The Story of Joseph

At the heart of this volume is the translation of a fourteenth-century Turkish version of the Joseph story, better known to Western readers from the version in Genesis, first book of the Hebrew Bible. Hickman provides us with a new lens: we see the drama of the Old Testament prophet Joseph, son of Jacob, through Muslim eyes. The poems author, Sheyyad Hamza, lived in Anatolia during the early days of the Ottoman Empire. Hamzas composition is rooted in the recondite and little-studied tradition of oral performancea unique corner of Turkish verbal arts, situated between minstrelsy and the ""divan"" traditioncombining the roles of preacher and storyteller. A cultural document as well as a literary text that reflects the prevailing values of the time, Hamzas play reveals a picture of Ottoman sensibility, both aesthetic and religious, at the level of popular culture in premodern Turkey. To supplement and contextualise the story, Hickman includes an introduction, a historical-literary afterword, and notes to the translation, all ably assisting an unfamiliar readers entry into this world.