Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey

This article is about Bey of Karaman. For Ottoman grand vizier, see Karamani Mehmed Pasha.

Statue depicting Mehmed Beg declaring Turkish language as the official language of the state and all its institutions.

Mehmed Beg or Mehmed Bey of Karaman (Turkish: Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey), also known as Shams al-Din Mehmed Beg^[1] was the third ruler of the Karamanids.

Mehmet Fuat Köprülü suggested that the government officials, who had been educated under the influence of the Persian culture, had used the Persian language in their state's official buisiness, and this strong compulsory of using Persian as official language had lasted until the Karamanids lord Mehmed Bey's invasion of Konya.^[2]

Agop Dilaçar, who is known for his works on the Sun Language Theory, claimed that Mehmed Bey might have declared Turkish language the official language of the state^[3][4]. According to Dilaçar, in his firman dated 13 May (15 May ?) 1277, he ordered that "from that day forward, in the council, in the dervish lodge, in the court, in the assembly, in the square, no language but Turkish should be spoken". ^[3][5]

Before him, the Seljuq elite in Anatolia used Persian in literature and Arabic in government and science. The Turkmen however could not understand these languages.^{[citation needed]}

After his failed rebellion in Ankara, he died in a conflict against Seljuq-Mongol troops.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Old Anatolian Turkish language
• Jimri

References

1. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume 4, Brill, 1954, p. 620.
2. ^ Acem kültürünün te'sirleri altında yetişen me'murlar devlet işlerinde de Fars dilini kullanmakta idiler; Farsçanın resmî dil olarak bu kuvvetli tehakkümü, Karaman Beyi Mehmed Bey'in Konya'yı istilâsına kadar sürdü., Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, Türk Edebiyatında ilk Mutasavvıflar, 6. Basım, Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, 1987, p. 234. (Turkish)
3. ^ ^{a b} Agop Dilaçar, Devlet Dili Olarak Türkçe, Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları, 1962, p. 14. (Turkish)
4. ^ Taqī Āzādarmakī, T. Azadarmaki, Contact Des Langues Dans L'Espace Arabo - Turco - Persan I: Arabo - Turco - Persan I, Peeters Publishers, 2005, ISBN 9782909961354, p. 90. (French)
5. ^ Carter Vaughn Findley, The Turks in World History, Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 9780195177268, pp. 74-75.

External links

• "723. Yıkdönümü Dolayısıyla Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey'den Önce ve Sonra Devlet Dili Türkçe", Balıkesir University (Turkish)