Description

The chronogram in Ottoman literature is an encoded date, the code being the numerical value of the letters of the Arabo-Persian alphabet. It is either independent or embedded in a matrix of verses, which makes it to a "chronogram poem". This literary genre not only conveys historical dates but also reflects personal and social habits (ego-documents). The pragmatic side of presenting chronogram poems of praise to people in power for the sake of furthering one's own career, the fact that this was within the intellectual range of a great many people and so a relatively easy way of attempting to achieve success, the personal satisfaction of commemorating the events in one's personal life, and the pleasure of intellectual activity were the reasons for this genre's extreme popularity. Without doubt, these literary compositions contain information on historical, literary, and social life. However, they also often contain an element of "fictionalization", in addition to graphic ambiguities, so that caution in interpreting them and the need for corroboration through external sources cannot be emphasized enough.