The Vilayetname Manuscript Tradition and the Matter of Verse

ABSTRACT: This study analyzes the extensive manuscript tradition of the Vilayetname of Hacı Bektaş to better understand the variations among its versions and refine the common threefold typology of prose, verse and prose+verse versions. Focusing on the presence and absence of verse narrative in representative manuscripts of the different versions, particularly the two verse sections found in the prose+verse version, the study compares these sections with the corresponding sections in the fifteenth-century verse version. It also examines their contextual placement, style, and tone in contrast to the prose sections of the prose+verse manuscripts and explores the significance of their absence in all-prose manuscripts, which consequently lack an account of the saint's death. These analyses then lead to a discussion of what the differences between the various versions of the Vilayetname and the matter of verse reveal about the work itself and its manuscript tradition, including such questions as its origin and historical evolution, its authorship, and the reasons for its enduring appeal.