Amasya holds a large share among the first women's voices of Ottoman poetry. The literary circle that formed around the princely court in the second half of the fifteenth century did more than train male poets: it also allowed poets whom the biographers of poets counted "among the nisâ," that is, among women, to grow up in this city or in families that came from it. Zeyneb Hatun, Mihrî Hatun and Hubbî Ayşe Hatun are the best known of these women; the verse of all three found its way into the tezkires, the names of two of them were mentioned together by their contemporaries, and Mihrî's divan has come down to us complete. Since detailed articles on these three poets already appear in the Literature and Historical Figures sections of the site, only a brief introduction and links are given for each here.

In the Amasya Tarihi of the Amasya historian Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar, however, several more women whose names do not appear in the tezkires are described as "şâire" (poetess) or "şâirât-ı nisâdan" (one of the women poets). İğnecizâde Sâfiye Hatun, Râziye Hatun and Ümmü Gülsüm Hatun are among them; what we know of them comes almost entirely from this work, and not a single example of their poetry has survived. Hayzürân of the Abbasid dynasty, whom Hüsameddin counts as a native of Amasya, is treated separately as a tradition, since most sources connect her with another place. The general picture of Amasya's poetic circle is given in the article Amasya Divan Poets and Literary Environment.

The Woman Poet in the Tezkires

The sixteenth-century biographers of poets set aside a distinct place for women poets, but the language they use in describing them also carries the outlook of the age. In his Heşt Bihişt, under the heading "Fî zikri'n-nisâ" (On the women), Sehî Bey says that in his own time two ladies had appeared among women, that the poems of each were beautiful and their couplets matchless, that their ghazals circulated among the people, and that it was therefore necessary to record them. These two ladies are Zeyneb and Mihrî, and both have ties to Amasya. The fact that the women's section of the tezkire consists of these two names alone shows of itself the place Amasya held in early women's poetry.

The most frequently used formula of praise is the word "merdâne," manly. Beyânî says of Zeyneb, "Eş'ârı ârifânedür. Kız nakşı degüldür merdânedür"; in modern terms, her poems are the work of a pen possessed of mystical knowledge, they do not resemble a girl's ornament, they are a manly utterance. Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi uses the same expression for Hubbî: her words are "kız nakşı değil hayli merdâne," no girl's embroidery but quite manly. Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde embellish this attitude with an Arabic couplet: the feminine gender of the sun's name is no fault in it, nor is the masculine gender of the crescent's name a cause of pride. In praising the woman poet, the biographers thus continue to weigh her by the measure of male poets, yet they also concede that women could rise to the same rank as men in poetry.

The women poets are also compared with one another. Kınalızâde writes that Zeyneb Hatun was Mihrî's companion and contemporary, that they exchanged verses, and that between the two poets there flew letters he calls "Hammâme-nâme," that is, pigeon letters. Âşık Çelebi, describing Hubbî, mentions the women poets of Iran and Mihrî from among "şu'arâ-yı nisâ-yı Rûm," the women poets of Rum, and goes so far as to say that if Mihrî had lived in Hubbî's day she would have served her. This ranking shows that by the middle of the sixteenth century Mihrî had become a yardstick for women poets, while Hubbî was held to be even above her.

Hüsameddin's work adds further names to this picture, drawn from local records. In listing the notable women of the city, the historian introduces most of them as "âlimât-ı nisâdan" (one of the learned women) or as "âbide, zâhide" (devout, ascetic); some, however, he explicitly counts as poets. He uses "şâirât-ı nisâdan" for Zeyneb and Râziye, "şâire" for Hubbî, Ümmü Gülsüm and Hayzürân, and "âlim, şâir, sûfî-meşreb" (learned, a poet, of Sufi disposition) for Sâfiye. These descriptions have saved from oblivion the names of several women whose poems have not survived.

