Himmetî: An Unknown Minstrel in the Merzifon Cönkü

Himmetî, with a koşma, a dîvân and a semai in the Merzifon Cönkü and no trace in other sources: his three poems and the open question of his identity.

Himmetî is a poet whose name occurs in the Merzifon Cönkü. The article Metin Hakverdioğlu published in 2019 records that the cönk contains three poems under this pen name, but gives no information about the poet. No record has been found in any other source that can be matched with this poet with certainty; his identity, the place where he lived and his century are unknown. This page brings together his poems in the cönk and the limited information that can be drawn from them.

Poems in the Merzifon Cönkü

The cönk contains three poems under Himmetî's name, one in syllabic metre and two in aruz. The syllabic poem is a koşma with the refrain "nerdedir şimdi" (where is she now): the lover moans like a forlorn nightingale and asks where his rosebud-cheeked beloved is. One of the aruz poems is recorded in the cönk as a "dîvân" and opens with a couplet greeting a fairy-faced beauty with the words "bârekallah" and "âferîn". The other is a semai given as a six-line stanza; it says that a veil from God has been drawn over the beloved's beauty and closes with a plea ending "perîşân hâlimi gör de" (just see my wretched state). That the beloved is called "merd", gallant, in this semai shows that he is imagined as a young man.

The forms of the three poems, the koşma, the dîvân and the semai, fit the habit of nineteenth-century minstrels of composing in both syllabic metre and aruz. Hakverdioğlu also notes that the authors of the aruz poems in the cönk are generally folk poets. It is therefore likely that Himmetî was a minstrel poet. The article published only the first verse units of the poems; each is given on a separate page in this category, with its original text, a modern Turkish rendering and commentary.

Connection with Amasya

Himmetî's only known connection with Amasya is that his poems appear in this cönk, which is thought to have been compiled in Merzifon. Hakverdioğlu obtained the cönk from Merzifon and has argued that it was compiled by a poet from the literary circle of Eyüb Sabrî of Merzifon, most probably Fethî. Merzifon's being a stopping place for folk poets in the nineteenth century suggests that Himmetî too may have been one of the minstrels read in the town or passing through it.

State of the Sources and Discussion

No record has been found linking the poems with the pen name Himmetî to a particular poet. The article does not refer to any other source for this poet. Since the language and forms of the poems fit nineteenth-century minstrel poetry, it is reasonable to think the poet lived in that century, but some of the poems in the cönk belong to older poets as well, and this inference is not certain. Until the full texts are published and compared with other cönks, the question of who Himmetî was will remain open.