The First Turkish Manuscript Written in Anatolia

Abstract

The first literary works written in Oghuz Turkic in Anatolia belong to the 14th century. The number of such works is very limited, and almost all of them are written in verse. This paper examines Behcetu'l-hadayik, a work that has drawn the interest of a large number of researchers until now. The study describes a newly found copy of the work and for the first time gives information about its writer, date, and place of compilation. Based on linguistic data concerning the work, it will be claimed that this copy of Behcetu'l-hadayik is the oldest Oghuz Turkic manuscript among those detected so far.