Rahmî of Bursa, whose real name was Pîr Mehmed and who, because his father was a painter-illuminator (nakkaş), was also known as Nakkaş Bâlîzâde Pîr Mehmed Çelebi, was a sixteenth-century poet. He is known for his divan and for the mesnevis Gül-i Sad-berg and Şâh u Gedâ; towards the end of his life he became a teacher (müderris) at Yenişehir near Bursa, and he died in 975 (1567-68). The five-stanza terkib-i bend he wrote on the killing of Şehzade Mustafa (Prince Mustafa) in 1553 has its place among the elegies for Prince Mustafa as a measured and artful poem of mourning.

Rahmî 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 and had gathered a wide circle of poets in the city. No record has been found that Rahmî entered this circle or presented a qasida to the prince.

Life

According to his entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Rahmî was born in Bursa. The biographical anthologies write that he became known for his poetic talent at a young age, that his poems were in demand, and that he was also skilled in the art of illumination he had learned from his father. He first came to know the treasurer İskender Çelebi, was presented through him to the grand vizier İbrahim Pasha, and in 936 (1529-30) presented his poems to Sultan Süleyman at the circumcision festivities held for the sultan's sons. In time he wrote tahmîs (five-line amplifications) on Süleyman's ghazals. Although he constantly expressed in his qasidas the wish to be given an appointment, he found no response; and when İskender Çelebi and İbrahim Pasha were executed, he was left without patronage and went through hard times. He then became a candidate (mülazım) under Celâlzâde Sâlih Çelebi.

Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî says that Rahmî was not valued even as much as villagers, and states that towards the end of his life he was appointed a teacher through a qasida with the redif "tîr" (arrow) that he presented to Prince Selim. Rahmî died in 975 (1567-68). Cinânî of Bursa composed a chronogram on his death with the line "Bâdâ rahmet-i Rahmî mezîd". His grave is at Yenişehir near Bursa. Known also for his good looks, Rahmî is among the beauties described in Taşlıcalı Yahya's Şehrengîz-i İstanbul and Lâmiî Çelebi's Şehrengîz-i Bursa. Beyânî says that his pen name came from the boundless compassion (rahm) that a faithful beloved showed to her lovers.

Works

The existence of Rahmî's divan was unknown until recently; its only copy is in the National Library in Ankara and contains twelve qasidas, tahmîs, terci-i bends, 160 ghazals and other poems. Gül-i Sad-berg is a mesnevi of about 1,500 couplets that begins with a section on the basmala and consists of seven chapters and seven stories. Şâh u Gedâ is a mesnevi of 1,734 couplets, freely translated from the work of the same name by Hilâlî-i Çağatayî. Rahmî also wrote a şehrengiz of 300 couplets for Yenişehir near Bursa, where he was a teacher, describing each beauty in three couplets. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, one copy of this şehrengiz is in manuscript Nuruosmaniye 4962 in the Süleymaniye Library. The elegy for Prince Mustafa is also on folios 175-176 of the same manuscript; Recep Hasar records this manuscript as Rahmî's divan. In the same volume, on the folios immediately before the elegy, Fünûnî's elegy for Prince Mustafa is also found.

His Poetry and the Elegy for Prince Mustafa

Rahmî's elegy is a terkib-i bend of five stanzas and forty couplets in the metre "mef’ûlü fâ’ilâtü mefâ’îlü fâ’ilün". It follows the classic sections of the genre in an orderly way: the transience of the world, mourning, the description of the death, praise of the prince and prayer. The first linking couplet of the poem places the prince among the martyrs of Karbala: "Oldı şehîd Hazret-i Sultân Mustafa / Yâr oldı ana şâh-ı şehîdân-ı Kerbelâ". The linking couplet of the third stanza tells in veiled form of the prince's strangling with a cord, through the image of treasure chests tied with cord and sealed. In the last stanza the poet wishes leprosy in both worlds on whoever parted the prince from the sultan and ends the poem with a prayer for the sultan's long life.

According to Semra Güler, Rahmî expressed only his sorrow in his elegy and avoided expressions that would get him into trouble. This restraint may be considered together with the fact that the poet was at that time hoping for patronage from the court; this interpretation is our own. The original text of the elegy, its couplet-by-couplet English prose rendering and a commentary are published as a separate article in this category. Rahmî's other poems have been left outside the scope of this work, as they are not related to Amasya or Prince Mustafa. The other elegies are described in our article Elegies for Prince Mustafa, and the prince's life in the biography Şehzade Mustafa.

Chronology

936 (1529-30): Presented his poems to the sultan at the circumcision festivities of Süleyman's sons.

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

975 (1567-68): Died; his grave is at Yenişehir near Bursa.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources