Despite many
significant works and efforts in the field, Islamic literature was turned into
an artifact attractive only to specialists and, until recent times, academic
studies of Islamic literature have not received as much attention as they
deserve in the West. A refreshing approach to the study of Ottoman and Islamic
literature has recently been suggested by Prof. Walter Andrews, when he brought
to us a dramatized/dramatic glimpse of the world of Ottoman
poetry.
Working with University
of
The event integrated a
lecture and presentation, a series of dramatic scenes, music from well-known
Ottoman composers, and dance. Vignettes enacting scenes from the
Ottoman cultural milieu took the audience on a two-hour trip, first to the
gathering of high officials, poets, and scholars – the cultured
elite – at the house of a Pasha, and then to the picnic of elite women at Kağıthane in the last half of sixteenth-century Istanbul.
Credits include:
Walter G.
Andrews, composer and presenter;
Özgen Felek,
producer;
Maria
Howes, director;
Michael Ibrahim, musician;
Mine Özalp and Tayfun Özdemir, singers;
Darcy Guyton-hanna, dancer;
Kristin
Schultes, Ricky Herbert,
Jennifer
Gazdecki, Amy Julia
Photos from Ottoman
Poetry Night:
