia between c.1100-1500 via a close study of manuscript production in this period. Peacock is the author of several monographs and edited volumes, such as: Early Seljuq History: A New Interpretation, The Great Seljuk Empire, Islamisation: Comparative Perspectives from History, Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia, and Islamic Literature and Intellectual Life in Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Anatolia. His latest publications include: Islam Literature and Society in Mongol Anatolia (Cambridge 2019) and Turkish History and Culture in India (Leiden 2021).