Research Article / Araştırma Makalesi
Cite as/ Atıf: Şaş, A. K. & Aydın, Ş. (2022). Osmanlı Türkçesi fizyonomi terimleri. Turkish Studies - Language, 17(2),
709-729. https://dx.doi.org/10.7827/TurkishStudies.62692
Received/Geliş: 29 May/Mayıs 2022 Checked by plagiarism software
Accepted/Kabul: 25 June/Haziran 2022 © Yazar(lar)/Author(s) | CC BY- NC 4.0
Published/Yayın: 30 June/Haziran 2022
Osmanlı Türkçesi Fizyonomi Terimleri
Ottoman Turkish Physiognomy Terms
Ali Kemal Şaş
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- Şenol Aydın
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Abstract: Turks have ruled over a wide geography throughout history and played a leading role in the
construction of many civilizations that have left deep traces in history. As a natural consequence of this
situation, the Turkish language gained the identity as a cultural language in different periods and numerous
Turkish works were written in many civilization centers. One of the most important of these civilization centers
is Anatolia. After the Turks settled in Anatolia, they created many works related to different fields. While
works based on translations were presented in the beginning, copyrighted works started to come to the forefront
with the enrichment of the Turkish language and the provision of cultural depth over time. In the founding
years of the Ottoman Empire, scientific works were mostly translated from Arabic and Persian into our
language. Among the translations belonging to this period, the physiognomy works, which are mostly called
kıyafetname or firasetnamE, have an important place. Although physiognomy dates back to ancient times and
gained a scientific identity in Ancient Greece, it spread to the world through Arabic translations based on Greek
works, especially during the Middle Ages. The first physiognomy works were mostly based on translations of
Arabic works. Over time, mixed copyright-translation and copyrighted works have emerged in this field. In
this study, which determines the physiognomy terms in Ottoman Turkish, first, information about the birth of
physiognomy and its situation in ancient civilizations is given, and then the basic physiognomy texts are
introduced. After the physiognomy works written in Europe and Islamic geography were introduced,
information was given about Turkish physiognomy works belonging to the Ottoman Period. In the study,
twenty-two copyrighted and translated works written in Ottoman Turkish were scanned and around two
hundred terms, some of which have become archaic today, have been identified. The identified terms are listed
alphabetically according to their usage at that time.
Structured Abstract: Physiognomy, which is generally called ilm-i kıyafet, ilm-i firaset or ilm-i sima in the
regions where Islamic civilization is dominant, has been considered as a knowledge that is assumed to generate
data about the personality and destiny of human beings, based on facial features or body features. Today,
physiognomy, which is not taken into account by many researchers that it is not scientific or does not produce
data that meets the criteria of modern science and it is considered as a semi-science or even a pseudoscience.
Physiognomy has attracted attention (almost) in all ancient civilizations. Initially associated with practices such
as fortune telling and magic, physiognomy has been used throughout history in most of the fields related to
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Dr. Öğr. Üyesi, Kırşehir Ahi Evran Üniversitesi, Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi, Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Bölümü
Asst. Prof. Dr., Kırşehir Ahi Evran University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Turkish Language and
Literature
0000-0001-6838-3018
kemalsas@ahievran.edu.tr
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YL Öğrencisi Ahi Evran Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Bölümü
Master’s Student, Ahi Evran University, Faculty of Letters, Departmant of Turkish Language and Literarture
0000-0002-5041-8945
senolaydin40@hotmail.com