Senteriyye ile İskenderiye ortasinda Aca’ib bir Şehir

Works titled Acâibü’l-Mahlûkât (The Wonders of Creation) discuss phenomena that astonish people such as stones, seas, mountains, cities, plants, animals, angels, and genies. Due to the large scale of their subject matters, these works are rich sources for the studies of geography, astronomy, medicine, literature, folklore and history. There are many works, written and translated, under the title Acâibü’l- Mahlûkât. The most frequently translated works among them into Persian and Turkish are Kazvinî’s Acâibü’l-Mahlûkât ve Garâ’ibü’l-Mevcûdât (The Wonders of Creation and Creations of Bizarre Nature). The first work of the genre to be known in Turkish literature belongs to Ali bin Abdurrahman, which is a translation of Kazvinî’s work. Some of parts of the work deal with the heavens, anâsır-i erbaa (the four elements: earth, water, air and fire), months, and seasons. In his work of translation, Ali bin Abdurrahman includes verses and hadiths from the Koran. In addition, he supports the wondrouses Kazvinî talks about with a number of folk stories.This feature of it makes Ali bin Abdurrahman’s work worthy to be examined by scholars of literature and folklore. In Ali bin Abdurrahman’s work, the part that deals with cities not only covers a considerable place in the book but it is also the most remarkable part of it. This part consists of seven sections and includes information about cities such as Edirne, Bursa and İstanbul, which Kazvinî’s work leaves out. In his work, Ali bin Abdurrahman tells about a city which is believed to exist somewhere between Alexandria and Senteriyye. According to the author, this city which is called “Senteriyye” had once existed but it had then been made invisible to the eyes of the people by means of a spell. Ali bin Abdurrahman tries to support these rumors about the city with four folk stories. This study will focus on these folk stories and examine the motifs of these narratives according to Stith Thompson’s method.