One Story, Multiple Narratives:

The Centuries-Long Journey of Nigârîn’s Tale

Abstract

Afīfe Hanım Sergüzeşti, written in the 18th century, is a narrative that draws from different literary genres that preceded it. The story realistically describes the adventures of a woman who was slandered. This narrative is a rewritten form of the mathnavī called Dāsitān-ı Duhter-i Şeyh Abdullāh, which was probably based on an oral narrative and whose first example was written in the 14th century. Nigārīn, the main character of the mathnavī in question, is a “chaste” woman who experiences unfortunate events like Afīfe. In time, Nigārīn’s story acquired a more artistic form through the pen of an Ottoman poet in the 16th century and was reproduced and consumed in a different context as a meddah story. Ultimately, in the 18th century, Afīfe Hanım Sergüzesti reproduced Nigārīn’s story as a realist narrative of an influential and “chaste” woman by displaying all characteristic elements of this corpus. The story of Nigārīn has been the source not only of these narratives but also of fairy tales produced in different fields. This article, by focusing on the story of Sheikh Abdullāh’s daughter Nigārīn, will discuss how a story preserved in the collective memory is transferred to the future through different genres and narratives and how it is transformed into realist fiction.