The position of Persian language and literature in Ottoman’s 19th century literature and historical developments

With the spread of western reforms in the 13th/9th century, Ottoman’s literature was reformed either. To reform Ottoman literature, they decided to transform the Ottoman language and literature relations with Persian language and literature. On one hand, they considered problems of Ottoman literature regarding Pindaric and its inefficiency for entering new areas such as novel, drama, and journalism as the dominance of Persian language and literature and demanded for refining the Turkish Ottoman language from Persian words. On the other hand, they were aware of the necessity of benefiting from the treasures of Persian literature in the reform period. The causes and consequences of these dual approaches are issues that have been considered in the present study through a descriptive and analytical method and using19th century Ottoman texts to answer the question that why this dual approach was formed and what were the consequences. Findings of the study indicate that despite the negative view to the Persian language and literature in the 19th century among Ottoman scholars and consequently in the Ottoman society, efforts to remove works of Persian language and literature from Ottoman language and literature didn’t work due to historical and linguistic continuities and inevitably learning Persian language and literature and using its potentials was of necessities of the reform period.