The Interpretation of the Dreams in the Poems of Taşlıcalı Yahya Bey

Abstract

Dreams and interpretations of dreams have a great signifiance on the eastern culture. Dreams and interpretations of dreams are considered important m the Islamic culture as well. The nation became commonly accepted in the Islamic world due to the references to dreams and interpretations in suras, especially Yusuf Sura in the Quran. Dreams and their interpretations had an important part in our old culture and in our social/political life. Osman Gazi's (Sultan Osman's) dream before the Ottomans established the empire is nateworthy. Dükaginzade (Taşlıcalı) Yahya Bey, a 16th century Divan poet, born in Arnavutluk, then was converted as a soldier in the army and was made a sipahi beside his military duty. He is also an important poet of his time having been educated by the important scientists of the era. He mentioned dreams and interpretations in the couplets which he wrote for art's sake in his Divan and in some stories in his Hamse. Especially m his Gülşen-i Envar mesnevi in his Hamse, he gives specific references to four dreams and their interpretations which he adopts from the Persian poet Sadi: Three of these are about the dreams dreamt m specific seasons. The last one is about the dream which the Propeht Yusuf interprated when he was prisoned. In this work, we tred to explain Yahya Bey's ideas about this topic by publishing these texts.