representation of gender and sexuality in ottoman and turkish erotic

REPRESENTATION OF GENDER AND
SEXUALITY IN OTTOMAN AND
TURKISH EROTIC LITERATURE
iRViN CEMil SCHICK!
MASSACHUSETTS lNSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
However widely it may be consumed by the masses in the privacy of their
homes, erotic literature suffers from significant neglect when it comes to
the hallowed halls of academe. And this is all the more true of Ottoman and
Turkish erotic literature. To some extent, this omission may of course be
due to prudishness on the part of specific individuals, but I suspect the main
reason is the lack of sources. As a modest first step in remedying this lack,
I hereby offer this brief survey, focusing mainly on the representation of
gender and sexuality in Ottoman and Turkish erotic literature. Because it
grew out of work on a commissioned encyclopedia article, the text is rela­
tively dense and each subject is probably not as well developed as one might
have wished. Still, I hope it will be found useful, both inside and outside the
classroom.
There are areas of verbal production that remain poorly studied: popular
tales/ curses, riddles and tongue-twisters, jokes,) broadsides, graffiti, and
various other ephemera can all lay claim to membership in the domain of
literature, and they all have significant erotic components. They are not
covered here, however, due to the near-total absence of published sources.
Likewise, the mere presence of a sexual dimension does not qualify a liter­
ary work as erotic; thus, mysticalliterature,4 for example, and fairy tales are
also excluded here. A broader survey of the theme of sexuality in Ottoman
and Turkish literature is Konur Ertop's Turk Edebiyatmda Seks,' to which this
1. The assistance of Hatice Orlin OztUrk. selim S!rrI Kuru, A. Nillifer isvan, and
Zehra F. Arat is gratefully acknowledged.
2. E.g., Jean Nicolaides, ed. and trans., Contes Ucencieux de constantinople et de /'Asie
mineure (Kleinbronn and Paris: Gustave Ficker, 1906).
3. Some highly sexually explicit jokes are in K. [Kathleen] R. F. Burrill, "The
Nasreddin Hoca Stories, I. An Early Ottoman Manuscript at the University of
Groningen;' Archivum Ottomanicum 2 (1970): 7-114.
4. E.g., Annemarie Schimmel, "Eros-Heavenly and Not So Heavenly-in Sufi
literature and Life," in Society and the Sexes in Medieval Islam. ed. Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid­
Marsot (Malibu, Calif.: undena Publications, 1979), 119-41.
5. Konur Ertop, Tiirk Edebiyatlnda Seks (Istanbul: Se~me Kitaplar Yaymevi. 1977).
Dror ze'evi's Producing Desire: Changing Sexual Discourse in the Ottoman Middle East,
1500-1900 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 2006)
11te TIIrldsh Studies AssoclationJoumal 28:1-2 (2004), pp. 81-103
OTTOMAN AN D TU RKI SH EROTIC LITERATURE / SC HI CK
article is partly indebted; however, because the material there was originally
serialized in a popular art magazine, it lacks any scholarly apparatus. It is
also nearly thirty years old, an d does not cover recent literature.
Ottoman Prose
Works written in prose and known as bah name (book of libido/inter­
course) were part-(rledical, part-erotic treatises covering a wide range of
subjects-from taxonomies of genitalia and catalogues of sexual positions
to aphrodisiac recipes and risque anecdotes. The earliest such work dat­
ing from the Ottoman period that has come to light thus far is Balmame-i
padi~ahf (Imperial Book of libidO/Intercourse), translated into Turkish
by Musa b. Mes'Qd from a Persian text attributed to Nasir ai-DIn al-Tiisi
(d. 673/1274), and presented to Sultan Murad II (r. 824-48/1421-44, 849­
55/1445-51).6 Other important works in this genre include Mmed b. Yusuf
al-Tifashl's Rujii.' al-shaykh i/o. ?iba~ fl al-quwwah 'ala ai-bah (Restoration of the
old Man to Youth through the Power of libidO/Intercourse), expanded and
translated in 1519 on the orders of Sultan Selim I (r. 918-26/1512-20) by the
great scholar and jurist Ahmed b. Suleyman, known as K emalpa~a-zade (or
ibn Kemal Pa~a) (d. 940/1534)/ and again by several others-including an­
other great scholar, Gelibolulu Mustafa All (d. 1008/1600), under the name
RdlJatii'n-nii{us (The Carnal Souls' Comfort) (ca. 1569), for Prince Mehmed
(later Sultan Mehmed III, r. 1003-1012/1595-1603) on the orders of his fa­
ther Prince Murad (later Sultan Murad III, r. 982-1003/1574-95);8 Tuhfe-i
Three eighteenth-century miniatures from a biilmdmc formerly in the collection of the
late Edwin Binney III. Their stylistic resemblance to the celebrated istanbul Universitesi
KutLiphanesi manuscript (T 5502) of fan l Bey's Zcnanndmc is striking, suggesting a date of
ca. 1790.
unfortunately appeared after this article had been submitted to TSAj.
6. Bedi N. ~ehsuvaroglu, "OsmanII Padi~ahlan ve Bahnameler," VI. Turk Tarih
Kongresi. Ankara, 20-26 Ekim 1961. Kongreye Sunulan Bildiriler (Ankara: Turk Tarih Kurumu
Yaymlan, 1967) , 423- 28. There is al so an earlier Turkish translation, this one pre-Otto­
man, dedicated to Saruhan-oglu Ya' kQb b. Devlet. for a comparison of the translations,
see ilter Uzel, "TUrkc;:e Bahnamele r Hakk lnda bir inceleme," Kebike~ 13 (2002), 193-96;
for samples fro m the earlier transl ation, see Murat BardakC;:l, Osmanh'da Seks. Sarayda
G(!ce Dersleri (istanbul: Gur Yaylt1lan , 1992),52-57.
7. Mustafa b. Abd ullah known as Hacl Halife and Katib ~elebi, Kashf al-thuniin 'an
aSQ11If al-kt!tub wa al-funiln, ed. Mehmed ~erefeddin Yaltkaya, 2 vol s. (reprint, Tehran:
Maktabat al-JslamTyat wa al-Ja'farTTabrizf, 1967), 1:835. There is some controversy­
mostly, I suspect, ideologically driven-as to whether or not K emalpa~a- zade really did
translate this work. ~ehsuvaroglu ("Osmanh Padi~ahlan ve Bahnameler," 425) sug­
gests that a tra nslation in Suleymaniye Kutuphanesi (Hamidiye 1012) may well have
been written by t he translator himself ("mlitercim nushasl olmasl pek mumki.i ndur").
An EngHs h tra nsla tion , however inexact, is available: The Old Man Young Again; or,
Age-Rej uvenescence in the Power of Concupiscence, trans. by An English Bohemian (Paris:
Charles Carri ngton, J 898); The Secrets of Women; being the Second Part of''The old Man
You ng Again" (Par is: Charles Carrington, 18 99).
8. Cornell H. Fleischer, Bl!rCaUCrar and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The Historian
Mustafa Ali (154J -1600) (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Un iversity Press, 1986), 55 .
