Hayâlî-i Gülşenî, also called Sheikh Ahmed Efendi in the sources, was a Sufi poet, son of İbrâhim Gülşenî, founder of the Gülşenî branch of the Halvetiyye order, and for thirty-seven years head of the Gülşenî lodge (Âsitâne) in Cairo. He was born in Tabriz in 890 (1485) and died in Cairo in 977 (1570). His divan contains a twenty-stanza elegy for Şehzade Mustafa (Prince Mustafa) in which, from beginning to end, the prince speaks to his father. This elegy shows that the death of Prince Mustafa moved even the sheikh of an order to write an open reproach of the sultan. He must not be confused with Hayâlî Bey, Süleyman's court poet.

Hayâlî-i Gülşenî has no known connection with Amasya; what places him among the divan poets of Amasya is the elegy he wrote for Prince Mustafa, sanjak governor (sanjak-bey) of Amasya. The prince governed Amasya from 1541 to 1553. Whether the poet had any acquaintance with the prince is unknown.

Life

According to his entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Hayâlî-i Gülşenî's name was Emîr Ahmed, his title Şemseddin and his kunya Ebü's-Safâ; he is known by the pen name Hayâlî that he used in his poems. He began his education with his father and continued it under the supervision of his father's deputy Muslihuddin. After the death of the Akkoyunlu ruler Yâkub Bey in 1490 they witnessed the struggles for the throne in Tabriz. When Shah İsmâil put an end to the Akkoyunlu dynasty in 1501, İbrâhim Gülşenî decided to emigrate and, for his son's safety, asked him to travel alone. After this difficult journey, described by Muhyî in the Menâkıb-ı Gülşenî, the family reached Diyarbekir in 1502 and a few years later, by way of Urfa, Maraş and Jerusalem, settled in Cairo at the invitation of the Mamluk Sultan Kansu Gavri.

Makbul İbrâhim Pasha, sent to restore order in Egypt in Süleyman's reign, fearing that the Gülşenîs might rebel against the state, had the sheikh, who was over a hundred years old, his son Hayâlî and two of his deputies brought to Istanbul in 936 (1529). Although evidence against them was sought, nothing was found. The divans of Hayâlî and his father contain poems full of reproach describing this enforced stay. According to Muhyî, Sultan Süleyman met the Gülşenîs on the road one day and invited them to the palace, and after this meeting they were seen off to Egypt by statesmen, sheikhs and scholars. Hayâlî went on pilgrimage in 949 (1543) with the grand vizier Lutfi Pasha, and in 963 (1556) stayed for a time in Istanbul in the retinue of Bayezid Bey, treasurer of Dukakinzâde Mehmed Pasha.

After his father's death Hayâlî guided disciples for thirty-seven years at the Gülşenî lodge in Cairo; he died on 6 Şaban 977 (14 January 1570) and was buried beside his father. During his headship the Gülşeniyye spread, and Gülşenî lodges were opened in many cities from Egypt to Rumelia. It is related that he trained about a hundred students at the Sultan Kalavun Madrasa and that he spoke beautifully and persuasively. Ahdî, in his Gülşen-i Şuarâ, calls him "kutbü'l-aktâb-ı zamân" (the pole of the poles of the age) and praises his mastery of eloquence; Atâî finds his poems "muhakkikane" (in the manner of one who seeks the truth).

Works

Hayâlî-i Gülşenî's only known work is his divan. Three copies of it are known, two in Istanbul (the Millet Library and the Süleymaniye Library, Yozgat 427) and one in the National Library in Ankara; the Ankara copy was written out by his son and successor Ali Saffetî. The divan contains 377 ghazals in the lover's and the sententious manner; a poem resembling Kaygusuz Abdal's "Dolabnâme" also stands out. The poet wrote an elegy for Prince Mustafa, two chronograms on the death of Rüstem Pasha hinting that the pasha suffered torment for his sins, and chronograms and kıt'as for the grand vizier Semiz Ali Pasha, famed for his generosity and justice. Türkan Alvan has written an MA thesis on the divan.

The Elegy for Prince Mustafa

The elegy is on folios 12-14 of the Süleymaniye Library copy of the divan, Yozgat 427, and was published by Mehmed Çavuşoğlu. It is a murabba of twenty stanzas in the metre "fâ’ilâtün fâ’ilâtün fâ’ilâtün fâ’ilün", and each stanza ends with the refrain "N’eyleyem kıydun bana devletlü sultânum menüm" (What can I do, you have slain me, my fortunate sultan). The poem is written from beginning to end in the prince's voice: the dead prince tells his father of what he has lost, of the enemies he wished to fight, of his loyalty and of the slander he suffered. Recep Hasar counts Hayâlî among the poets who reproach the sultan and quotes as an example the stanza in which the prince asks, "Was I not once your chosen Mustafa". Semra Güler states that a second elegy of unknown authorship, written in the same metre and form, is a nazire (response poem) to this poem.

The language of the poem contains forms peculiar to Eastern Turkish such as "menüm", "yoh", "yıhdı" and "kimi"; the poet's birth and upbringing in Tabriz may explain this feature. This observation is our own. The original text of the elegy, its English prose rendering and a commentary are published as a separate article in this category; the poet's other poems, which 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.

Chronology

890 (1485): Born in Tabriz.

907 (1502): Came to Diyarbekir with his father İbrâhim Gülşenî; the family later settled in Cairo.

936 (1529): Brought to Istanbul with his father on the orders of İbrâhim Pasha.

949 (1543): Went on pilgrimage with the grand vizier Lutfi Pasha.

960 (1553): Wrote his elegy on the death of Prince Mustafa.

963 (1556): Stayed for a time in Istanbul.

6 Şaban 977 (14 January 1570): Died in Cairo.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Online sources