Writing Human: An Analysis of Ottoman Biography Authorship and Its Problems in the 19th Century

Abstract

This article examines the issues of historical background, field-specific problems, pitfalls awaiting a biographer and potential sources in the field of biography writing, a relatively less developed literary field in Ottoman historical literature, in the context of the 19th century. Our thesis is that despite the existence of a suitable historical bakground for the development of this field, and a solid tradition of group biographies called terâcim-i ahvâl, a genre which began in the 16th century and peaked in the 18th, the transition from group biographies (terâcim-i ahvâl) to tercüme-i hâl (personal biography), a new literary genre of the age, was not without problems. As the traditional biography literature (terâcim-i ahvâl) continued and group biographies further developed in the 19th century, there were weak and exceptional signs of development in the field of modern biography, but far from a sufficient level. This article discusses the structural factors in the underdevelopment of the biography genre, a genre which has not drawn sufficient attention despite its strong historical roots and tradition and which has not produced significant, good examples. It also examines the condition of biographical data and its problems, pitfalls awaiting a researcher in exploiting the available sources no matter how little information they provide, and the new potentials the modern age presents for the biographers despite all these handicaps.