83
THf TURKISH STUDIES ASSOCIATION JOURNAL 127:12 (2004)
miiteehhilfn, also known as Mi4evvikii't-tabi aIf emri'l-cimcr (Gift for Those who
Are Married, or Nature's Encourager in the Drive for sexual Intercourse),
translated during the early eighteenth century by Mustafa Ebti'l-Feyz et­
Tabtb from a work by 'Abd al-Ra~man b. Na~r al-Shayzari (d. 774/1372);9 and
Risale fi'l-bah (Treatise on libido/Intercourse) by the Chief physician Katib­
zade Mehmed Reti (d. 1183/1769-70), a book that dwells particularly on the
subject of reviving diminished sexual appetites. 1o Many of these works were
partly or fully translated from Arabic or Persian sources, but translators
freely revised the originals, adding and subtracting at will. The presence of
eminent mainstream scholars among the authors and translators of these
works is noteworthy, as is the fact that many were commissioned by and/or
presented to imperial patrons,
Bdhnames generally contained both stories and scientific/prescriptive
material, and there are some subtle differences between the ways in which
each type of text approached gender and sexuality, The stories tend to reflect,
to some degree, gender stereotypes prevalent in society at large: women are
often represented as materialistic, wily, and disloyal; men as strict, jealous,
and not terribly bright. Prescriptive sections, on the other hand, general­
ly approach the sexes with a notable degree of symmetry, They do posit a
socio-biological system in which individuals have prescribed roles to play
according to their sex and sexual orientation, but these roles are not geared
toward the exclusive enjoyment of either party. On the contrary, bdhnames
regard sexual fulfillment as equally the domain of women and men. They
view sexuality as healthy and good, if enjoyed in moderation, and see their
own function as teaching readers how to make the sexual "system" work as
well as possible, for the sake of their personal fulfillment and that of their
partner, and also as a means of paying homage to God's creation.
Some Ottoman works in prose were largely homoerotic, as for exam­
ple Dafi'ii'/-gumum ve rdfi'ii'l-humum (Expeller of Sorrows and Remover of
Worries), composed by Mehmed Gazali, known as Deli Birader (d. 942/1535),
for Prince Korkud (872-918/1467-68-1512), son of Sultan Bayezid II, some­
time during the period 1483-1511;11 and Dellakndme-i di/kii~d (Joy-giving Book
9. uzel, "Ttirkr;e Bahniimeler Hakkmda bir inceleme;' 196-203. The complete text,
unfortunately rendered into modern Turkish usage, was recently published: Tabip
Mustafa Ebu'I-Feyz, Tuhfetifl-Mureehhilfn: Evlilik Armagam, ed. iIter Uzel (Ankara: Kebiker;
Yaymlan, n.d. [2005?J). Luckily a facsimile of the entire manuscript is included as well.
10. A. Suheyl Onver, Hekimba~1 ve Talik Ostadl Katipz(lde Mehmet Ref! Efendi. Hayatl ve
Eserleri (Istanbul: istanbul Oniversitesi nb Tarihi Enstitusu, 1950), 25-26.
11. Sellm SlrrJ Kuru, "Sex in the Text: Deli Birader's Ddfi'u'/-gumum ve Raft'ulhumum
and the Ottoman literary Canon;' Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures, forthcoming. See
also idem, "A Sixteenth-Century Scholar: Deli Birader and his Daft u'l-gumum ve raft' u'l­
humum," unpublished ph.D. dissertation, Department of Near Eastern Languages and
84
OTTOMAN AND TURKISH EROTIC LITERATURE I SCIIICK
of the Masseur), written in 1686 by Dervi~ ismail, chief of the bathkeepersY
Both books focus on bathhouses as an all-male erotic world; homosociality
is a common theme in Ottoman literature, sometimes, though not always,
tinged with eroticism. I return to this matter below.
As with bahndmes, foreign sources were also important for Ottoman erot­
ic tales; once again, translations were seldom faithful to the originals, and
translators often freely expanded and embroidered upon them. In particular,
the Kitab alflaylah wa laylah (Book ofthe Thousand and One Nights) was twice
translated into Ottoman during the seventeenth century, and the transla­
tion by MusH b, Mehmed Beyant (dated 1046/1636) contains significantly
more erotic material than the Arabic original. 13 The autograph manuscript
of this translation, dedicated to Sultan Murad IV (r. 1032-49/1623-40), was
taken to France by Antoine Galland (d. 1715), and probably provided the
origin of some of the more sexually explicit stories in a number of west­
ern translations of the Nights. The frame story of this popular set of tales is
quite misogynistic: convinced that all women are faithless, King Shahryar
decides to marry a different one each day and have her executed the fol­
lOWing morning; the tales are the result of Shahrazad's creative efforts to
stay alive by telling him stories and keeping him in suspense. Many indi­
vidual tales within the collection also exhibit some hostility toward women,
who are depicted as cunning, mischievous, and treacherous, not to mention
sexually voracious. Similar frame stories are present in other books of (at
least partially) erotic tales popular in Ottoman Turkey, such as riitfnameh
(Book of the Parrot), translated from a Persian text attributed to ~iya aI-dIn
NakhshabI (d. 751/1350), in which an eloquent parrot prevents his master's
wife from being unfaithful to him by distracting her each night with a differ­
ent story;14 the fourteenth(?)-century rdrih-i KIrk Vezir (History of the Forty
Viziers) by ~eyhzade, written in the form ofa dialogue between forty viziers
intent on proving women evil and forty ladies equally committed to defend­
ing their gender;15 and the anonymous Mekr-i Zendn (The Wiles of Women),
Civilizations, Harvard University, 2000.
12. Bardakr;I, Osman/r'da 5eh, 86-102.
13. Sinasi Tekin, "Elf Leyle'nin 17. YuzYll Osmanhcasl NasIl Yaymlanmah? Bu Metin
Ne Kadar Mustehcen?" Tarih ve Toplum 208 (2001): 79.
14. This book was published several times in Ottoman. An English translation,
including the Persian text, is: The Tooti Nameh, or Tales ofa Parrot (Calcutta; printed in
london: J. Debrett, 1801). There are also many bowdlerized versions.
15. This book too was published multiple times in Ottoman. An
in which sexually explicit passages are given in the original Turkish (transliterated),
is Sheykh-Ziida, The History ofthe Forty Vezirs, or the Story of the Forty Morns and Eves,
trans. and with an introduction by E.J. W. [Elias John WilkinsonJ Gibb (London: George
Redway, 1886).
85
THE TURKISH STUDIES ASSOCIATION JOURNAL /27:1-2 (2004)
of which many versions exist in numerous languages. 16 Indeed, it is highly
noteworthy that the first printed edition of the Hebrew version of this last
collection, Mishle sendebar (Tales of sendebar), was published in Istanbul as
early as 1516,17 These tales have historically played an important role in the
construction of gender, in that they "work to produce masculinity within a
cultural context structured by the homosociality of daily practices:'18
Classical Poetry
The ottoman high-culture literature (known as divan poetry) was intense­
ly preoccupied with the theme of love. Although its imagery and vocabulary
were codified and its tenor was generally more lyrical than erotic, sensu­
ousness and even sexual themes were far from absent, particularly during
the sixteenth and again the eighteenth centuries. Some poets were quite
exuberant in their treatment of the female body, as in the following couplet
by Arpa-emini-zade Saml (d. 1145/1732-33):
Bend-i ~alvarzn ~oziib opsem kiis-i nermi n'ola Yarma ~eftalusu bag-l vuslatun gayet Iezlz (If I untied the trouser-string and kissed the soft vulva, what of it? / The
split-ripe peach of the orchard of union is qUite delicious).19 More often,
however, it is an abstract and highly stylized female form that is celebrated
by divan poets, following well-established conventions and metaphors,zo
16. In his Eski Har/lerle Bas!lml~ Tiirkt;e Eserler Katalogu, 5 vols. (Istanbul: n.p., 1971­
79), M. Seyfettin bzege mentions an undated Tabriz edition of the Turkish text, but I
have not seen it. A translation into French of a Turkish manuscript by this name is Les
ruses des femmes (Mikri-zenan), et extraits du P/aisir apres la peine (feredj bad chiddeh), trans.
