Ahmed Hamdî Sirvânî’s Translation of the 30th Maqamah (Suriyah/Mansuriyyah): Kudyah, Psychological Depth, and the Pure Turkish Sermon as a Sociolinguistic Shift

Abstract

Hariri’s al-Maqamat, one of the masterpieces of classical Arabic literature, was translated into Turkish by the 19th-century Ottoman author Ahmed Hamdi Shirvani under the title Tercüme-i Makamat-ı Hariri. This study examines the 30th Maqamah (Suriyah/Mansuriyyah), located in the second volume of the work, from literary and sociolinguistic perspectives, where the institution of kudyah (beggary) is satirized through an allegorical wedding ceremony. By analyzing the psychological depths of the protagonist Abu Zayd al-Saruji and the narrator Harith bin Hammam, the study reveals the trauma of statelessness and the critique of social corruption hidden behind the humorous fiction of the text. The main focus of the research is the radical linguistic shift Shirvani exhibits in his translation strategy. While the translator employs the heavy and rhymed prose style of classical Ottoman prose throughout the maqamah, he abandons this elitist language when translating the parodic wedding sermon delivered in the assembly of beggars. Instead, he constructs a linguistic layer with a simplified syntax, woven with pure and archaic Turkish equivalents (such as ögüş, yarlıganmak, inanış aydınlığı) of Islamic terminology (hamd, maghfirah, hidayah). This conscious preference demonstrates that the work goes beyond a mere translation, serving as a cultural adaptation suited to the sociology of the target audience and an early, conscious reflection of the language simplification trends in the 19th century.