Âşık Veli is a folk poet named among the minstrels who grew up in the Gümüşhacıköy area of Amasya. The name appears in the list of minstrels in Dünden Bugüne Gümüşhacıköy (Gümüşhacıköy from Past to Present) by A. Ankaralı, S. Cin and A. G. Tuncay, published in 2000 by the Gümüşhacıköy Chamber of Commerce and Industry; the list was later repeated word for word in studies of the minstrels of Amasya. Beyond this list, no other record of Âşık Veli has been found. The real name, dates of birth and death, village, master and poems are unknown.

Sources in Which the Name Appears

Today the name of Âşık Veli is known from a single list only. In their 2021 article on Âşık Özlemî, Şerife Özer and Mustafa Topal give the following sentence, based on the book by Ankaralı and his co-authors:

Amasyalı âşıklar içinde en çok tanınanları Âşık Musa, Kul Fakir, Âşık İsa Gedik, Âşık Rıza Çulha, Ahmet Abacı, Âşık Halil İbrahim Alkaç, Âşık Engunî, Âşık Dursun, Dervişoğlu, Biçare, Sıdkî, Kul Hasan, Esrarî, Derviş Edna, Turab Ali, Caferî, Hızır Sersem, Gülamî, İskender Haki, Kul Hüseyin, Fukara Derviş, Kul Hasan, Âşık Yıldız, Âşık Veli, Fehmi Dedeoğlu, Çoban Hüseyin, Çoban Hüseyin, Abdullah Doğan, Mehmet Karagöz ve Âşık Özlemî'dir (Ankaralı, 2000).

The same sentence is repeated, again with a reference to the same book, in Bülent Arı's 2025 chapter on Özlemî's poem "Değme Felek" and in Fatih Çelebi's 2026 chapter on Kul Fakir. Âşık Veli appears in the list after Âşık Yıldız and before Fehmi Dedeoğlu. None of the three studies adds anything about the names in the list; all of them take the names from the book by Ankaralı and his co-authors. The Amasya05 article on the minstrel tradition in Amasya also lists the minstrels of the area on the basis of these studies.

Connection with Amasya

Özer and Topal present the list as "the best known among the minstrels of Amasya", and its source is a book about Gümüşhacıköy. Arı, for his part, gives the list in the context of the minstrels who lived on the plain east of Gümüşhacıköy stretching towards Merzifon, known locally as "Gaziler Ovacığı". The connection of Âşık Veli with Gümüşhacıköy or its surroundings is therefore inferred from the subject of the list; no birthplace or village is given for this person separately.

Veli is a common name and pen name in folk poetry, so not every poem signed "Veli" can be attached to the minstrel in the Gümüşhacıköy list. Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı's anthology Alevî-Bektaşî Nefesleri, for example, contains a nefes whose last quatrain opens "Veli'm aydur yâre kullar olurum", and a conference paper discusses this nefes as an example of nefes on the theme of love. Neither the anthology nor the paper connects its poet with Amasya or Gümüşhacıköy.

Since its attribution cannot be shown, and it very probably belongs to another poet of the same pen name, this nefes is not given here as a poem of Âşık Veli, and no separate poem page has been opened for it. Should a source show it to be the work of Âşık Veli of Gümüşhacıköy, the matter can be reconsidered.

Poetry

The poems of Âşık Veli have not come down to us. No deyiş, koşma or destan published under this name has been found in the articles, book chapters and dictionaries consulted. Since the period in which this minstrel lived is unknown, the copyright status of the poems cannot be determined either; should a published poem come to light, it will be given on a separate page or, if still under copyright, quoted briefly here, according to the date of death.

State of the Sources

Everything known about Âşık Veli rests on a single list in the book by Ankaralı and his co-authors. The book itself could not be seen, and it has not been possible to establish on which page the list appears or whether the names are accompanied by any notes. That Kul Hasan and Çoban Hüseyin are each written twice in all three studies that cite the list shows that the sentence was copied unchanged from one study to the next; for the same reason, it cannot be checked whether the transmission introduced other errors in the spelling of the names. No source has been found that identifies Âşık Veli with any other person or gives details of this minstrel's life.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Books

  • A. Ankaralı, S. Cin, A. G. Tuncay, Dünden Bugüne Gümüşhacıköy, Gümüşhacıköy: Gümüşhacıköy Ticaret ve Sanayi Odası, 2000 (cited through Özer and Topal and through Arı; the book itself has not been seen).
  • Fatih Çelebi, "Âşıklık Geleneğinin Temsilcilerinden Kul Fakir'in Eserlerinde 'Dost' Kavramı", Kültür ve Güzel Sanatlar, ed. Evrim Çağlayan, Karabük: Karabük Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2026, pp. 4-5. https://kutuphane.karabuk.edu.tr/yuklenen/dosyalar/1263062026150047.pdf

Online sources