J.-A. Dean-Adolphe] Decourdemanche (Paris: Ernest Leroux, tditeur, 1896). In turn,
this French text was translated into English as The Wiles ofWomen, trans. J. Dohn] Mills
Whitham and S. F. Mills Whitham (New York: Lincoln Mac Veagh, Dial Press, 1929).
17. Morris Epstein, ed. and trans., Tales ofSendebar (Philadelphia: The Jewish
Publication Society of America, 1967),8. See also E. Carmoly, "Notice historique sur
Sendabar Ie Sage;' Paraboles de Sendabar sur Les ruses des femmes, trans. E. Carmoly (Paris:
P.jannet, Libraire, 1849), 31-33.
18. Afsaneh Najmabadi, "Reading 'Wiles of Women' Stories as Fictions of
Masculinity;' in Imagined Masculinities: Male Identity and Culture in the Modern Middle East,
ed. Mai Ghoussoub and Emma Sinclair-Webb (London: Saqi Books, 2000), 162.
19. [Arpa-emini-zade Saml], Divan-I Sam! (Bulak: Matbaa Sahibu'l-saadeti'l-ebediye,
1253),66.
•
20. A classic treatise on such metaphors is Sharafai-DIn RamTs Anis al-·ushshaq. See
e.g. Cheref-eddin Rami, Anis el-·Ochchiiq. Traite des termes figures relatifs ala description de
la beaute, trans. cl. [Clement] Huart (Paris: F. Vieweg, Libraire-Editeur, 1875).
86
OTTOMAN AND TURKISH EROTIC LITERATURE! SCHICK
The authorial voice in divan poetry is overwhelmingly male, often even
when the poet was in fact a woman.2 1The gender of the object of the poet's
amorous attention, however, could be ambiguous and indeterminate, as ex­
pressed most notoriously in this couplet by Nedim (d. 1143/1730):
Klzoglan nazI ndzrn ~eh-levend avazl avazrn Beldsm ben de bilmem klZ mlsm ogian mlsrn kafir (Your coquetry is that of a virgin girl, your voice that of a handsome man
/ You are a source of trouble; I do not know whether you are girl or boy, 0
ambigUity is due in part to the fact that the Turkish language
is ungendered, and in part to a male-dominated homosocial culture in which
relationships between males were more likely to involve intellectual peers
than relationships between men and women.23
It is fair to say that taken as a whole, divan poetry reflects not two but
three genders: adult men. adult women, and young boys-this latter defined
principally by the absence of facial hair.24 Recent writings on the history
of sexuality teach us not to anachronistically project labels like "homosex­
ual" and "heterosexual" onto ages when the choice of sexual partner was
relatively fluid and considered a matter of practice, not identity.25 Thus,
for example. Sevkengft (Provoker of Eagerness) by Siinbiil-zade Vehbi (d.
1224/1809-10) is an impassioned but ultimately inconclusive debate on the
respective merits of sexual relations with women and with boys, continu­
ing a theme going back, through the Kitab mufiikharat al-jawari wa al-ghilman
(Book of Praise for Concubines and Slave-boys) of al-Jahiz (d. 255/869), to
21. Kemal Sllay, "Singing His Words: Ottoman Women Poets and the Power of Patriarchy:' in Women in the Ottoman Empire: Middle Eastern Women in the Early Modem Era, ed. Madeline C. zilfi (Leiden, New York, and Koln: Brill, 1997), 197-213. 22. [Nedim], Nedim Divan!, ed. Abdiilbaki Golpmarh {Istanbul: inkllap ve Aka
Kitabevleri, 1972),267. See also Kemal Sllay, Nedim and the Poetics ofthe Medieval Inheritance and the Need for Change (Bloomington, Ind.; Indiana University Press, 1994),90-107.
23. Walter G. Andrews and Mehmet Kalpakll, The Age ofBeloveds: Love and the Beloved
in Early-Modem Ottoman and European Culture and Society (Durham, N.C., and London:
Duke University Press, 2005).
24. For historical antecedents, see Everett K. Rowson, "The Categorization of
Gender and Sexual Irregularity in Medieval Arabic Vice Lists," in Body Guards: The
Cultural Politics ofGender Ambiguity, ed.Julia Epstein and Kristina Straub (New York and
london: Routledge, 1991),58. On a Persian analogue, see Afsaneh Najmabadi, Women
with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties ofIranian Modernity
(Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 2005).
25. On the Muslim world, see Khaled el-Rouayheb, Before Homosexuality in the Arab­
Islamic World, 1500-1800 (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2005).
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THE TURKISH STUDIES ASSOCIATION JOURNAL 127:12 (2004)
the Erotes (Lovers) of Lucian of Samosata (d. ca. 180).26 Special caution must
therefore be exercised in drawing societal conclusions from the prevalence
of same-sex motifs in divan poetryP
In addition to the standard poetic forms such as the gazel and ~arkl, sexual
themes are especially present in some areas of divan poetry. One such area
is the body of satirical works known as hezeliyyat (facetiae), in which a com­
mon way of insulting a rival was to cast aspersions upon his masculinity,
i.e., to feminize him; needless to say, a deep-seated misogyny underlies such
practices. For example, Nef', (d. ca. 1045/1635-36) wrote:
Kahbe hicvine tenezziil mi ederdiim amma
Bir kaza ile bu da tab'uma ~esbdn di4di
iktiza eyledi bir kahbeye bir klt'a dedim
Bir alay fahi~eye gayret-i akran di4di
(Would I have stooped to writing satires on harlots / But fate has decreed
that this too would be my lot / It became necessary that I recite a strophe to
a harlot / Upon which r had to deal in similar fashion with a whole division
of whores).28 That the targets ofNef'i's attacks were all male leaves no doubt
as to the fact that he used feminization as a tool of rhetorical aggression. In
addition to Nefl, well known for his polemical Sihdm-l Kaza (Arrows of Fate),
poets who excelled in this genre included Meali (d. 942/1535-36) and Suriiri
(d. 1229/1814), the obscenity of whose Mudhikat-I Siiriirf-i hezzal (Drolleries
of Silrurl the Jester, Better Known as Hezeliyyat-l Siiriin) was likened by E. J.
w. Gibb to Rabelais,29
Zatl (d. 953/1546) is known for his Letai{name, a collection of satirical sto­
ries in prose, many of whose punch lines are in verse;30 as with Nef'i and
Silruri, here again sexual penetration is often a metaphor for social domina­
tion. 11 Zati was also one of the first to write a~ehrengiz-a term aptly rendered
26. Cf.Jan Schmidt, "SUnbUlzade Vehbi's ~evk-engfz. an Ottoman Pornographic
Poem," Turcica 25 (1993): 9-37. See also Franz Rosenthal, "Male and Female: Described
and Compared;' in Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature. ed. j. [Jerry1w. Wright, Jr.,
and Everett K. Rowson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997). 24-54.
27. For a highly polemical. albeit well-researched, work. see ismet Zeki Eyuboglu.
Divan ~iirinde Saplk Sevgi, 2nd revised ed. (N.p.: Broy Yaymlan. 1991), 107-70.
28. Metin Akku~, Nef'fve Sihilm-I Kaw (Ankara: Ak~ag Yaymlan, 1998), 222.
29. E.j. W. [Elias john Wilkinson) Gibb, A History ofOttoman Poetry, ed. Edward G.
Browne, 6 vols. (London: Luzac, 1900-1909),4:271.
30. Mehmed <;avu~oglu, "Z~t\"nin Let~yifi," istanbul Universitesi Edebiyat faka/tesi
TUrk DiU ve Edebiyatl Dergisi 18 (1970): [25]-51.
