Dilek Bulut Sarikaya’s compelling analysis of two major works of medieval Turkish literature is a welcome and stimulating contribution to the larger field of animal studies as well as to the powerfully emerging areas of Turkish ecocriticism and Turkish cultural studies. Investigating the roles of spirituality and religion in the construction and representation of the more-than-human world in The Book of Dede Korkut and Rumi’s The Masnavi, Sarikaya shows how these texts offer insights and understandings originating in Anatolia’s cultural heritage that can inform our current efforts to undo the damage caused by the anthropocentric thinking.

Sinan Akilli, Cappadocia University

In The Human-Animal Relationship in Pre-Modern Turkish Literature, Dilek Bulut Sarikaya offers theoretically sound and very readable accounts of human/nonhuman animal connections in medieval Turkish literature. Sarikaya gives subtle and nuanced descriptions of how The Book of Dede Korkut and Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi’s The Masnavi depict physical and spiritual engagements with animals. The primary lessons of these books are about the importance of relations that are based on compassion and empathy rather than on an exploitative ethics. These lessons, Sarikaya argues, are critical for an age such as ours in which animals count for so little. Sarikaya’s wide-ranging methodological and theoretical scope is impressive and strikes a perfect balance between a review of data and an expansion of theoretical connections. This is a must-read book.

Simon C. Estok, Senior Research Fellow at Sungkyunkwan University and author of The Ecophobia Hypothesis

This theoretically sophisticated book provides a thorough examination of the ethical and spiritual human-animal relationships that pervade early Turkish literature and continue to be visible in certain aspects of contemporary Turkish culture, such as the respect often shown toward street cats and dogs. Rooted in the pre-modern shamanism of Turkic cultures, The Book of Dede Korkut and Rumi’s The Masnavi reveal an attitude of devotion to animals whose lives intersect with human lives, serving as an admirable model for those of us in other parts of the world, living in the twenty-first century.

Scott Slovic, Oregon Research Institute