Turkish Islamic Literature And Tadhkiras Of Saints

Tadhkira (collection of biographies), which is one of the basic resources of Turkish classical literature, is an Arabic word meaning to remember. Tadhkiras originated from the books of ？abaqāt (biographical dictionary) in Arabic Literature. This genre was named ？abaqāt by Arabs and tadhkira by Persians and Turks. It started in the 12th century in Turkish literature and continued until the 20th century. There are hundreds of examples of tadhkiras, which are among the indispensable resources of Turkish Islamic literature. We learn about the lives of the poets of the classical era in the Muslim Turkish countries from tadhkiras; we also learn about the lives, extraordinary incidents and stories of saints from the tadhkiras. We get detailed information about Turkish ？ūfi literature and its history thanks to tadhkiras. Tadhkiras of saints are mostly translated works in Turkish literature. We managed to determine that thirteen theses were prepared on tadhkiras of saints, which are regarded among the indispensable resources of Turkish Islamic literature, starting with Mullā Jāmi？ and Alī Shīr Navā？ī. Two of them were graduation theses, seven of them were postgraduate theses and four of them were doctoral theses. In this article, we give information on tadhkira, tadhkira in Turkish Islamic literature and tadhkiras of saints, and on the other hand we present the main tadhkiras of saints. The aim of the article is to inform the academic world about tadhkiras of saints that have original properties and to shed a new light on our cultural life