Language Views of 17th Century Writer Osman Şugli of Visoko

Abstract

During the history of the Ottoman literature/literacy there were commentaries and glosses which were as used as the primary authorial texts commented upon by the former ones. The numerous commentaries upon the text known as the Emsile can be considered to have belonged to such a cathegory of commentaries and glosses. The Emsile was the bulwark of the education of the Arabic language at the entry level of the Ottoman medreses. One commentary to the Emsile was written in 1669 in Sarajevo by Osman Şugli. Having been an auxiliary tutor of the Arabic language and other scholarly disciplines in the Gazi Husrev Bey medrese in Sarajevo, Osman Şugli was certainly enticed by his teaching experience n the Gazi Husrev Bey medrese.

The question propelling this paper was: what was the level of the knowledge of the Arabic language and the philological disciplines possessed by Osman Şugli in the capacity of writer of his commentary on Emsile? In this paper we focused on those parts of Şugli’s commentary which illustrate its writer’s command of the language problems and philology. One can conclude that Şugli’s language views were shaped following the path of the great Arab philologists such as Halil b. Ahmad, Sibawaih, Ahfaš (8 th -9 th ct. A. D.). Also, it can be concluded that Şugli was well versed into the literature dealing with the Arabic language which was written after the era of the great classical Arab philologists. It is proven how Şugli’s approach to language was critical one. This conclusion is purported by the clearly stated Şugli’s authorial views on the problems he commented upon.