Latîfî Tezkiresi Mukaddimesini Ben-Anlatısı Olarak Okumak

It is possible to find traces of poets' and writers' personal life stories in the beginnings of their works, especially in the sections on the reason for writing or conversation, where they describe the places they have traveled to and the events they have encountered there, along with their feelings of distress, anxiety, loneliness, or personal observations related to the situations they found themselves in. These observations, even if sometimes fictional, are valuable for biographical writing because they come from the authors' own pens. However, alongside the view that the term “self-narrative” should only be used for texts written specifically for this purpose, there is also the view that, since elements belonging to the author's ‘I’ can be found in almost every work written within the writing culture examined from this perspective, they can be considered part of the “self-narrative.” Indeed, Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname, Katip Çelebi's Mizanu'l-Hakk fi Ihtiyari'l-Ehakk, Taşköprülüzâde's Eş-Şakâ'iku'n-Nu'mâniyye Fî ‘Ulemâ'id-Devleti'l-‘Osmâniyye, and Âşık Çelebi's Meşâ‘irü’ş-Şu‘arâ have been examined from this perspective, and excerpts from the authors' life stories have been identified. This study seeks the traces of author Latîfî's self in the preface of Tezkiretü’ş-Şu’arâ ve Tabsıratü'n-Nuzamâ, considered one of the most important works in the field of classical Turkish literature biography, due to its accurate criteria for selecting the poets included and its assessments of their literary competence. Examining the introduction from this perspective, various aspects of Latîfî's life have been identified, including his hardships, anxieties, loneliness, friends, works, and literary personality.