Poets with Their Own Sections on the Site

Zeyneb Hatun

Zeyneb Hatun is the fifteenth-century poet known to have compiled a divan in the name of Mehmed II (the Conqueror) and to have presented it to the sultan. Her divan is lost; of her poetry there remain only a ghazal, a qit'a and a Persian matla preserved in tezkires and anthologies. Her connection with Amasya is disputed: Âşık Çelebi and Beyânî present her as the daughter of one of the kadis of Amasya, whereas Latîfî says she was the daughter of a skilled man from the Kastamonu region. Hüsameddin argues that her husband İmâdzâde İshak Fehmî Çelebi served for five or six years as kadi of Kastamonu and that Latîfî was misled by this residence; he adds that in an anthology he saw in Osmancık he read the heading "Amasyalı Zeyneb Hâtun'un gazeli" (the ghazal of Zeyneb Hatun of Amasya), and that the poet is buried in the Üçler quarter of Amasya.

Hüsameddin's records do not fully agree even among themselves. In the first volume of his work he calls Zeyneb "Belâ'î Çelebi kerîmesi" (daughter of Belâ'î Çelebi), while in the tenth volume he gives her family under other names; he records her death as 889 (1484), whereas late sources give the year 879 (1474). In the third volume he writes that after the inquiry Mehmed II launched in 882 into the circle of Prince Bayezid in Amasya and the decree that arrived in 883 (1478-79), "şâirât-ı nisâdan Zeyneb Hâtun" went to Istanbul. That Hüsameddin records, on the same pages, a second Zeyneb Hatun who served as a companion in the palace of Prince Ahmed, Zeyneb Hatun of the Müeyyedzâde family, suggests that Âşık Çelebi's note placing Zeyneb in Prince Ahmed's service may have arisen from a confusion of these two women; this is an inference and is not stated outright in the sources. Hüsameddin introduces Selâmet Hatun, regarded as her sister, as "şâire-i meşhûre Zeyneb Hâtun'un hemşîresi," the sister of the famous poetess Zeyneb Hatun.

The poet's life is told in the biography of Zeyneb Hatun, and her literary persona together with all her surviving poems in the article Zeyneb Hatun: Literary Character, Works and Poems and under the Zeyneb Hatun heading of the Literature section.

Mihrî Hatun

Mihrî Hatun is a poet whose divan has survived complete in manuscript copies, and her connection with Amasya is beyond dispute. She was born in Amasya, spent her life in the city, and said so herself in the line of her divan "Geçmiş ki hayf Mihrî Amâsiyye'de ömrün" (alas, Mihrî, your life has passed in Amasya). According to İsmail E. Erünsal's entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, her father was Kadı Hasan Amasyevî, who also wrote poetry under the pen name Belâyî, and her grandfather was Pîr İlyas, one of the Halveti sheikhs. Hüsameddin, by contrast, in his seventh volume makes her the daughter of Yahyâ Çelebi, son of the kadi Bilâlî Mehmed Çelebi, and says "şâirât-ı nisâdandır." That the name Belâyî is given in Hüsameddin's first volume to Zeyneb's father shows that the family details of the two poets became entangled in the sources.

Mihrî belonged to the literary circle that formed around the princely court during the Amasya governorships first of Bayezid II and then of Prince Ahmed. Among the events of the year 903 (1497-98) Hüsameddin writes, "Amasya şu'arâsından Çeşmî Ahmed Çelebi ile Mihrî Hâtun iştihâr ediyordu" (among the poets of Amasya, Çeşmî Ahmed Çelebi and Mihrî Hatun were gaining fame); and in listing the Amasya poets who presented qasidas at the circumcision feast held in 911 (1505-06) for Prince Ahmed's sons, he says "en şâyân-ı dikkat Mihrî Hâtun'du," the most remarkable was Mihrî Hatun. The entries in a register of royal gifts (in'âmât defteri) show that Mihrî regularly sent qasidas to Bayezid II and that in 914 (1508) she presented her divan and received 3,000 akçe. The last entry is dated 917 (1512); her death falls after this. She was buried in the graveyard of the lodge of her grandfather Pîr İlyas in Amasya.

Her life and her place in the tezkires are told in the biography of Mihrî Hatun, and the poems of her divan have been published one by one, with modern Turkish renderings, under the Mihrî Hatun heading of the Literature section. The divan has a critical edition made by E. İ. Maştakova in Moscow in 1967 and a newer edition in Sabiha Gemici's doctoral thesis of 1990; the texts on the site, however, are based on the edition Mehmet Arslan prepared by collating four manuscripts, published as an e-book by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2018.

