Literary Depictions in Ghazavâtnâmahs That Adress the Crimean War

The Crimean War that started in 1853 between the Ottoman Empire and Russia lasted until 1856. It ended with the defeat of the Russians as England and France sided with the Ottoman Empire. A great number of work has been written then and since about this war which deeply affect our social and political life. Among these, there are ghazavâtnâmahs that describe what happened down-to-line, usually by the pen of the poets and writers who closely witnessed the war. The causes of war, the preparations, what happened at the time of expedition and measures that were taken, the outcome of the events during the war and afterwards are all brought into sharp relief in most of these works. Whether in verse, prose or mixed typed, these works of art have gradually increased after 15th century in Turkish literature. This genre has decreased by the Ottoman Empire began to decline and the raids were scarce; and it totally disappeared after the tradition of ghaza were ceased. In this study the literary depictions in -the last examples of the genre- Salih Hayri’s Kırım Zafernamesi (Hayrâbât), Ahmed Rızâ Trabzonî’s Manzume-i Sivastopol and Süleyman Şâdî’s Muzaffernâme are presented. There are not many studies that focus on literary depictions in ghazavâtnâmahs, particularly on literary war depictions. The characteristics of these literary depictions are tried to be explained with reference to ghazavâtnâmahs belonging to the Empire's last era.