Bible translation Bobowski, or now Ufki, having been raised as a
Christian and now being a convert to Islam, became deeply interested in religious issues. He translated the
Anglican catechism into Ottoman Turkish, and wrote an explanation of Islam in Latin, in an attempt to increase the mutual understanding of both cultures. Bobowski's translation of the Bible into Turkish, known as the
Kitabı Mukaddes ("Holy Book") has for long been the only complete Turkish Bible and is considered one of his greatest achievements.
Psalter Having been raised in a Protestant family, Bobowski was familiar with the singing of the
Genevan Psalms. This experience greatly influenced his composition of fourteen Turkish psalms. In this small collection of psalms, known as
Mezmurlar and released in 1665, Ali Ufki used original melodies from the
Genevan Psalter, a commonly used
Calvinist hymnbook. He classified them using the
Turkish modal system and translated the texts into Ottoman Turkish. Because of certain features of French
prosody, the Genevan melodies tend to be in
asymmetrical meters, which makes them more similar to
Middle Eastern music than much of other
European music.
Rhythmical intensity is likely one of the most important shared features, and their modal character facilitates their transformation into Turkish modes, as this can be done with only light changes in
intonation. Ali Ufki's versions of the psalms are relatively simple; with careful attention paid to ensuring words are easy to understand and music is only the background. In 2005, the
King's Singers together with
Sarband released a
CD titled
Sacred Bridges which includes recordings of Psalms 5, 6, and 9 from Ali Ufki's psalter.
Musical anthologies Among his achievements was the release of two
manuscript anthologies of
Ottoman music, known as
Mecmûa-i Sâz ü Söz ("Collection of Instrumental and Vocal Works"). These anthologies contained both
sacred and
secular pieces,
instrumental and
vocal music,
art music as well as traditional
Turkish folk music. Only two manuscript copies survive: in the
British Library and the
Bibliothèque nationale de France This work preserved for modern times several hundred classical Ottoman songs and instrumental pieces and is the first instance in which western
staff notation was applied to Turkish music.
Other works In 1666, Bobowski also wrote a
grammar of the Ottoman Turkish language. He also translated works of
Hugo Grotius and
Comenius into that language.[http://siratalmustaqim.blog.onet.pl/2,ID61069769,index.html ==Notes==