Hubbî Ayşe Hatun

Hubbî Hatun, whose real name was Ayşe, is the woman poet whom the sixteenth-century biographers rated highest. She spent most of her life in Istanbul; her tie to Amasya rests on her lineage. Kâtib Çelebi counts her as a native of Amasya, and Hüsameddin presents her as the daughter of Yahyâ Efendi bin Abdurrahman Çelebi of Amasya, of the family of Şeyh Yahyâ Efendi of Beşiktaş. She married Şems Çelebi, who had been tutor to Selim II during his years as prince, became the sultan's companion when Selim ascended the throne, and rose to be an influential woman at court. Hüsameddin describes her as "âlime, fâzıla, şâire, edîbe" (learned, virtuous, a poetess, a woman of letters) and gives her death as 999 (1590-91); Osmanlı Müellifleri records the year 998 (1590).

In his entry, which Hüsameddin also quotes, Kınalızâde counts Hubbî as the "evveli ve ercahı," the first and foremost, of the women who occupied themselves with poetry, in truth the most poetic and most eloquent of that company. According to the tezkires she wrote ghazals, qasidas and masnavis; of the masnavi Cemşîd ü Hurşîd, which exceeded three thousand couplets, only the verses quoted in the tezkires are known. The gazâ poems in a work called İmâdü'l-cihâd, introduced in recent years, have also been attributed to her. A note in Hüsameddin's tenth volume shows Hubbî's relation to Amasya from another angle: Râziye Hatun, the daughter of Prince Mustafa, was admitted to the palace together with her mother at the accession of Selim II in 974 (1566) "musâhibesi Amasyalı Ayşe Hubbî Hâtun'un arz u şefâ'ati ile," through the petition and intercession of his companion Ayşe Hubbî Hatun of Amasya.

Her life is treated in the biography of Hubbî Ayşe Hatun, and her works and poems in the article Hubbî Hatun: Literary Persona, Works and Poems and under the Hubbî Hatun heading of the Literature section.

Poets Whose Poems Have Not Survived

Sâfiye Hatun of the İğnecizâde Family

Sâfiye Hatun belonged to the İğnecizâde family, prominent among the Halveti sheikhs and scholars of Amasya. Hüsameddin introduces her as "Amasya ulemâ ve meşâyihinden Abdurrahman Efendi bin Şeyh Safiyüddîn Halvetî kızıdır," the daughter of Abdurrahman Efendi, son of Şeyh Safiyüddîn Halvetî, one of the scholars and sheikhs of Amasya. Her grandfather Safiyüddîn Mûsâ Çelebi was a man descended from Pîr Şerefeddîn Hamza Halvetî who was trained in the company of Şeyh Zekeriyâ Halvetî and became sheikh of his lodge; according to Hüsameddin, Bayezid II held him in great devotion while governor of Amasya, and the sheikh taught Qur'anic exegesis and hadith in the Saraçhane Mosque and died in 893 (1488). Her father Abdurrahman Efendi is likewise counted in the same source "meşâhîr-i ulemâdan," among the renowned scholars. Sâfiye was thus a woman born into the very heart of the city's world of learning and Sufism.

According to Hüsameddin's record, Sâfiye Hatun married Gümüşlüzâde Muhyiddîn Çelebi, studied with scholars and received her upbringing from them, and became "Mihrî Hâtun'un şiir ve inşâda tilmîzi," that is, Mihrî Hatun's pupil in poetry and in prose composition. She died after 945 (1538-39) and was remembered as a woman who was "âlim, şâir, sûfî-meşreb." This teacher-pupil relationship with Mihrî probably had a family background: according to Hüsameddin's third volume, Gümüşlüzâde Pîr Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi became sheikh in 903 (1497-98) of the lodge of Pîr İlyas Halvetî, who is considered Mihrî's grandfather. The source does not say whether this man was Sâfiye's husband; that they bear the same name and come from the same family can be noted only as a possibility.

What is known of Sâfiye Hatun comes from a single source, Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi. No record of her has been found in any other source in the course of this study. It is not known whether she used a pen name, and her poems have not been found. Hüsameddin's entry appears on the site under the heading Safiye Hâtun-İğnecizâde.

