The pen name Caferî means a follower of the path of Imam Cafer-i Sadık; the folk poet who bore it is known today from a single list. Based on the book on Gümüşhacıköy by Ahmet Ankaralı, Sedat Cin and Galip Tuncay, the list counts the âşıks of Gaziler Ovacığı in Amasya; Şerife Özer and Mustafa Topal reproduced it in 2021 and Fatih Çelebi in 2026. Beyond his name in this list no record has been found.
His Name in the Sources
Özer and Topal's article on Âşık Özlemî counts the best-known âşıks who lived in Gaziler Ovacığı, where the Alevi-Bektashi culture is widespread, and places "Caferî" between Turab Ali and Hızır Sersem. The same order is kept in Fatih Çelebi's study on Kul Fakir, and the list is also found on our page The minstrel tradition in Amasya. The poet's real name, his period and his village are not given in the sources. In Alevi-Bektashi poetry the word "Caferî" is also used to express devotion to this path.
The State of the Sources
We searched the published studies on the âşıks of Gaziler Ovacığı for an âşık with this pen name. None appears in Caner Işık's article on Kul Hüseyin, in Ali Onar and Işık's on Derviş Edna, in Necdet Kurt's paper on the zakirs of Amasya or in Fedai Şahin's thesis on the zakir tradition of Merzifon and Gümüşhacıköy; in these texts "Caferî" occurs only as an epithet describing the path of Cafer-i Sadık. We could not see the book of Ankaralı, Cin and Tuncay on which the list rests. No poems of his have been found. There is also a namesake to keep apart: the Ca'ferî recorded in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü is a divan poet whose real name was Bâlî, born in Istanbul and died in 1538-1539, a son of Tâcîzâde Ca'fer Çelebi, and he should not be confused with the âşık of Gaziler Ovacığı.
Bibliography
Academic studies
- Şerife Özer, Mustafa Topal, "Âşıklık Geleneği ve Geleneğin Çerağlarından Amasyalı Âşık Özlemî", Motif Akademi Halkbilimi Dergisi, 14(34), 2021, pp. 652-665 (list of âşıks p. 655). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/mahder/issue/62512/869864
Books
- Fatih Çelebi, "Âşıklık Geleneğinin Temsilcilerinden Kul Fakir'in Eserlerinde 'Dost' Kavramı", Evrim Çağlayan (ed.), Kültür ve Güzel Sanatlar, Karabük: Karabük University Press, 2026, pp. 4-5. https://kutuphane.karabuk.edu.tr/yuklenen/dosyalar/1263062026150047.pdf
- Mehmet Fatih Köksal, "Ca'ferî, Bâlî", Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, 2013 (on his namesake, the divan poet). https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/caferi
- Ahmet Ankaralı, Sedat Cin, Galip Tuncay, Dünden Bugüne Gümüşhacıköy, Gümüşhacıköy (as reported by Özer and Topal and by Çelebi; not seen).
Online sources