The Inclusion of the Story of Alexander in Feday？’s Turkish Translation of the Mant？ku’t-Tayr

Feday？ Mehmed Dede in the 17th century wrote one of the versified translations in Turkish of the Mant？ku’t-Tayr. Feday？ Mehmed Dede, originally from Antep, was a Mawlawi and resided for many years in Mawlawi Lodge of Tripoli. The Title of his translation was Mant？k-？ Esrar. Although some research suggests that this was a “complete translation”, Feday？, excluded 30 sections from the original while he added a story. The story begins with Alexander’s journey to the land of darkness. This paper endeavours to explore whether the story belongs to Feday？ or it is borrowed from other sources. The story itself consists of 22 couplets. However with the couplets taken from the previous section, it comes up to 29 couplets under the heading “Hikayet-i ？skender”. Feday？ partially explains the metaphors he used. This story, which first appeared in Firdawsi’s Shahnama and later in the first separate Iskandarnama that of Nizami-i Gandjawi’s Sharafnama, was also found in other various texts and Iskandarnamas. Thus it is apparent that before translating Mantiq a-Tayr into Turkish, Feday？ should have seen some of the translations/commentaries that had been made before him