Türkler'in İslam medeniyetini kabulünden önce, Oğuzlar'ca ozan denilen halk şairleri, bu medeniyeti benimsemelerinden sonra da pek tabiî olarak devam etmiştir. İslam medeniyetinin dil, vezin, nazım şekli, fikir, v.b. bakımından te'sirinde kalan Divân edebiyatı mensublarının, mahallilik nüfuzunun ve millî fikirlerin muhtelif asırlarda azalıp çoğalmasıyla ölçülü olarak, halk şairlerini ve eserlerini çoğu küçümsedikleri, hakaretle karşıladıkları, ba'zan da onları taklid yolunda örnekler verdikleri görülür.

When the Turks made the fateful decision of embracing Islam as their religion, they became a marked people in the eyes of the Christian World, which saw that religion as a great danger to its very existence. The Turks failure, or refusal, to accept Christianity, despite the efforts of Pope Pius II, did not endear them to the Christians of the West; nor did their contribution to the Muslim cause during the great politico-religious upheaval of the Crusades. These religious wars created bitterness, hatred and hostility between Islam and Christianity, which were to last for centuries. Christendom saw Islam as a deviance, a bogey, which, it believed, aimed at eradicating the Christian heritage; and therefore the Ottoman Turks, who had espoused the cause of Islam by taking over the Caliphate, became the object of that Christian hatred and hostility.