.
31. Relatedly, but in an altogether different context, see Richard C. Trexler, Sex
and Conquest: Gendered Violence, Political Order, and the European Conquest ofthe Americas
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell UniverSity Press,1995).
88
OTTOMAN AND TURKISH EROTIC LITERATURE 1 SCHICK
by Gibb as "city-thriller"-though Mesiht (d. 918/1512) is usually credited
with inventing the genre with his $ehrengiz der medh-i cuvanan-I Edime (City­
thriller on the Praise of the Handsome Youths of Edirne).32 A ~ehrengiz was
a poem in the style of a mesnevi, in which the beautiful boys of a particu­
lar city were catalogued and described-"the idea being," Gibb writes, "that
through the description of the beauties which it gives, the poem will create
a furore in the city."13 Sometimes the poems described members of a par­
ticular profession, or, as in the case of one of the most famous, Enderunlu
falll Bey's (d. 1225/1810) Hubanname (Book of [Male] Beauties), representa­
tives of diverse nations. 14 These poems were often quite erotic, describing
with relish youths who were well-known for their beauty-and, one might
assume, their sexual availability. It is interesting, though not entirely sur­
prising, that only a handful of these works described women: Taci-zade Cafer
(elebi's (d. 920/1514) Hevesname (Book of Passion) tells of an excursion dur­
ing which the poet encountered a boatload of beautiful women; Faztl Bey's
Zendnntlme (Book of Women) is a sequel to Hubanname in which the poet,
reluctantly if his preface is to be believed, describes the characteristics of
the women of various nations;35 most importantly, Yedikuleli Mustafa Azizi's
(d. 993/1585) $ehrengiz-i istanbul der hubdn-l zenan, also known as Nigamame-i
zevk-amiz der iislllb-I ~ehrengiz (City-thriller of Istanbul on Beautiful Women,
or Pleasurable Book of Beautiful Women in the Style of a City-thriller) is the
only true ~ehrengiz that describes women. l6 The reason such poems seldom
described women was in part practical: in the gender-segregated Ottoman
32. Ag~h Sirn Levend, TUrk Edebiyatrnda ~enr-engizler ve ~ehr-engizlerde istanbul
(Istanbul: istanbul Fethi Dernegi. istanbul EnstittisU Yayrnlan, 1958),14-20.
33. Gibb, A History ofOttoman Poetry, 2:232. Gibb is incorrect. however, in stating
that the ~ehrengiz has no parallel in Persian poetry; in fact, the shanrashab made its ap­
pearance qUite a bit earlier than its Ottoman counterpart. See e.g., Michele Bernardini,
"The masnavi-shahrashubs as Town Panegyrics: An International Genre in Islamic
Mashriq," in Erziihlter Raum in Literaturen der islamisehen Welt / Narrated Space in the
Literature ofthe Islamic World, ed. Roxane Haag-Higuchi and Christian Szyska (Wiesbaden:
Verlag Harrassowitz, 2001), 81-94; Sunil Sharma, "The City of Beauties in IndO-Persian
Poetic Landscape;' Comparative Studies ofSouth Asia, Africa and the Middle East 24, no. 2
(2004): 73-81.
34. This work has been published several times in Ottoman, usually together with
some of the poet's other works. No English translation exists to the best of my knowl­
edge, but a French translation by Edmond Fazy was published in 1909 and has recently
been reprinted.
35. This work too has been published several times in Ottoman. It was translated
into French as Fazil-Bey, Le Livre des femmes (Zenan-nameh), trans.J.-A. [Jean-Adolphe]
Decourdemanche (Paris: Ernest Leroux, EdUeur. 1879). This French text was subse­
quently rendered into English and included in Eastern Love. ed. and trans. E. Powys
Mathers, 12 vols. (London: John Rodker, 1927),3:1-69.
36. The full text appears in Levend, TUrk Edebiyatmda ~ehr-engizler. 119-38.
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THE TURKISH STUDIES ASSOCIATION JOURNAL I 27:1~2 (2004)
city, unrelated men and women did not freely intermingle, and when they
did, women were generally veiled; male poets could therefore not credibly
claim to have seen women in order to describe them. Besides, in contrast to
western orientalist depictions of the harem in which the act of transgression
was the main attraction, for Ottoman poets, violating the sanctity of female
space and exposing women to public scrutiny would have been considered
dishonorable and in plain bad taste.
For the same reason, another somewhat similar erotic genre, this one
known as hammdmiye or hammamname (book of the bath) excluSively de­
scribed beautiful boys and young men, never women; once again, unlike
orientalist painters and writers who described scenes in women's baths
that they could not possihly have seen (and lived to tell the tale), Ottoman
poets generally preferred to remain within the realm of plausibility. Some
of the best known examples of this genre include Belig's (d. ca. 1172/1758­
59) Hammamndme-i dilsuz (The Heart-inflaming Book of the Bath), as well as
the hammamiyes of Nedim (actually a kaside in honor of Grand Vezir Damad
ibrahim Pa~a), Nab! (d. 1124/1712), and Nev'!-zade Atayi (d. 1045/1635-36)
who wrote no fewer than five. A rare description of a women's bath, com­
plete with references to lesbianism, is in Fazll Bey's Zenanname. 37
Folk Poetry
Popular literature is largely rural, oral, and dominated by i4lk (minstrel)
poetry. The word i4lk literally means "lover" (from the Arabic 'ashq); indeed
lyrical and (to a somewhat lesser extent) erotic themes feature prominently
there.
Oral folk poetry has a masculine authorial voice, and tends to be more
focused on women than divan poetry. In all likelihood, this is due to the fact
that rural society was, of necessity, much less gender-segregated and hence
less homosocial than urban society; it has also been suggested that the influ­
ence of Islam was less pronounced among the Turkoman tribes from which
this poetry sprang, leading to less rigorous gender segregation there. 38
Some writers have concluded that this is evidence ofa "healthier" sexuality
among the "Turkish people" than was practiced in the "decadent Ottoman
towns;' but the homophobic premise underlying this polemical argument
should be obvious.
Descriptions of the beloved are stylized and abstract in oral folk poetry,
and erotic metaphors abound-breasts like oranges, skin as white as silver,
hair rolling down the shoulders like hyacinths, lips sweeter than any fruit.
37. "Der beyan~l klssa-i hammam-l zenan;' in Fazil Bey, Defter-i A~k. Hubanndme.
lendnndme •. . (Istanbul: Darii't-tlba'ati'l-amire. 1253). 94-96.
38. ilhan Ba~goz. Karac'o~lan .3d revised ed. (Istanbul: Pan Yaymclhk. 1992).44-46.
90
OTTOMAN AND TURKISH EROTIC L1TERATURF I SCHICK
Even perspiration is delightfully aestheticized: in the memorable words of
the seventeenth-century poet Karacaoglan, generally considered the most
lyrical of all i4lk poets,
Ak 90gsiin araSl zemzem pman
ifsem oldiiriirler ifmesem oldiim
(Between her white breasts is the source (well) of Zam Zam /If I drink from
it, they will kill me; if I do not, I will die).39 Such imagery does tend to ob­
jectify women by highlighting body parts at the expense of totality and
personhood. Moreover, in oral folk poetry, women are assigned the role of
prey in a never-ending hunt in which the male poet gives chase and the fe­
male beloved plays hard-to-get.
