Levent Style in Classical Turkish Literature

Abstract

Levent is a designation about marine soldiers in the Ottoman period. The levents have sometimes positive and sometimes negative effects on the society with their social status, clothing and behavior. Since Turkish people give much value to military profession, levents usually take place with positive sides in our culture. The levents have effects on clothing, speaking, hairstyles, walking and other behaviours of the people primarily living on the islands, especially on the beach. This impact has spread and led to the formation of a style in public. This style showed itself also in literature over the time. Contrary to general belief, the classical Turkish literature is fed by the social life and has become a mirror of it. The levent style, which shows itself in different spheres among people from clothing to hairstyle, is also visible in poetry. The Divan poets make relation between heros of poem as beloved, lover and levents in a society which marine soldiers are role models, and addressed these poems as “levent style poem”, “levent style ode”, “levent style gazelle”. In this article, the formation of levent style under the influence of sea life, and the receptionof it is examined. Besides the reflection of levent style in poetry is discussed by sample couplets.