Respect in the gülbeden’s hümayunnâme

Abstract

Hümayunnâme is a work written in Persian by Babur's daughter Gülbeden (1523-1603). The only copy is in the library of the British Museum. As is known, Chagatai reached its highest level in prose with Babur's Baburnâme. This work, which can be considered among the most beautiful prose examples not only of Chagatai but also of all Turkish literature, is a source of extremely important information about CentralAsia, Afghanistan and India in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Gülbeden followed in her father's footsteps and wrote Hümayunnâme as a Baburid princess, writing down what she heard and remembered. Although the work is sometimes insufficient in describing the general, political and historical events of the period, it is important in terms of providing significant information about Babur's last times, society and harem life. Gülbeden expressed her feelings not only in a fluent and unpretentious style, but also in an extremely elegant language, like the meaning of her name. Gülbeden, who describes the events of the period she lived in very vivid pictures, clearly writes the feelings aroused by her experiences in her inner world. Respect, which is a very important attitude in interpersonal relations, also finds a place in the work, both linguistically and in action. In this study, the issues of respect and courtesy will be tried to be handled with examples on the axis of Gülbeden's memoirs, which people, unfortunately, are not very aware of, and Hümayunnâme will be introduced, at least a little.

Keywords

• gülbeden
• hümayunname
• respect
• history