Although courtly love is the underlying theme in many of these
works, carnal desire is not hidden from view; Kuloglu, a contemporary of
Karacaoglan's, says in one of his poems:
Uzaktan merhabd olmaz
Gel ey mestane bakl~hm
Kollarm boynuma dola
Dile mestdne bakl~llm
(Greetings from afar will not do / Come, 0 [my love] with the languid gaze /
Wrap your arms around my neck / Your wish is my command, [my love] with
the languid gaze).10 At the same time, a great deal of tenderness is exhibited
toward the beloved, and the poet's objective is usually a loving relationship
rather than merely physical possession. Furthermore, women are given
agency in that, while they do not give chase, they freely choose among their
suitors and are not the powerless victims of social or divine forces.
Other i4lk poets some of whose works could be considered erotic include
Gevheri, Kul Mehemmed, Kul Mustafa, Garip Hasan, and 6ksUz A~lk.
Another genre in Turkish folk poetry that is sometimes erotic is the mani.
These are "anonymous" strophes, often composed by women; sometimes,
39. Karacaoglan. Butun ~iirleri, ed. Cahit Oztelli ([Istanbul]: Milliyet Yaymlarl. 1970),
136. A related-and rather more explicit-couplet is: Ak gobek altmda zemzem pman /
Dayadrm a~zrml kandmll beni (Below the white belly is the source [well] of lam Zam / I
pressed down my mouth, it satiated me). I am very grateful to Zillfii Uvaneli for sharing
with me this apparently unpublished poem attributed to Karacaoglan, which he person­
ally heard from an ~Ik. See also A. Omit Aloglu, "Karac'oglan'da Cinsellik," Kebiket; 13
(2002): 111-34.
40. Sadettin Nilzhet [Ergun], XVllnci ASlr Sa~irlerinden Kuloglu ([Istanbul]; Silhulet
Kiltiiphanesi. n.d.), 40.
91
THE TURKISH STUDIES ASSOCIATION JOURNAL / 27:1-2 (2004)
OTTOMAN AND TURKISH EROTIC LITERATURE / SCHICK
too, they were exchanged between parties in the form of a dialogue that
could take the form of a battle of wits. for example, the following thir­
teenth-century (i.e., pre-Ottoman) exchange is reported to have taken place
between the Sufi poet ~eyyad Hamza and the women of an Anatolian village
through which he and his student happened to be passing. A woman ad­
dressed him, saying:
particularly bemoaning the attendance of women and children. Thus,
Theophile Gautier wrote in Constantinople (1853) that the audience was
of eight- or nine-year-old girls, and that "Every erotic prowess pried silvery
bursts of laughter and interminable clap pings of hands from those naively
corrupted little angels .... One could not push any further the priapic ex­
travagance and the profligacy of obscene imagination."42
Shadow plays essentially portray a classical "war of the sexes" scenario,
generally personified as a clash between Karagoz or his acolyte Hacivat and
their respective wives, and sometimes between Zenne and her lover(s). In
particular, Karagoz, shadow theater's quintessential "man of the people;'
constantly quarrels with his wife. Themes are often mundane, such as fights
over money or the husband's drinking, but complicating factors may include
townsfolk's anxiety to preserve "the neighborhood's honor" or supernatu­
ral forces like witches and jinns. Although the overall portrayal of women
is misogynistic-manipulative, materialistic, unfaithful to their husbands or
lovers-men do not fare much better, often being depicted as jealous, rowdy,
stupid, and violent. Such motifs frequently function as the founding myths
of gender.
In the play Ortaklar (The Co-wives), Karagoz takes advantage of his wife's
absence to marry a second woman, predictably leading to scandal upon
his first wife's return. In Mandlra sefasl (pleasure Trip to the Dairy farm),
Karagoz's wife walks out on him, upon which he begins to live with another
woman, but ends up being constantly harassed by her many lovers who wish
to take her on an outing. In BuyUk Evlenme (The Big Wedding), Karagoz is
again abandoned by his wife and quickly remarries, only to have his new wife
deliver a picaresque baby on their wedding night. In ~e~me (The fountain),
Karagoz learns of his wife's unfaithfulness from Hacivat, but in the pro­
cess of catching her in the act, ends up uncovering the sexual escapades of
Hacivat's own daughter. In Aptal Bek~i (The Foolish Watchman), Zenne rents
a house and invites in a series of men, provoking her neighbors' ire.
Another noteworthy aspect of shadow theater is the occasional hint at
same-sex relations (involving both men and women) and gender-bending; in
all likelihood, however, such motifs were intended to be comical rather than
subversive. Hamam (The Bathhouse) prominently features two lesbian bath
attendants. In Sahte Gelin (The Fake Bride), fluid gender identity and cross­
dreSSing gain central place as Hacivat convinces Karagoz that he (Karagoz)
is a woman, upon which the latter is married off to the macho Tuzsuz Deli
Bekir. In Karagoz'iin Pehlivanhgl (Karagoz the Wrestler), an heiress is to be
married to the man who can defeat her at arm wrestling; all the men try
Dam yanmda damlmlz
Yanmda harmammlz
Erimiz koyden gitti
Yas tutuyor amlmlZ
(Our home is beside the shed / And beside it is our threshing ground / Our
man is away from the village / Our cunt is in mourning), To this, he is said
to have responded:
O~te geldiik ikimiz
Slrtlmlzda yiikiimiiz
Destur verin kadmlar
Bayram etsin sikimiz
(So here we are, the two of us / Carrying our load on our back / Just say
the word, women / And let our prick have a feast)Y Although most manis
were lyrical and not at all sexually explicit, erotic expression in them was
sometimes quite unrestrained-as this example amply demonstrates-and
women's desire was acknowledged as much as men's.
Popular Theater
One of the most transgressive genres in Ottoman literature was shadow
theater (zl1l-1 hayal, more widely known by the name of one of its two prin­
cipal characters, Karagoz). An urban phenomenon that often voiced social
and political criticism, shadow theater animated a large cast of puppets
representing a virtual cross-section of Ottoman society. Gender and sexu­
ality figured prominently among its topics. Eroticism and crude language
were standard fare, at least until the mid-nineteenth century, sometimes
underscored by special puppets such as a bare-breasted Zenne or a Karago z
sporting an oversize phallus (known as toramanh or zekerli Karagoz). Western
travelers expressed outrage at the extreme lewdness of the representations,
41. Niyazi Eset, Mukayeseli ve Ne~redilmemi~ Mani/er (Ankara: Ankara Halkevi Ne~riyatl, 1944), 19; a badly censored version appears in Kopriiltizade Mehmed Fuad, "Seh;:ukller Devrindeki Anadolu ~airleri: ~eyyad Hamza;' Dergclh 1 (1337): 51. 92
42. Theophile Gautier, Constantinople (Paris: Michel Levy Freres, Libraires-Editeurs.
1856),179.
93
THE TURKISH STUDIES ASSOC1AnON JOURNAL / 27:1-2 (2004)
OTTOMAN AND TURKISH EROTIC LITERATURE / SCHICK
their luck and lose-until Karagoz, who not only beats her but also all the
other men. In Kanll Nigar (Bloody Nigar), <;:elebi swindles two courtesans,
one of whom, the eponymous Nigar, strips him naked and throws him out
onto the street; a sequence of men attempt to reclaim <;:elebi's clothes, only
to be in turn beaten up and stripped naked. 43
The popular theater ortaoyunu, which grew out of shadow theater but
used human (male) actors, is similar in its approach to gender and sexuality,
though perhaps somewhat less graphic. 44 Public storytellers (meddah) also
indulged in erotic subjects.
