(Ebook) The story of Joseph : a fourteenth-century Turkish morality play by Hickman, Bill; (Son of Jacob) Joseph ISBN 9780815633570, 9780815652700, 0815633572, 0815652704

(Ebook) The story of Joseph : a fourteenth-century Turkish morality play by Hickman, Bill; (Son of Jacob) Joseph ISBN 9780815633570, 9780815652700, 0815633572, 0815652704

At the heart of this volume is the translation of a fourteenth-century Turkishversion of the Joseph story, better known to Western readers from theversion in Genesis, first book of the Hebrew Bible. Hickman provides uswith a new lens: we see the drama of the Old Testament prophet Joseph,son of Jacob, through Muslim eyes. The poem’s author, Sheyyad Hamza,lived in Anatolia during the early days of the Ottoman Empire. Hamza’scomposition is rooted in the recondite and little-studied tradition of oralperformance—a unique corner of Turkish verbal arts, situated betweenminstrelsy and the "divan" tradition—combining the roles of preacher andstoryteller. A cultural document as well as a literary text that reflects theprevailing values of the time, Hamza’s play reveals a picture of Ottomansensibility, both aesthetic and religious, at the level of popular culture inpremodern Turkey. To supplement and contextualize the story, Hickmanincludes an introduction, a historical-literary afterword, and notes to thetranslation, all ably assisting an unfamiliar reader’s entry into this world.A+