Gedâyî is a poet with two syllabic koşmas in the Merzifon Cönkü, a manuscript compiled in Merzifon. Metin Hakverdioğlu, who published the cönk, gives no explanation of who he was. Among the poets who used the pen name Gedâyî or Gedâî, the name that seems closest to the world of the cönk is Tokatlı (Beşiktaşlı) Gedâî, apprentice of Erzurumlu Emrah, who lived in the first half of the nineteenth century. Since the cönk contains many poems by Emrah and by his other apprentice Tokatlı Nûrî, this identification is plausible; yet no record has been found showing that the two koşmas of the cönk belong to Tokatlı Gedâî. His real name, his life and any direct link with Amasya are unknown.

His Place in the Merzifon Cönkü

The Merzifon Cönkü is a manuscript poetry notebook that Hakverdioğlu acquired from a bookseller as coming from Merzifon; it is numbered to 112 pages, with some pages lost and others repeated. Its compiler and date are not written in it; Hakverdioğlu estimates it to be about a hundred years old and believes it was put together by a Merzifon poet of Eyüp Sabrî's circle, probably one using the pen name Fethî. The notebook contains 161 poems by 32 poets. In the list of poets Gedâyî appears with "2 syllabic". Both of his koşmas are on page 91 of the cönk, and the article gives them under the heading "poems written by Gedâyî in syllabic metre (2)", after Bezmî's koşma and before Fethî's koşmas.

The Case for Tokatlı Gedâî

According to the entry on Erzurumlu Emrah in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Emrah trained many apprentices in the places he visited, above all Tokatlı (Beşiktaşlı) Gedâî and Tokatlı Nûrî, and became the founder of a branch (kol) of the minstrel tradition. Tradition relates that before his death Emrah left his saz and his word to Nûrî and his power of memory to Gedâî, charging Nûrî never to leave Anatolia and Gedâî to go to Rumelia and never return. That Gedâî is also called Beşiktaşlı (of Beşiktaş) points to part of his life having been spent in Istanbul. The Merzifon Cönkü contains eleven poems by Erzurumlu Emrah and thirty-six by Tokatlı Nûrî; in other words, it largely collects the poetry of Emrah's branch. That two koşmas by the other great apprentice of the same branch should also have entered the notebook seems natural. This idea is drawn from the make-up of the cönk and is ours; Hakverdioğlu offers no such interpretation of Gedâyî.

Another poet with the same pen name is the sixteenth-century divan poet Gedâyî of Antakya, who has an entry in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü. A scribe and calligrapher attached to the Mevlevi lodge, he is well represented in Edirneli Nazmî's Mecmaʿu'n-Nezâir and in the anthology of Pervâne Bey, and he appears to have been alive in 971 (1563-64), when Ahdî's biographical anthology was written. It hardly seems possible that this sixteenth-century writer of ghazals in aruz has anything to do with the syllabic koşmas in a folk idiom found in the cönk.

His Connection with Amasya

The only record linking Gedâyî to Amasya is the presence of his two koşmas in this notebook compiled in Merzifon. Hakverdioğlu explains that Merzifon was a halting place on the roads to Çorum, Kastamonu, Sinop and Samsun, that minstrels passed through it in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and that at the invitation of Merzifon poets such as Eyüp Sabrî names like Emrah, Nûrî and Dertli took part in the gatherings of the town. Whether Gedâyî himself came to Merzifon is not known; his koşmas may have reached the town through his master or his fellow travellers. His connection with Amasya is therefore limited to his poems having been recited and written down in Merzifon.

His Poetry

Only the first quatrains of the two koşmas in the cönk have been published; the complete texts are in the cönk in Hakverdioğlu's private library, on page 91. The first begins with the line "Sevdâ-yı ‘aşḳıňla ṭolanayım mı" and tells of a lover burning in the fire of separation who begs the stone-hearted beloved for mercy. The second begins "Gülşen-i ‘âlemde ey gül-i ra‘nâ" and is a playful koşma about the "çıtır pıtır" pimples on the beloved's face; it is notable for bringing the ornate images of divan poetry, rose and tulip, together with an everyday detail. Both koşmas are in eleven-syllable metre and in a language close to folk speech. 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 Gedâyî is limited to the two opening quatrains in Hakverdioğlu's article. The article does not discuss who the poet was and does not show whether the poems are found in any other source. The possible identity with Tokatlı Gedâî is a conjecture drawn from the weight the cönk gives to Emrah's branch. It could be tested by comparing the collected poems of Gedâî with the koşmas of the cönk; with the sources available to us this comparison has not been possible. When the full text of the cönk is published, the wording of the pen-name stanzas of the koşmas may also shed light on the poet's identity.

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