Transitional Period: The Rise of Printing
the late nineteenth century, printing was a rare and exclusive activ­
ity among Muslims: only an estimated 180 books in Turkish were printed
during the first century (1729-1830) ofArabic-script printing in the Ottoman
Empire, and by the First Constitutional Period (1876) this number had risen
to just 3,066.45 Yet, by the time the Republic of Turkey adopted Latin script
in 1928, well over 25,000 distinct titles in Turkish had been printed.4b The
rapid, if somewhat belated, adoption of this technology had a deep impact
upon all facets of cultural life, including erotica. Before printing was de­
mocratized, erotic literature had been limited either to manuscripts, which
were few in number and reached a relatively small audience (though there
is good evidence of the existence of the practice of lending and renting out
manuscripts), or to oral transmission, which reached a broader audience but
changed rapidly as it spread across the population. Printing on the one hand
fixed and stabilized erotic literature, and on the other, made it accessible
to a larger public than before. At the same time, printed erotica was more
vulnerable to government intervention and was sometimes suppressed by
secular or religiOUS authorities. For example, FazIl Bey's Zenanname, printed
in 1253/1837, was banned by the Ottoman government reportedly on ac­
count of its declared opposition to the institution of marriage. 47
43. for Karagoz'an Pehlivanlrgl, see Metin And, "Eski bir Karagoz fash: adana ya
da Karagoz'un Pehlivanligl," Tiyatro Ara;;tlnnalan Dergisi 2 (1971): 207-37. For the other
plays, see Helmut Ritter, ed., Karagos. Tiirkische Schattenspiele, 3 vols. (Hannover, Leipzig,
and Wiesbaden: Bibliotheca Islamica im Auftrage der Deutschen Morgenlandischen
Gesellschaft, 1924-53); Cevdet Kudret [Solok], ed., Karagoz, 3 vols. (Ankara: Bilgi
Yaymevi,1968-70).
44. Cevdet Kudret [Solok], ed., Ortaoyunu, 2 vols. (Ankara: Bilgi Yaymevi, 1973-75).
45. Jale Baysal, Miitefemka'dan Birinci Me~rutiyete kadar Osman" Tiirklerinin Bastlklarl
Kitaplar {Istanbul: Edebiyat Fakiiltesi Baslmevi, 1968),13-14.
46. Based on 6zege, Eski Harflerle Basdml~ Tiirkt;e Eserler Katalogu.
47. BardakC;I, Osmanh'da 5eles, 122.
94
In addition to Zenanname, FaZ11 Bey's HuMnname,Defter-i A~k (Book ofLove),
and (:enginame (Book of [Male] Dancers) were printed several times, as were
Siinbiil-zade Vehbi's $evkengfz (1253/1837), Siiruri's Hezeliyydt (undated),
a collection of the most obscene satirical poetry entitled Mecmu'a-i Divan-I
Vehbiyd (1288/1871),48 the humorous Mutayyebat-I Tiirkiye (Pleasantries of
Turkey) (undated) by Abdiilhalim Galib Pa~a (d. 1293/1876), and numerous
other erotic works. of these, Mutayyebat-l Tiirkiye is of particular inter­
est: written by an Ottoman bureaucrat who had spent many years in the
countryside, it is in the dialect spoken in Kastamonu and pokes fun at the
peasants of the region, depicting them as simple, crude, and very lustful. 49 It
is noteworthy that, like many of its antecedents, this sexually explicit book
too was dedicated to a sultan, this time Abdiilaziz (r. 1861-76).
Under the authoritarian reign of Sultan Abdiilhamid II (r. 1876-1909),
state licenSing and censorship increasingly restricted pUblishing within the
Ottoman Empire. Still, some popular erotic works did manage to appear,
notably Ahmet Rasim's Olfet (later HamamcI Olfet, or Olfet the Bathkeeper)
(1316/1898), which focused on the theme of lesbianism. With the Second
Constitutional Period (beginning in 1908) and particularly after the Young
Turk takeover of 1909, however, there was a virtual explosion in publishing.
Women figured prominently among the many topics covered in books and
periodicals, spanning issues as diverse as women's rights, good housekeep­
ing, work and employment, family, and sexuality.
Erotic literature also enjoyed a major surge during the Second
Constitutional Period and into the war years (1914-18), armistice, and early
Republic (proclaimed in 1923), as did popular and mass culture more gen­
erally. Dime novels, pseudo-scientific treatises on sexuality, and books on
feminine beauty, love, and many other themes proliferated, some adorned
with erotic draWings or photographs.50 Many were published anonymous­
ly, pseUdonymously, or with just the author's initials-for example fahi~e
(Whore) (1328 r/1912) and Zifaf Hatlrasl (Memento of the Wedding Night)
(1330 r/1914) with its explicit, orgasmic conclusion. Some were the work
of popular authors like "~ovalye" Hasan Bahri, who wrote such books as
Krallarm Sefahati (Dissoluteness of the Kings) (undated) and Nisvan-I ZanYe
(Elegant Women) (1327 r/1911), and Avanzade Mehmed Siileyman, whose
48. "Bin ikiyiiz elli altl tarihlerinde ~uaradan Vehbi ve Aynl ve Gani-zade ve Siirfi[r)j
ve Sadrazam Gilrci Pa~a ve Cumhur ve MezbQri ve Hoca-zade ve Yahya Efendi divan Ian
ve daha tuhaf ve gilzel divanlar dahi cern' olunmu~dur ... Sene 1277." The vulgarity of
this book is truly something to behold!
49. Copious marginal notes help the reader naVigate the idiosyncrasies of the local
dialect.
50. Zafer Toprak, "Me~rutiyet'ten Cumhuriyet'e Miistehcen Avam EdebiyatI;' Tarih
ve Top/um 38 (1987): 25-28; BardakC;l, Osmanll'da 5eles. 178-203.
95
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OTTOMAN AND TURKISH EROTIC LITERATURE / SCHICK
many works include Rehber-i Muamelat-I Zevciye (Guide to Marital Relations)
(1330 r/1914), Kuvvet Ua(lan (Aphrodisiacs) (1335 r/1919), and Kadm Esran
(The Mystery of Woman) (1330 r/1914). Others were written by less promi­
nent authors, like Kadm ve A~k (Woman and Love) (1327 r /1911) by Mehmed
Galib. The Indian classic Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana was translated by Ahmed
Sahib from the 1891 French edition of Pierre Eugene Lamairesse, and pub­
lished as Sevmek San'atl (The Art of Loving) in three volumes in 1329 r/1913 .
Erotic novels appeared by the dozens during this period, such as Bir
Dakika"k Bekaret (A Moment's Virginity) (1330 r/1914) and Karyolada Tat"
Dakikalanm (My Sweet Moments in Bed) (1328 r /1912) by s. Hidayet, Bir Dans
Gecesi (A Night of Dancing) (1926) and Goniil Sarm~lklan (Ivies of the Heart)
(1341 r/1925) by Selami izzet (Sedes), A~k Yuvasl (Love Nest) (1330 r/1914)
by M. Ne~'et, and many others. Some erotic novels were written by serious
mainstream authors, such as Zaniyeler (The Fornicatoresses) (1339 r /1923) by
selahaddin Enis (Atabeyoglu) and especially Bir Zanbagm Hikayesi (The Story
of a Lily) (undated [1910]) as well as the extremely explicit Kaymak Tabagl
(plate of Cream) (undated) by Mehmed Rauf. The latter, a well-respected
novelist who was charged with obscenity and sentenced to prison for Bir
Zanbagm Hikayesi,>l also apparently published a short-lived erotic magazine,
Bin Bir Buse: En ~en, En ~uh Hikayeler (1001 Kisses: The MostJoyous, Most Saucy
Stories) {1339-40 r/1923-24)-an iconoclastic collection of short stories and
cartoons in which men and women freely intermingled, extramarital sex
and adultery were routine, and women were every bit as hedonistic as men.
