1839 Ottoman Turkish Genesis (OTAT39)

Overview

This is an 1839 Ottoman Turkish translation containing only Genesis chapters 1 through 4. It represents one of the earliest printed Ottoman Turkish scripture portions. The broader tradition of Ottoman Turkish Bible translation dates to the 17th century, when Wojciech Bobowski (Ali Bey), a Polish convert serving at the Ottoman court, completed a full Bible manuscript around 1664. [1] That manuscript was later revised by Baron von Dietz and Prof. J.D. Kieffer, with the New Testament published in Paris in 1819 and the complete Bible in 1827. [2] This 1839 Genesis portion appears to come from the period of continued revision and reprinting of Ottoman Turkish scripture texts that followed the Kieffer edition. The text is in the public domain.

Language and People

Ottoman Turkish was the literary language of the Ottoman Empire, written in Arabic script with heavy borrowing from Arabic and Persian. Bible translations in Ottoman Turkish were primarily produced by European missionaries and scholars for distribution among Turkish-speaking populations of the empire. [2]

References