Edirneli Nazmî was a sixteenth-century poet, compiler of the great anthology of response poems Mecma‘u'n-nezâ'ir, author of the most voluminous divan in Turkish literature, and known also for his experiments in plain Turkish verse called Türkî-i Basît. His real name was Mehmed. He came from a military family and took part as a janissary and a cavalryman (sipahi) in the campaigns of Selim I and Süleyman the Magnificent. He had a close relationship with Şehzade Mustafa (Prince Mustafa): his divan contains two qasidas praising the prince, a petition (arz-ı hâl) presented to him, a five-stanza elegy on his death and chronogram verses.

Nazmî's connection with Amasya is made through Prince Mustafa. The prince served as sanjak governor (sanjak-bey) first in Manisa and then, from 1541 to 1553, in Amasya. Ziya Avşar thinks that Nazmî's service with the prince most probably took place in the sanjak of Manisa. It is not known that the poet went to Amasya, nor has it been determined which of his poems to the prince belong to the prince's Amasya years.

Life

According to the entry in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, the sources give no detailed information about Nazmî's life. Since he took part in the Çaldıran campaign, he is thought to have been born in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. In the biographical anthologies he is called by names such as Nazmî Mehmed Çelebi, Nazmî Beg and Nazmî Mehmed Beg; the poet himself says in several poems that his real name was Muhammed. All the sources state that he was from Edirne. Beyânî introduces him as "Sultân Süleymân Hânun bendezâdelerinden zümre-i sipâh-ı zafer-penâhdandur" (one of the sons of Sultan Süleyman's servants, of the victorious cavalry corps). That his family belonged to the sons of the sultan's servants (kuloğlu) is learned from the anthologies and from a mesnevi in his divan entitled "Arz-ı Hâl Be-Pâdişâh".

According to the same mesnevi, Nazmî first took part as a janissary in Selim I's campaigns to Iran and Egypt, then fought as a cavalryman in the time of Süleyman and served as a clerk of decrees (ahkâm kâtibi). As Âşık Çelebi also notes, because he was lame he was made a company commander of the sword-bearers (silahdar). Recep Hasar states that his appointment among the sword-bearers brought him close to the sultan. In his divan he complains that despite his knowledge in various fields he could not obtain an office worthy of him. His date of death is given variously in the sources as 955, 962, 966 and 970. According to the dates in the Tevârîh-i Antâkiyye, brought to light by Mehmet Fatih Köksal and thought to be by Nazmî, the poet must have died after 993 (1585).

Works and Literary Personality

Nazmî's best-known work is the Mecma‘u'n-nezâ'ir. This great anthology of response poems, edited by Köksal, contains 5,527 poems by 357 poets and arranges the poems by their rhyme letters and the families of aruz metres. The poet's own divan is also the most voluminous divan in Turkish literature: according to Sibel Üst it contains 7,002 ghazals, 16 qasidas, hundreds of stanzaic poems, 364 chronograms and 16 mesnevis. In addition, a translation of Attâr's Pend-nâme and a collection of letters are attributed to him. Nazmî is known for experimenting with metres not used before in Turkish literature, for applying the literary figures systematically, and above all for his "Türkî-i Basît" poems, written with the words of Old Anatolian Turkish and purged of Arabic and Persian vocabulary. Fuad Köprülü counted these poems among the first heralds of the national literature movement, while later scholars have argued that they were the poet's personal artistic experiment rather than a movement. His writing so much and the loss of lyricism in his verse have been criticised in the sources.

His Relationship with Prince Mustafa

According to Hasar, Nazmî's divan contains two qasidas written in praise of Prince Mustafa. In the first, after describing his own troubles and the injustice of the heavens, the poet asks for the prince's patronage and says that if God gives him the throne all lands from East to West will be conquered in his reign; the second is a festival poem (ıydiyye) and carries the same request. The petition the poet presented to the prince explains the nature of the relationship: here Nazmî says that he had earlier been the prince's servant and, with the line "Yâ suçum bagışla yâhûd al serüm" (either forgive my fault or take my head), asks to be taken back into service.

Nazmî's patron, the Nakşibendî sheikh Baba Efendi, was also the spiritual guide of Rüstem Pasha, and the poet's close relationship with the pasha can be seen from the qasida and chronograms he wrote for him. Fuad Köprülü finds it remarkable that he nevertheless wrote an elegy for the prince. Köksal attributes the absence in the elegy of any direct or indirect accusation against Rüstem Pasha to this relationship. Indeed, Nazmî's fifty-couplet terkib-i bend is a poem of mourning without reproach which says that the prince sacrificed his life for his father's consent, and it ends with a prayer wishing long life to the sultan and to Hürrem Sultan's sons Bayezid and Selim. Nazmî also composed several chronograms for the prince and for his son who was killed, and in one of them he says that the strangling would not be forgotten until the Day of Judgement.

The elegy, three couplets from the qasida, a couplet and a line from the petition, and a couplet from the chronogram verse are published as separate articles in this category. The full texts of the qasidas and the petition could not be included, as we were unable to reach the edition of the divan on which Hasar relied. Those of Nazmî's thousands of poems that have no connection with Amasya or Prince Mustafa are outside the scope of this work. The other elegies are described in our article Elegies for Prince Mustafa, and the prince's life in the biography Şehzade Mustafa.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Beyânî Mustafa, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Aysun Sungurhan, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, 2017 (e-book), p. 211, entry "Nazmî". https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/55835,beyani-tezkiresipdf.pdf
  • Edirneli Nazmî, Dîvân, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı (e-book), pp. 93-100, 3842, 3960 (as quoted in Hasar).

Academic studies

  • Recep Hasar, Türk Edebiyatı'nda Padişah ve Şehzade Mersiyeleri, MA thesis, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, 2018, pp. 117-120, 454-458. https://hdl.handle.net/11352/2746
  • Ziya Avşar, 16. yy Divan Edebiyatında Edirneli Nazmî ve Türkî-i Basit, PhD thesis, Gazi Üniversitesi, Ankara, 1998, p. 21 (as quoted in Hasar).
  • M. Fatih Köksal, Edirneli Nazmî, Mecma‘ü'n-Nezâ'ir, PhD thesis, Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Ankara, 2001, p. 91 (as quoted in Hasar).

Books

  • Sibel Üst, "Nazmî, Edirneli", Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, 2013. https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/nazmi-edirneli
  • Köprülüzade Mehmed Fuad, Millî Edebiyat Cereyanının İlk Mübeşşirleri, Istanbul: Devlet Matbaası, 1928, p. 511 (as quoted in Hasar).

Online sources