Râziye Hatun (Çelebi Kızı)

Râziye Hatun is a woman of Amasya whom Hüsameddin distinguishes as "Çelebi Kızı," the Çelebi's daughter. She was the daughter of Mehmed Çelebi. Muhyiddîn Mehmed Efendi, known as "Molla Cürcân," married her when he came to the city as mufti of Amasya in Cemâziyelevvel 955 (1548), and the couple lived in a house in the Hatuniye quarter. Hüsameddin describes her as "şâirât-ı nisâdan, gâyet afîf, edîb, dânişli bir kadın," one of the women poets, a most chaste, cultivated and learned woman, and writes that on account of these qualities she was one of the companions of Prince Mustafa, governor of Amasya. According to the same record, Râziye's first husband was one of the emirs.

The last documented event in Râziye Hatun's life concerns the Amasya governorship of Prince Bayezid. Toward the end of 965 (1558) Bayezid sent her husband Molla Muhyiddîn Efendi, together with İcâdî Hayreddîn Efendi, as envoys to Süleyman the Magnificent, and for this the two envoys were imprisoned in Yedikule. While her husband was in prison, Râziye endowed her large and splendid house to the muftis of Amasya, and some time later she died. Hüsameddin also records that the house later passed to İydîzâde el-Hâc Mustafa Âkif Efendi, then to his descendant Ürgübîzâde Ahmed Necîb Efendi, and finally, as private property, to the Çaycızâde family.

Râziye Hatun's poems have not been found, nor is it known whether she used a pen name. What is known of her rests on Hüsameddin alone; in the course of this study no record of the same person has been found in any other source. Her entry can be read on the site under the heading Râziye Hâtun-Çelebi Kızı.

Ümmü Gülsüm Hatun (Şerîfe)

The latest name on the list is Ümmü Gülsüm Hatun. According to Hüsameddin she was the daughter of es-Seyyid Celâleddîn Mehmed Efendi, deputy of the naqib al-ashraf of Amasya; she was also called "Şerîfe Ümmü Hâtun." She endowed money for the expenses of the Emîr Paşa dervish lodge and died in 1059 (1649). The historian describes her as "âlimât-ı nisâdan olup şâire, edîbe idi," one of the learned women, a poetess and a woman of letters.

Ümmü Gülsüm Hatun's poems have not been found. The information given for her in the source amounts to these few lines, and her name has not been encountered in any other source. It should be borne in mind that on the same page Hüsameddin also records another Ümmü Gülsüm Hatun, the daughter of Pîr Sunullah Halvetî and wife of Şeyh Zekeriyâ Halvetî, whom the people called "Gülsün Ana"; she is remembered as a learned and pious woman and is not counted as a poet. The entry for Ümmü Gülsüm Şerîfe appears on the site under the heading Ümmü Gülsüm Hatun (Şerîfe).

A Tradition: Hayzürân of Harşena

The earliest of the women whom Hüsameddin names as poets is Hayzürân, wife of the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi and mother of Musa al-Hadi and Harun al-Rashid. Relying on works such as Zehru'l-âdâb, Târih-i Baybars and Ikdü'l-cümân, the historian writes that she came from Harşena, the old name of Amasya, and was therefore called "Hayzürânü'l-Harşeniyye." According to his account, when the Abbasid commander Mâlik bin Abdullah entered and plundered Amasya in 144 (761-62), he took captive this young girl, who served in one of the churches, and presented her to the caliph al-Mansur, who in turn gave her to his son al-Mahdi. Al-Mahdi freed and married her; Hayzürân gained great influence during the caliphates of her sons, built the edifice in Mecca known as "Dâru'l-Hayzürân," and died in Baghdad in 173 (789).

Hüsameddin also translates a passage from the Nukûdü'l-lisân of Mustafa bin Hasan el-Antâkî; having said "Harşene, Anadolu'da Amasya şehridir. Harun er-Reşîd'in validesi Hayzürân buradandır" (Harşena is the city of Amasya in Anatolia; Hayzürân, mother of Harun al-Rashid, was from here), Antâkî describes her as "gâyet âkile, müdebbire, sâliha, şâire, sahiyye," that is, a very intelligent, prudent, pious and generous woman and a poetess. Kasım Kırbıyık's entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, on the other hand, introduces Hayzürân as al-Mahdi's "slave woman of Yemeni origin," gives her name as "Hayzürân bint Atâ el-Cüreşiyye," and records that her brother Gıtrîf was a servant in the household of a man of Jurash in Yemen. The entry makes no mention of any tie with Amasya or Harşena. Hayzürân's Amasya origin therefore remains a tradition that rests on the sources Hüsameddin cites but has not found wide acceptance.

