A REVISIONIST THESIS FOR THE ESTHETICS OP THE OTTOMAN GAZEL

If one considers the Ottoman gazel as a body of texts produced during the period from approximately the 14th through the 19th centuries, one can isolate a number of characteristic features upon which most, if not all, experienced observers would readily agree. Some of the most significant of these features are as follows : 1. The language of the gazel deviates rather sharply from the other co-existing sub-sets of Western Turkish. It is distinguishable in both vocabulary and syntax from the contemporaneous spoken and written languages of the mass of Turkish speakers and even, primarily in syntax, from written language of the educated elites. 2. The gazel uses a limited number of tropes with standard interpretations completely accessible only to a limited audience1. 3. The subject matter and internal contexts of the gazel are also quite limited. 4. There ise a heavy emphasis on the innovative rhetorical manipulation of the standard tropes which results in a highly ornamented, allusive and complex anode of expression. 5. The gazel has an extremely low incidence of recognizable reference. Neither actual events nor historical persons impinge on the 1 I would argue that the basic material of the gazel was to some degree accessible to a very wide audience, although it was, 'in large part, consumed indirectly through such media as music and its echos in the popular poetry.