Safran in Turkish Divans of Ali Şîr Nevâyî in the Context of Culture Tranfer

Abstract

Saffron has been an important plant throughout human history, utilized by people in diverse fields such as medicine, psychology, gastronomy, folklore, public health, dyeing, and cosmetics. Known as red gold due to its manual production and high cost, saffron has also held a significant place in mythology and literary works, reflecting its importance. Artists reflect the mindset and cultural fabric of their era in their works. The works of Ali-Shir Nevâyî(1441-1501), one of the distinguished figures of our classical literature, are, so to speak, our cultural memory. One of the aims of Turkish literature research is to uncover the cultural richness in literary texts. For this reason, Ali Şîr Nevâyî's works, Garâ’ibü’s-Sıgâr, Bedâyi’u’l-Vasat, Nevâdirü’ş-Şebâb, and Fevâyidü’l-Kiber, were selected as examples for this study. The aim of this culturally contextualized and text-focused study is to explain the use of saffron in Ali Şîr Nevâyî's Turkish divans in various fields, such as folklore, folk medicine, gastronomy, medicine, and dyeing, and to explain the artist's imagination and conceptions of saffron within this cultural context.