BOYACIOĞLU’NUN “ANÂSIR-I ERBA'A” ADLI MESNEVÎSİ
"Anâsır-ı Erba‘â" Mathnawi of Boyacıoğlu

‘Anâsır-ı erba‘â is a term used for the four elements; soil, air, water and fire, that played an important role in the creation of the universe. In classical Turkish literature, in poetry (verse) or prose one comes across anâsır-ı erbaâ as an independant source. The literary work (‘anâsır-ı erba‘â) appears in couplets and the genres of teşbih, istiare, tenasüp etc. are used as tools of analysis. The above literary work in poetry form was chosen as the subject of enquiry for this article. The author of the literary work is known to be Boyacıoğlu. The exact date of its writing is unknown, although it was probably written in the fifteenth century. The literary work consists of two hundred and twenty four couplets and the primary theme of the literary source is that it stresses the importance of the four elements and links the elements to human equivalents. The source not only attempts to be moralistic in its approach but is also didactic.