In contrast, no Ottoman or early republican novel within the Turkish liter­
ary canon has ever viewed extramarital relations sympathetically.>2
Toward the end of the 1920s, as the new republican government managed
to consolidate its power, popular erotica was gradually suppressed and vir­
tually disappeared from circulation. This fact alone might suggest that the
literature in question was far from devoid of political significance, and in­
deed it has been said that obscenity in these works was in part the expression
of a yearning for freedom, particularly with regard to changing gender rela­
tions in the collapsing empire. Certainly the republican regime also aimed
at restructuring gender, but it wished to do so on its own terms, from above;
the liberal relativism that erotic literature entailed would have been consid­
ered a threat to the revolutionary puritanism ushered in by the new order.
Giving voice to a long-suppressed longing for freer interaction between the
51. Ali Birinci, "MUstehcenlik Tartl~malan Tarihinde Bir Zanbagm Hikdyesi",
Dergdh 2, no. 16 (1991): 18-20; Yavuz Selim Karakl~la, "Osmanh imparatorlugu'nda
MUstehcenlik Tartl~malan ve Bir Zanbagm Hikdyesi;' Tarih ve Top/urn 208 (2001): 15-21.
52. A. Orner TUrke~, "Osmanh Roman!: 'A~k ve Cinsellik Otopyasl;" Tarih ve Top/urn
208 (2001): 69.
Final page of the anonymous Zi{a{Hatlrasl [Memento of the Wedding Night] (Istanbul:
Cem'i Kitabhanesi,1330 [r/1914]), for the enjoyment of those who can read it.
97
OTTOMAN AND TURKISH EROTIC LITERATURE I SCHICK
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.9....0 sexes, the popular erotica of the early twentieth century represented people
as individuals endowed with agency, and this-worldly pleasures as worthy
of pursuit. Women in these books were portrayed as unveiled, very much
aware of their bodies and sensuality, and in search of personal fulfillment.
This was, in short, a "literature of social transformation."53
Popular erotica in the transitional period did not straightforwardly "re­
flect" the sexual mores of its day; it did, however, put forward a particular
conception of sexuality and thereby created a set of shared aspirations and
fantasies that went a long way toward reconstructing sexual discourse-and
hence, sexuality itself. In this respect, the term milli roman (national novel)
that served as subtitle to many of these books (and was bitterly attacked
by nationalists) was in fact singularly apt: in Benedict Andersonian fashion,
this highly commercial publishing enterprise created a collective vocabu­
lary and set of significations that partook in national self-representation in
the nascent Republic of Turkey, particularly in the area of gender.
Republican Literature
After an initial period of silence, erotic themes returned, along with po­
litical liberalization. Perhaps the most salient characteristic of literature
during much of the republican period is that sexuality, when present, has
almost always been at the service of a critical message. Thus, for example,
like SeIahaddin Enis's Zaniyeler, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu's Sodom ve
Gomore (Sodom and Gomorrah) (1928) depicted the Ottoman elite of Istanbul
in the days immediately follOWing World War I as decadent and hedonistic,
in particular stressing the immorality of those elite women who thought
nothing of thrOWing themselves into the foreign occupiers' beds. Peyami
Safa, Hiiseyin Rahmi Giirpmar, Halide Edip AdIVar, and other well-known
writers also used sexual motifs in support of moral or political theses in
their works. Such instrumentalization of sexuality often plays an important
role in the construction of gender and its enforcement: for example, de­
picting women as the yardstick of a society's virtue and morality inevitably
invites social and even legal measures to control them and to limit women's
freedom to do with their bodies as they please. The essentially desexualized
ideal woman of many revolutionary movements, notably the Kemalists in
Turkey, is a consequence of such thinking. 54
Erotic literature in the Republic of Turkey has taken several forms. One is
popular history, starting with Ahmet Rasim's fu~-i Atik (Prostitution in the
Old Days) (1340/1922) and Refik Ahmet (Sevengil)'s Istanbul Nasd Egleniyordu
53. Toprak, "Me~rutiyet'ten Cumhuriyet'e Mtistehcen Avam EdebiyatJ;' 91-92.
54. Deniz Kandiyoti, "Slave Girls, Temptresses and Comrades: Images of Women in
the Turkish Novel," feminist Issues 8, no. 1 (1988): 35-50.
99
THE TURKISH STUDIES ASSOCIATION JOURNAl/27:1~2 (2004)
(How Istanbul had fun) (1927) and continuing some decades later with the
more or less titillating books of <;agatay ulu~ay, Re~at Ekrem Ko~u, and oth­
ers. This genre is very much alive today in the works of Ergun Hi~Yllmaz,
Meral Altmdal, Sema ok, Sema NilgGn Erdogan, and Ismail Metin An-with
the difference that these authors are much further removed from their sub­
ject matter than were their predecessors, and this distance shows clearly in
their writings. The exoticization of the Ottoman past in republican works
of popular history bolsters relatively egalitarian gender relations by rep­
resenting the world of harems, concubines, and polygamy as foreign and
strange. An interesting subcategory of this genre is historical-erotic com
ics like Suat Yalaz's Karaoglan (starting in 1963) and Sezgin Burak's Tarkan
(starting in 1967), in which steamy love scenes with usually non-Turkish
women are part ofthe stories' distinctly nationalistic bent.ssTurhan Sel~uk's
Abdiilcanbaz (starting in 1957) is also both historical and quite sexy, espe­
cially in its later incarnations, but totally irreverent; indeed, the obsessive
nudity of its female characters is intended as a declaration of freedom.
Another important genre in the republican period is the so-called "vil­
lage literature;' which typically represents the clash between rich but
heartless landlords and poor but noble peasants. sexuality is a common
manifestation of this socio-economic struggle, in the shape of the powerful
landlord's efforts to possess a virtuous peasant girl who is in love with one
of her fellow villagers. In addition, however, some works of village literature
are self-consciously erotic, notably Necati Cuma/I's Ay Biiyiirken Uyuyamam
(I Cannot Sleep When the Moon is Waxing) (1969) and Nevzat DsUin's ~Iplak
(Naked) (1970). Like Galib Pa~a's Mutayyebdt-I Tiirkiye, the peasants depicted
here are simple and lustful, but rather than being crude, they are oppressed.
Indeed, the underlying theme in Cumah's and OsUin's works is the violence
of custom: both women and men are sensuous and desirous of each other,
and they are willing and able to express themselves both emotionally and
physically, but they ineVitably run afoul of the "primitive" societal norms
that oppress them. If individual men sometimes resort to unspeakable bru­
tality, whether in the form of rape or honor killing, they are as much the
victims of custom as the women they maim and murder. As with popular
history, here too the oppression of women is displaced onto an "other"­
this time the peasantry-and that is a mixed blessing: on the one hand, a
self-image is fostered in the reader that values gender equality, but on the
other, feminism is to a degree demobilized by making women's oppression
someone else's problem.
