Ali Nazîmâ Bey (1861-1935), author of many works on education, penned articles about birds in his column in Maarif Magazine between October 8, 1891, and March 10, 1892. His individual writings on the woodpecker, owl, nightingale, bird of paradise, ostrich, pigeon, hoopoe, crow, eagle, swallow, swan, small birds (sparrow, titmouse, finch, linnet, goldfinch, canary), penguin, parrot, pelican, hummingbird, pheasant, hawk, peacock, and demoiselle crane provide us with information about perhaps the most charming creatures of nature. To complement these pieces, an article on the partridge written by Mehmet Rüşdü Bey in the same magazine has also been added to the book.
The second part of The Book of Birds contains texts we have selected for you: The Bird and the Hunter and The Merchant and the Parrot from Rumi, the Fox and the Partridge from Lâmiî Çelebi, the anonymous Dervish and the Bird, an excerpt from Sezai Karakoç’s poem Hunting Literature, and a short text by Khalil Gibran. Our book concludes with a Mawlid Story titled The Story of the Pigeon.