A new book titled “Osmanlı’nın Mavi
Gücü: Barbaros – Murâdî’nin Manzum Gazavât-ı Hayreddin Paşa’sı” (The Ottoman
Blue Power: Barbaros – Murâdî’s Verse Account of the Campaigns of Hayreddin
Pasha), prepared for publication by our faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet
Akgül in collaboration with his colleague Mesut Bayram Düzenli, has been
released by Çizgi Kitabevi.
This comprehensive work by our
faculty member—who has been conducting research as a postdoctoral fellow in the
United States for some time—brings to light the epic struggle of Barbaros
Hayreddin Pasha, tracing his journey from pirate captain to Grand Admiral (“Kaptan-ı
Derya”), as well as the Turkish naval dominance in the Mediterranean, through
the verse narrative of the era's *ghazi*-poet, Murâdî.
The work is based on the only known manuscript—comprising 373 folios—of the verse “Gazavât-ı Hayreddin Paşa”, which is known to have been penned by order of Suleiman the Magnificent. Containing both the transcription and a literary analysis of this voluminous text, the study also illuminates the organizational structure, maritime practices, dynamics of captives and spoils, and the multi-layered diplomatic language of the 16th-century Mediterranean world.
We congratulate our faculty member for contributing such a significant resource to Turkish maritime history and classical literature, and we wish him continued success.
