Epiphanius Wilson

Turkish Literature: Fables, Belles-Lettres and Sacred Traditions Epiphanius Wilson

From the special introduction when this work was first published in 1901: "Turkey is really an oriental country transplanted into a European environment, and the truest affinities of Turkey are with the Far East, with Arabia and Persia. There are at least 25 written languages used in the Ottoman Empire, and Turkish is sometimes written in Arabian, sometimes in Persian characters, yet in spite of the babel of tongues which is found at Constantinople, the strong individuality of the Turk has manifested itself in literature, as it has in politics and government, and there exists a considerable amount of epic and lyric poetry, drama, romance and apologue which is neither Arabian nor Persian, but is racy of the soil, the soil being principally that of Constantinople, where the Sultans, up to the present time, have been eminent patrons of the literary craft; some of them, Sultan Mustapha, for instance, in the sixteenth century, being writers of no mean accomplishments! ."