An Entertaining Practical Guide To Political Ethics: Hezarfen Hüseyin’s Enîsü’l-Ârifîn

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b3199994

This thesis aims to examine Hezarfen Hüseyin’s fable collection titled Enîsü’l-‘Ârifîn ve Mürşidü’s-Sâlikîn. Hezarfen Hüseyin (d.1691) was a polymath and encyclopaedist who inhabited the elite circles of Istanbul during Mehmed IV’s reign. He authored several books on a wide range of subjects, from histories to dictionaries and Sufi texts. Dedicating his work to his patron Kara Mustafa Paşa, Hezarfen offers a thematic selection of tales from the fables of Kelile ve Dimne, presenting a work that merges political ethics and entertainment in correlation with the changing tastes of the late 17th century. The present study examines the historical background of Hezarfen’s work and contextualizes its place within the larger Hümâyûnnâme corpus. Building on these points, I also seek to problematize or nuance the idea widely held in scholarship that Ottoman intellectuals were turning towards Western culture through increased contacts in the late 17th century. A careful study of Hezarfen and his environment suggests that the focus of Ottoman scholarly life still lay within the Perso-Islamic tradition during his lifetime. I argue that Hezarfen Hüseyin Efendi participated in transcultural and transimperial dialogues as an actor that shaped the Ottoman image for his western interlocutors. Furthermore, the Enîsü’l-‘Ârifîn differs from contemporary advice literature because it uniquely positions advice and entertainment in the service of political or social practice.