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AN EARLY OTTOMAN INTERPRETATION OF THE ALEXANDER ROMANCE: AHMEDÎ’S İSKENDERNÂME
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AN EARLY OTTOMAN INTERPRETATION OF THE ALEXANDER ROMANCE: AHMEDÎ’S İSKENDERNÂME
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Journal Article
AN EARLY OTTOMAN INTERPRETATION OF THE ALEXANDER ROMANCE: AHMEDÎ’S İSKENDERNÂME
2026
Overview
This article examines Ahmedîâs early fifteenth-century Ä°skendernâme, the most influential Ottoman reworking of the Alexander Romance. After tracing the multilingual transmission of Pseudo-Callisthenes through Byzantine, Islamic, and Iranian routes, it analyzes Ahmedîâs innovations, drawing chiefly on Ferdowsî and Nizâmî. The poem systematizes ideal kingship through advisory epistles attributed to Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Socrates, and recasts Indo-Iranian political theory (justice, liberality, consultation) into an Ottoman adab idiom. It also reshapes the AlexanderâGülÅah episode as a mystical interlude, builds an encyclopedic cosmos spanning cosmology, astronomy/astrology, psychology, and medicine, and organizes wonder narratives (ajâib wa gharâib) thematically. The workâs epistemology pivots between Aristotleâs worldly knowledge and Khidrâs inspired lore and culminates in the Tevârîh-i Mülûk-i Ãl-i Osmân section, which fuses epic, mirror-for-princes literature, encyclopedia, and dynastic historiography. Seasonal descriptions track Alexanderâs life, reinforcing cyclical time.
