THE PREACHER AS A DEGENERATED TYPE IN CLASSICAL TURKISH POETRY

Abstract

One ignored and important aspect of the classical Turkish poetry until recently is its sensitiveness to the social matters. As opposed to common belief, the Ottoman poets could fearlessly criticise what they thought to be wrong and and immoral behaviour as to whatever the matters are. The ministry (preaching) which was regarded as the mission of the prophecy and yet, which was open to misuse, was abused by some of the preachers in the Islamic societies and every period of the history. The preacher, with this reason and some others, is remembered negatively among the safi, hace and zahit. Taking into account the considerable number of gazelles ending with the word preacher (vaiz) in the collected books, this study investigates the reasons of why the preachers cause a negative perception.