Myers, Trisha Ann

Ohio State University

Research Topic: Nasihatname Genre in Ottoman Literature

Ms.Myers research centers on the nasihatname or advice treatises in Ottoman literature. She most interested in the evolution of this genre from the 16th through 17th centuries, as well as its relation to other genres, such as historiography, philosophical works, and sefaretnames. While considering the Islamo-Persian, Arabic, and Turkic precedents of the nasihatname, she argues that this genre became a specifically Ottoman phenomenon. She has two major goals with her research while at ANAMED. The first is to compile a comprehensive bibliography of extant nasihatnames. She hopes to establish the parameters of the genre as consciously established by its participants. The second goal is to explain how and why the nasihatname seemingly became obsolete by the 18th century; shifts in the sociopolitical, economic, and literary environment undoubtedly impacted the trajectory of political literature. She will also locate the nasihatname as a part of greater trends in the reformist literature of the Ottoman Empire and draw parallels to the modern era in order to increase our understanding of Middle Eastern political culture.