Bezmî is a poet with two poems in the Merzifon Cönkü, a manuscript compiled in Merzifon, one in aruz and one in syllabic metre. Metin Hakverdioğlu, who published the cönk, says nothing about his identity. Among the poets who used this pen name, the one closest to the world of the cönk is Âşık Bezmî of Çankırı, who lived in the second half of the nineteenth century and is known for his poetic contests with Tokatlı Nûrî; yet there is no direct record showing that the poems of the cönk are his. Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi also mentions two poets named Bezmî: Bezmî Abdullah Efendi of Merzifon, known as Topal Kadı, and Şeyhzâde Bezmî Mehmed Efendi of Amasya. This page weighs the Bezmî of the cönk against these candidates and introduces his two poems.

His Place in the Merzifon Cönkü

The Merzifon Cönkü is a poetry notebook in Hakverdioğlu's private library; neither its compiler nor its date is written in it, and it is estimated to be about a hundred years old. It contains 161 poems by 32 poets and brings together folk and divan poetry in almost equal measure. Hakverdioğlu believes it was put together by a local poet, probably using the pen name Fethî, who belonged to the circle of Eyüp Sabrî, the well-known poet of Merzifon. In the article's list of poets Bezmî appears with "1 syllabic, 1 aruz". His poem in aruz is a müseddes on page 82 of the cönk, and his syllabic poem is a koşma on page 87. Only the first stanza of each has been published.

The Case for Âşık Bezmî of Çankırı

According to the entry in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, Bezmî of Çankırı came from the village of İkiçam in Çankırı and lived in the second half of the nineteenth century. His dates of birth and death are unknown. He was an unlettered saz poet; it is recorded that he played the saz well and had a fine voice. He often engaged in poetic contests with Tokatlı Nûrî and Kayserili Rüştü and, according to tradition, defeated both, if not with words then with his mastery of the saz. A saying of Nûrî's describing his skill is quoted: if a shepherd's pipe were put in his hands instead of a saz, he would make even donkey-tail hairs wail like steel strings. Ahmet Talat Onay concludes from his poems that he was a Bektashi. There is no collection of his poems; his koşmas and destans are found in various sources.

What brings this Bezmî close to the Merzifon Cönkü is his connection with Tokatlı Nûrî, the principal poet of the cönk. Nûrî has the most poems in it, 36 in all, and Hakverdioğlu, citing Orhan Bilgin, notes that Eyüp Sabrî often invited Nûrî to Merzifon. The entry on Nûrî in turn relates that he stayed for a long time in Çankırı and took part in poetic conversations with the Çankırı poets Zahmî, Bezmî and Yesârî. It is striking that all three of these Çankırı names are among the poets with poems in the Merzifon Cönkü. This overlap suggests that the Bezmî of the cönk may be the Çankırı minstrel of Nûrî's circle. This, however, is our own inference; Hakverdioğlu makes no such identification, and it has not been possible to check whether the two poems of the cönk are among the known poems of Bezmî of Çankırı.

Namesakes from Amasya

In the seventh volume of Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi two poets named Bezmî are described one after the other. The first is Bezmî Abdullah Efendi of Merzifon, known as Topal Kadı (the Lame Judge). He was the son of Derviş Mehmed Çelebi; after studying in Amasya he went to Istanbul, became a licensed student of Ramazanzâde Ahmed Efendi, entered the judicial career in 985 (1577) and served as judge in many towns. He lived now in Istanbul, now in Merzifon, and died around 1015 (1606) after being dismissed from the judgeship of Çankırı. Hüsameddin presents him as one of the famous poets, a learned and cultivated man. The second is Şeyhzâde Bezmî Mehmed Efendi of Amasya. He was the son of the Halveti shaykh Abdullah Efendi and died in 1087 (1676) while shaykh of the Mehmed Paşa lodge and preacher of its mosque; Hüsameddin calls him a poet and says that he wrote hymns (ilahi).

Because the cönk was compiled in Merzifon, the name of Topal Kadı of Merzifon seems at first sight an attractive candidate. He was, however, a divan poet of the late sixteenth century from the world of the madrasa and the judiciary, whereas the syllabic koşma and the semai-like müseddes of the Bezmî of the cönk are much closer to the language and forms of nineteenth-century saz poetry. The same gap in time applies to the hymns of Şeyhzâde Bezmî. No evidence has been found linking either of these Bezmîs of Amasya with the poems of the cönk.

His Poetry

Bezmî's first poem in the cönk is a müseddes beginning with the line "İşitdim dilber-i ra‘nâ bugünlerde kederlenmiş". Hakverdioğlu published its first stanza of six lines; all six end in the sound "-erlenmiş" and fit the mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün pattern of aruz. The grieving beloved, the rivals barring the way, the moles scattered like pepper around the cheek and the white neck that is not offered for a kiss give the poem a lively, playful tone close to the semai tradition of folk poetry. The second poem is an eleven-syllable koşma beginning "Kemân ebrûlarıň âhû gözleriň"; it says that the beloved's bow-shaped brows and gazelle eyes drive the lover mad like Mecnun. The form "meni" (me) in the koşma is a usage found in the dialects of eastern Anatolia and Azerbaijan. The complete texts of both poems are in the cönk, on pages 82 and 87, and remain unpublished. Each is given on a separate poem page in the poet's category.

The State of the Sources and Discussion

All that is known about this Bezmî consists of the two opening stanzas in Hakverdioğlu's article. The article also shows a confusion: the first quatrain of the koşma on page 87 is printed, with the same page number and letter for letter, as the only syllabic poem of Cezbî as well. Since the list of poets gives one syllabic poem each to Bezmî and to Cezbî, the text of one of the two poems must have been replaced by the other in typesetting. To whom it belongs can be settled only by seeing the cönk itself, that is, by reading the pen name in the rest of the poem. We give the koşma on Bezmî's page because it appears first under Bezmî's heading in the section on the poems and because its page number fits the order of his other poem; the question of attribution is noted on the poem page as well. The possible identity with Bezmî of Çankırı rests on the direction indicated by the network of poets in the cönk and is not certain.

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