As an example of Hayzürân's poetry, Hüsameddin relates an exchange of verse letters between her and al-Mahdi. When Hayzürân went on pilgrimage and stayed for a time in Mecca, al-Mahdi sent her couplets expressing his longing, and Hayzürân at once wrote a reply and returned to Baghdad. The historian rejects another hemistich ascribed to Hayzürân in Âsım Efendi's Kâmûs Tercümesi on the grounds that its metre is faulty and its diction not eloquent, and says that the indecent reply attributed to Harun al-Rashid in the same anecdote could not belong to so cultivated a caliph. The full entry appears on the site under the heading Hayzürânü'l-Harşeniyye.

Selected Poems

Since the surviving poems of Zeyneb, Mihrî and Hubbî are published in their own sections, they are not repeated here. Not a single example of the poetry of Sâfiye, Râziye and Ümmü Gülsüm Hatun has come down to us. This section gives only the Arabic qit'a that Hüsameddin quotes and ascribes to Hayzürân.

The Reply Ascribed to Hayzürân, Qit'a: قد أتانا الذى وصفت من شوق

قد أتانا الذى وصفت من شوق
فكدنا وما قدرنا نطير
ليت أن الرياح يودين
إليكم ما قد يجن الضمير
لم أزل صبة إن كنت بعدى
فى سرور فدام ذاك السرور

The qit'a is a reply to al-Mahdi's couplets, which begin "We are in the utmost joy, but our joy is complete only with you." According to the translation the editors give in a footnote to the new edition of the work, its meaning is as follows: What you described in your longing has reached us; we very nearly flew, but we had not the strength. Would that the winds could carry to you what the heart keeps hidden. If you are in joy while apart from me, I still burn with longing; may that joy of yours last forever. The poem answers al-Mahdi's last couplet, "if you have the strength to fly with the wind, then fly," with the same image, and closes the longing felt for the beloved with a prayer for his happiness. The text appears in Arabic script in the ninth volume of Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi (e-book pp. 154-155); since the letters come out in reverse order in the text version of the e-book, they are given here with their order restored. The attribution of the qit'a to Hayzürân rests on Hüsameddin's account and could not be checked against another source.

Chronology

144 (761-62): According to Hüsameddin, the Abbasid commander Mâlik bin Abdullah plunders Amasya and takes Hayzürân captive.

173 (789): Hayzürân dies in Baghdad.

883 (1478-79): According to Hüsameddin, after the inquiry and decree concerning Amasya, Zeyneb Hatun goes to Istanbul.

889 (1484): According to Hüsameddin, Zeyneb Hatun dies (879/1474 in late sources).

893 (1488): Death of Şeyh Safiyüddîn Mûsâ Çelebi, Sâfiye Hatun's grandfather.

903 (1497-98): Hüsameddin records that Çeşmî Ahmed Çelebi and Mihrî Hatun gained fame among the poets of Amasya.

911 (1505-06): Mihrî Hatun is among the poets who present qasidas at Prince Ahmed's circumcision feast in Amasya.

914 (1508): Mihrî Hatun sends her divan to Bayezid II and receives a gift of 3,000 akçe.

917 (1512): The last gift entry concerning Mihrî Hatun.

945 (1538-39): Sâfiye Hatun dies after this date.

955 (1548): Molla Cürcân Muhyiddîn Mehmed Efendi, Râziye Hatun's husband, becomes mufti of Amasya.

965 (1558): Molla Muhyiddîn Efendi is imprisoned in Yedikule as Prince Bayezid's envoy; Râziye Hatun endows her house to the muftis of Amasya.

974 (1566): Through Hubbî Hatun's intercession, Râziye Hatun, daughter of Prince Mustafa, is admitted to the palace.

999 (1590-91): According to Hüsameddin, Hubbî Ayşe Hatun dies.

1059 (1649): Ümmü Gülsüm Hatun (Şerîfe) dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

Online sources