Siyâbî was a tailor poet from Merzifon who lived in the sixteenth century. His pen name (mahlas) means "garments" in Arabic and comes from his trade. The anthologists say that he could not read or write, but that he was a master of his craft and not without talent in poetry; Kınalızâde praises him in the very language of his trade, as a poet who cut the robe of speech to the measure of harmony and sewed it with the needle of eloquence. Latîfî quoted from him an opening couplet, four single couplets and a four-couplet piece on income; these six pieces make up a small body of work that brings the conventions of divan poetry together with a craftsman's everyday world. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar gives him a place in Amasya Tarihi under the name Hasan Çelebi; the full text of the entry is published on the site as Siyâbî Hasan Çelebi-Terzi.

Hüsameddin's Record

Hüsameddin closes the "se" section of the eighth volume with this entry:

Siyâbî Hasan Çelebi-Terzi Merzifonludur. Terzi esnâfından birinin oğludur. İstanbul'da terzi ve ümmî olduğu hâlde tabî'at-ı edebiyyesi, selîka-i şi'riyyesi mükemmel olduğundan zamânı şu'arâsına meydân okurdu. Vezn ü kâfiyesi düzgün, lutf-ı ma'nâda gülgûn eş'âr söylerdi. Sultân Murâd-ı Sâlis'in evâ'il-i devr-i saltanatında vefât etdi.

In English: Siyâbî Hasan Çelebi Terzi is from Merzifon. He is the son of a member of the tailors' guild. Although he was a tailor in İstanbul and could not read or write, his literary nature and poetic talent were so perfect that he challenged the poets of his time. He composed verses correct in metre and rhyme and rose-coloured in subtlety of meaning. He died in the first years of the reign of Sultan Murad III.

The rest of the entry is a quotation from Latîfî: he is from Merzifon, of the guild of tailors, and so took the pen name Siyâbî; he was an unlettered man of the common people with a simple heart, but his poetic nature was not bad nor his power of verse slight. With this quotation Hüsameddin gives two couplets.

Siyâbî in the Tezkires

Latîfî's entry is somewhat fuller than Hüsameddin's. He introduces Siyâbî as "nâhiye-i Merzifândan zümre-i ʿirfândan", from the district of Merzifon and of the company of the knowing. While saying that he was unlettered, of the common people and simple-hearted, he adds that in his trade he was "pîşe-ger ve üstâd-ı hünerver", a skilled master who knew his work. He notes that the opening couplet he gives as the first example was a nazire (response poem) to Necâtî; four couplets follow, and then a four-couplet piece saying that income, "derâmed", makes a man generous and cheerful. Kınalızâde again names Siyâbî as a tailor from Merzifon and repeats that he was a craftsman and unlettered, but builds his praise in tailoring terms: Siyâbî is a poet "who cut the robe of speech to the stature of harmony and with the needle of eloquence and refinement sewed the fine brocade of fluency". As his example Kınalızâde gives only the opening couplet "Elifler serv-i rengîn".

The State of the Sources

Siyâbî's name differs in the sources. Hüsameddin calls him Hasan Çelebi; the entry written by Yunus Kaplan in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Names in Turkish Literature), however, says that his real name was Mehmed, and cites the editions of Kınalızâde and Latîfî. In the editions of Latîfî and Kınalızâde read for this study the poet's name does not appear; which of the two names is correct could therefore not be determined.

The date of his death also presents a difficulty. Hüsameddin writes that he died at the beginning of the reign of Murad III, that is, within a few years after 1574, but gives no source. Latîfî's entry is written in the past tense, and in the edition the prayer for the dead "rahmetullâhi aleyh" stands beside the heading; this suggests that the poet may already have died in the years when the anthology was written, around 1546. If the different manuscripts of the anthology and its later additions are taken into account, this sign too is not conclusive. The tailoring in İstanbul that Hüsameddin mentions does not occur in Latîfî or Kınalızâde; the information linking the poet to Merzifon, on the other hand, is common to all three sources.

His Poetry

There is no trace of a divan gathered by Siyâbî. The six pieces Latîfî quoted have each been given a page in this category: the opening couplet "Nâr-ı ruha yanan dile pervâne disünler", a nazire to Necâtî; the couplet "Ben o derzi güzelüñ eskiden âvâresiyin", in which a lover smitten with a tailor beauty plays on the phrase "two collars"; the opening couplet "Elifler serv-rengîn gül gibi sînemde dâgum var", which likens the wounds of love on his breast to a garden; the couplet "Degüldür er çü merdî ey civân-merd", which sets the words for manly and generous side by side; the couplet "Yoluña yilmekile kendümi oñarımadum", built on the verbs "oñarmak" and "oñmak"; and the piece "Derâmed mûcib-i zevk u safâdur" in praise of income. Hüsameddin gives two of them, Kınalızâde one.

In several of the pieces the tailor's world is plain to see. Words such as collar, old cloth and mending are carried into the language of love; the piece saying that income breeds generosity also seems written from a craftsman's point of view. That a poet the anthologists call "unlettered" composed verse in aruz (quantitative metre), wrote a nazire and used Persian compounds is the real point that caught their attention as well.

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