55. Levent Cantek, Erotik ve Milliyetfi Bir ikon: Kara~lan (Istanbul: Oglak Yaymlan. 2003). 100
OTTOMAN AND TURKISH EROTIC LITERATURE I SCHICK
In contrast to Cumah and OsUin, some contemporary authors have fo­
cused on urban life and the sexual alienation that characterizes
relationships there: it is not custom that stands in the way of sexual
ment in the city, but anonymity and interpersonal distance. Yusuf Atdgan's
Anayurt ateli (The Homeland Hotel) (1973) describes the deadening exis­
tence of a small-town hotel clerk whose sex life is limited to eves dropping
on hotel guests, compulsive masturbation, and occasional romps with the
rural-migrant chambermaid-who, however, sleeps through those sessions,
or at least pretends to do so. In <;etin Altan's Bir Avur Go/cyuzu (A Handful
of sky) (1974), the protagonist is in imminent danger of being imprisoned
for some political offense, and experiences lovemaking with his mistress
mainly as a metaphor for the freedom he is about to lose; the awkward and
clumsy sex he has with his wife, on the other hand. seems an apt meta­
phor for the emotionally inert life he leads even outside of prison. Ahmet
Altan's 5udaki iz (The Trace on the Water) (1985) focuses on a group ofleftist
militants who, while sexually active, have substituted ideological commit­
ment and political action for sentiment, and whom peer pressure within the
organization and torture at the hands of security forces have combined to
turn into emotional cripples. In Kadrnlar Kitabl (The Book of Women) (1983).
Nedim GGrsel relates in gruesome detail the sexual awakening ofa rural stu­
dent attending an elite boarding school in istanbul, complete with nostalgic
recollections of his mother and drunken visits to lowest-rung brothels; the
theme of putrefaction permeates his account, whether he is describing the
city or its prostitutes. Intentionally or not, the relations between men and
women in these books, ranging as they do between unsatisfying and patho­
logical, articulate a bitter critique of gender relations in SOciety at large.
Themes of gender-bending and fluid sexuality dominate Attila. ilhan's
Fena Halde Leman (Really Badly Leman) (1981) and Haco Hamm Vay! (Madame
Haco, Wow!) (1984), and make briefer appearances in a number ofother nov­
els. The most important mainstream writer to give extensive coverage to
sexuality, i1han has argued in such books of essays as Hang; Seks? (Which
Sex?) (1976), Yanlr$ Kadrnlar, Yanll$ Erkekler (false Women, false Men) (1985),
and Kadrnlar 5aVa$1 (Women's War) (1992) that the rise of capitalism and con­
Sumer SOciety are eroding sexual dimorphism and increaSingly leading to
an indeterminacy of gender and sexuality. However, focusing primarily on
female transvestites and lesbians, he has not gone very far beyond the tradi­
tional butch/femme stereotypes. Earlier, Re~at Ekrem Ko~u described with
relish male and female impersonators during the Ottoman period in Erkek
Klzlar (Masculine Girls) (1962) and Eski istanbul'da Meyhaneler ve Meyhane
lCO{:ekleri (Taverns and Tavern Dancers in old Istanbul) (1947), respectively.
For his part, Murathan Mungan has written on homoerotic themes in such
101
THE TURKISH STUDIES ASSOCIATION JOURNAL / 21:12 (2004)
masterful story and novella collections as Son istanbul (The Last Istanbul)
(1985) and Cenk Hikayeleri (War Stories) (1986).
An interesting development during the last few decades has been the
emergence of a significant number of women authors whose writings
contain an important erotic dimension. Such books as the enormously in­
fluential Kadmm Adl Yok (The Woman Has No Name) (1987) and Ashnda A~k
da Yok (In Fact There Is No Love Either) (1989) by Duygu Asena, Bitmeyen A~k
(The Love That Would Not End) (1986) by Pmar KUr, Mektup A~klan (Love
Affairs by Correspondence) (1988) by Leyla Erbil, Olii Erkek Ku~lar (Dead Male
Birds) (1991) by inci Aral, tki Gen~ Klzm Romam (The Novel ofTwo Young Girls)
(2002) by Perihan Magden, Onunla Giizeldim (I Was Beautiful with Him) (1991)
by Erendiz AtasU, Mahrim (Private/Forbidden) (2000) by Elif $afak, Hanene Ay
Dogacak (The Moon will Rise Over Your Dwelling) (1993) by $ebnem i~igUzel,
as well as certain works by Meltem Arlkan, Ash Erdogan, Filruzan (Selc;uk),
Sevgi Soysal, Adalet Agaoglu, Tezer OzIU, Latife Tekin, and Nazl! Eray con­
tain sometimes explicit sexual material.
Not all these writers can be said to have voiced a specifically "female"
point of view, but some have done so, and their works differ significantly
from those of their male counterparts. In the works of many male authors­
say, in GUrsel's Kadmlar Kitabl-female characters are constructed in terms of
"otherness" and function as a foil to the male characters; by contrast, some
women authors have created female characters that not only stand on their
own, but describe such recognizable experiences as childhood sexual abuse,
illicit love affairs, violent relationships, sexual desire for other women,
or hatred of their own bodies. These stories or novels are, of course, not
necessarily autobiographical: in Hanene Ay Dogacak (which was banned by
the authorities when first published), for instance, $ebnem i~igUzel writes
about incest, prostitution, rape, and even necrophilia, all in just over 100
pages! Rather, these authors generally use sexual dysfunction to articulate a
critique of sexist society as a whole. Their tackling of themes like the impos­
sibility for a woman to achieve independence and preserve selfhood within
marriage, the rigidity of social norms, and sexual violence against women
has rewarded them with a very broad readership.
Though individual poets like Orhan veli Kamk, Bedri Rahmi EyUbogl u,
Necip Fazll KlsakUrek, i1han Berk, Salah Birsel, Metin Eloglu, Cemal SUreya,
and others have written some sexually charged poems, it is difficult to
speak of contemporary Turkish erotic poetry as a distinct category. Only
a few poets have consistently sought erotic expression in their works. Of
these, Attila i1han has articulated the same gender-bending themes in Yasak
Sev~mek (Lovemaking the Forbidden way) (1968), Boyle Bir Sevmek (To Love
Like This) (1977), and other collections of poems, as run through the novels
mentioned earlier. As for kUC;Uk Iskender's Luddite poetry, largely composed
102
OTTOMAN AND TURKISH EROTIC LITERATURE / SCHICK
of word games that stretch language well beyond its limits, it uses eroticism
as just one weapon among many in a ludic attack against authority in such
transparently titled books as Erotika (1991) and Bahname (2000).
A Final Note
Not long ago I wrote a preface for Kitap Yaytnevi's reissue of the early
republican erotic magazine Bin Bir Buse. 56 Though modest in both length and
scope, my preface received a great deal of attention in the Turkish press­
certainly incomparably more than anything I had written before. I wondered
why that was so, and came to the conclusion that a particular theme that
runs through the preface had resonated with many people living in Turkey
today: the non-existence of a deep, unbridgeable chasm between their an­
cestors' sense of morality and behavior between the sheets, and their own.
At a time when the citizens of Turkey are relentlessly being measured up
against past generations and found lacking, it seems that my preface came
as welcome relief.
Lay people are often amazed to find that their generation did not "in­
vent" erotica after all, that sexually explicit art and literature not only
existed in the past but sometimes did so at higher levels than in the pres­
ent. If Ottoman and Turkish erotic literature cannot quite compete with,
say, Arabic, French, Indian, or Japanese erotica in terms of sheer volume, it
is still true that the works that do exist have much to teach us, in terms of
past lifestyles and aspirations, realities and fantasies, values and morality,
conceptions and misconceptions. And, of course, they are so much fun to
read! Scholars like Everett K. Rowson, Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Edgar Weber,
Lorenzo Declich,]. Christoph BUrgel, and others have written extensively
about Arabic erotic literature; may their likes be multiplied in the Turkish
domain as well.
56. irvin (emil Schick, "Sunu~:' in Bin Bir Bust. 1923-24 istanbul'undan Erotik Bir Dergi,
ed. Orner TUrkoglu (istanbul: Kitap Yaymevi, 2005), 9-25.
103