Ottoman Turkish Gospels (OTASEA)

Overview

This is a collection of Ottoman Turkish scripture portions containing the Gospel of Matthew along with the Epistles to the Ephesians, Philemon, and 1 John. Despite the title "Gospels," the actual content spans both Gospel and Epistle literature. Ottoman Turkish Bible translation has a long history beginning with Wojciech Bobowski (Ali Bey), a Polish-born Ottoman court musician, who completed a full Bible manuscript in Ottoman Turkish around 1664. [1] Subsequent Ottoman Turkish translations were produced in the 19th century by scholars such as J.D. Kieffer and William G. Schauffler, who worked under the auspices of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions respectively. [2] The text is in the public domain.

Language and People

Ottoman Turkish was the literary and administrative language of the Ottoman Empire, written in a modified Arabic script. It incorporated extensive Arabic and Persian vocabulary alongside a Turkic grammatical base. Following the script reform of 1928 in the Republic of Turkey, Ottoman Turkish was replaced by modern Turkish written in the Latin alphabet. [3]

References