LINGUISTIC GAMES FROM TRICKERY TO WISDOM: SHIRVANI’S TRANSLATION OF THE 29TH MAQAMAH (THE MAQAMAH OF VÂSITİYYE), TEXTUAL ESTABLISHMENT, AND THE ART OF NEGLECT (IHMAL) IN THE UNDOTTED SERMON

Abstract

Al-Hariri’s Maqamat is considered not merely a storytelling tradition in classical Arabic literature, but also a laboratory of rhetoric (balaghat) where the mathematical and aesthetic boundaries of language are pushed. The 29th Maqamah, known as al-Vâsıtiyye, which constitutes the subject of this study, centers on the tension between the "trickery" perpetrated by the protagonist Abu Zayd using his linguistic skills and the "wisdom" within his words. The aspect that renders this article unique in the literature is the textual establishment based on Şirvânî’s (Ahmed Hamdî Efendi) translation and the analysis of the Khutbah al-Muhmala (Undotted Sermon), which serves as the pinnacle of the maqamah. This sermon, delivered by Abu Zayd at a wedding gathering, is the most sophisticated example of the "Art of Neglect" (San‘at-ı Ihmāl), constructed by completely abandoning the dotted letters (ḥurūf al-mu‘jamah) of the Arabic alphabet and using only undotted letters (ḥurūf al-muhmalah). In this study, the commentary method followed by Şirvânî while transferring this lipogrammatic (letter-restricted) structure of the source text into Ottoman Turkish is examined; the text transcription and its transfer into modern Turkish are performed; and the literary wit behind the "linguistic games" is revealed. The findings demonstrate that Şirvânî did not merely translate the work, but also reconstructed the text through intralingual translation.