Tradition and innovation: Imitation and imitation networks in sixteenth-century Ottoman gazel poetry

Abstract

Imitation, a text composition method that combines tradition with innovation, was one of the major text creation techniques of imperial Ottoman classical poetry, which emerged in the first half of the sixteenth century and regarded the Persian classical literary tradition as its intellectual predecessor. Although the phenomenon of imitation can be observed in all genres, it is perhaps best studied in the gazel, the most important verse form of the Ottoman classical poetry. The study of imitation gazels is facilitated by the fact that, substantial anthologies were produced in the Ottoman Empire in the given period, sometimes containing thousands of imitation texts, primarily gazels. Based on this source material, the phenomenon of imitation as it was practiced in Ottoman gazel poetry can be described and, through a specific example, the reader will be introduced to the theory of imitation networks.