During the last period of the Ottoman Empire, translations from foreign languages, especially French, brought the issue of "classics" to the agenda. What is a classic? What are classical works? Answers to these questions were sought in the periodicals at that time. According to Necîb Âsım's expression, classics are works that "cannot be imitated or written in a similar way, and that have a simple style and pure thought" [1].
The following text is quoted and translated from the section titled "A Classical Book" in the introduction of the Ottoman Turkish book "Zebân-i Fârisî" [2]:
For those who spend time in the world of writing and publishing, not much detail is needed. The books that come out of the skilled pens of writers, no matter what field they belong to, are divided into many classes.
Some of them are written for complete beginners in the field they belong to, while others are prepared in a simpler and introductory manner for people who are experts in that field.
First class books are also divided into two parts. The first part is based on the basic knowledge in the field to which this book belongs, and is prepared to give an idea or, if it is to go into a little more detail, to explain the information in that field in a way that is pleasing to the curious. Most of the books written are of this type.
The other class is also prepared for beginners, but the books are prepared in such a way that they contain serious and accurate information for students who will move beyond the basic knowledge in that field and move towards specialization. Such books are written in such a way that they are extremely useful in the field, in a way that the student can learn easily.
Europeans call such books "classics". In our tradition, the texts of the higher sciences [‘ulûm-i âliye] are also considered classical books, but when we say "text [metn]", we also understand it as a concise and concise expression. Classics, on the other hand, in addition to the concise expression, require that the book be organized and arranged in a beautiful style that is unparalleled in the field to which it belongs, without the need for commentaries and glosses.
Although thousands of books are written and published every year, classical works are quite rare. Even if some works are considered classics because there are no better ones, experts in the field see their deficiencies and aspects that need to be completed. As efforts are made to write more perfect works to overcome these deficiencies, books of the same kind keep multiplying.
It is one of the most difficult tasks to classify the basic subjects of a branch of science class by class, to determine which subject will serve as a key to learn other subjects, and to organize which subject will unlock the mysterious lock with that key. Such works require the author to have a long period of education and experience in that branch of science, beyond his or her high personal knowledge and extraordinary intelligence. That is why, once the classic works from each nation have been identified, they continue to attract attention and use for many years to come.
For French grammar, Chapsal and Noël's grammar books are of this kind, and for Arabic, the five famous texts from Bina to Kâfiye (Bina, Maqsûd, Avâmil, Izhâr, Kâfiye) are classics that have not lost their special importance for centuries, and risale-i erbaa [the four treatises] are among these important works.
Reference and Notes
[1] Ramazan Kaplan, Klâsikler Tartışması - Başlangıç Dönemi [Classics Debate - The Beginning Period], Ankara, 1998, p. 13.
[2] Muallim Feyzî, Zebân-ı Fârisî [Persian Language], 12th edition, Istanbul, 1329. The book was written for the teaching of Persian in the second grades of Idâdî [secondary] and Rüşdiye [high] schools. The book was given as a gift by my beloved late hodja, from whom I had studied fiqh (Islamic law) and Arabic nahw (syntax). May Allâhu ta'âlâ make his rank even higher.
