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 Extract from Gencine-i Raz, Millet Manuscript Library, Istanbul | |
| Native name | Dukaginzâde Yahyâ |
| Born | c. 1498 Taşlıca, Sanjak of Herzegovina (modern Montenegro) |
| Died | 1582 (mostly accepted) Unclear |
| Occupation | Poet, military |
| Language | Ottoman Turkish |
| Nationality | Ottoman |
| Education | Acemi oglan |
| Literary movement | Diwan poetry |
Dukaginzade Yahya Bey (Template:Lang-tr, Template:Lang-sq) was one of the greatest Ottoman poets of the diwan literature of 16th century. An Albanian, he was brought up through the devşirme system after which he quickly rose in military ranks.
Life
Early life
Yahya was born in Taşlıca, modern-day Pljevlja in Montenegro. He is known by the demonym Taşlicali, although Turkish poet Muallim Naci (1850-1893) claimed he did not use the title himself. He was born in c. 1498. Of Albanian descent, he claimed that he sprung from the Dukagjin noble family near Shkodër. According to R. Elsie, he hailed from the Dukagjin region in northern Albania.
As a boy, he was taken by the Ottomans as a devşirme. Nevertheless, for Yahya Bey, the cruel Devşirme was his opportunity for rise in fame, considering that back then birth counted for nothing and good luck and particularly tack meant everything. He was trained and sent to serve among the Janissaries. He was put in the corps of "Adjemi Oghlan" where the officers for Janissaries and Spahis were trained, and received the rank of Yaya Bashi (infantry officer) and Bülük Bashi (senior captain). The Shihāb al-Dīn, the Katib (secretary) of the Janissaries recognized his skills and accredited him a lot of freedom. He got access to intellectual coteries of Kadri Efendy, Ibn Kemal, Nishandji Tadji-zade Dja'fer Çelebi, Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha, and İskender Çelebi.
Rise as a soldier and poet
As a young man, he spent many years on military campaigns. He took part in the Battle of Chaldiran (1514) under Sultan Selim I, and in the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17), and Baghdad expedition of 1535 under Sultan Suleyman, earning the respect of the important people of the time, including the Sultan because of his poems. According to E. J. W. Gibb, he was inspired to write the "Yusuf and Züleyha" while in Palestine on the road to Mecca. Egypt was also an inspiration for him, especially Cairo, which he called "the city of Joseph". Yahya was a bitter enemy of K̲h̲ayālī Mehmed Bey, another contemporary poet which he had first met in 1536. He satirically attacked K̲h̲ayālī Mehmed Bey in his verses. Yahya wrote a kasîde (a kind of panegyric) against him and presented it during the Persian campaign to the Sultan and Grand Vizier Rüstem Paşa who was declared as "enemy of the poets". Rustem Pasha was so delighted with the level of contempt towards K̲h̲ayālī, that Yahya was made administrator of several foundations in Bursa and Istambul.
Exile
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In 1553, Prince Şehzade Mustafa was executed by his father Suleiman the Magnificent. The elegy that Yahya Bey wrote upon the murder by strangulation of Prince Mustafa near Ereğli in Konya, whilst with the Sultan on campaign to Iran, was read with appreciation. However, because of this elegy, the Grand Vizier Rüstem Paşa, who had planned the Prince’s murder, had Yahya investigated and dismissed from his position. The Vizier wanted and did everything he could to get Yahya executed. He was saved when the Sultan did not give permission for this. As a member of the askeri class, apparently he could not be left to starve. In order to distance himself from the malice of Rüstem Paşa, Yahya was exiled to the Balkans, without forgetting to write a satirical lament on Rustem Pasha after his death. There are divergences on the location where he was sent. According to some source, he took over an estate (fief) near Zvornik in today's Bosnia and lived pretty well afterwards receiving a 27,000 or 30,000 akçe annual income. Others point to Tamışvar, center of the Province of Temeşvar, where he for sure fought at a certain point. In 1565, at an old age, he served with the Yahyâli corps at the siege of Szigetvar. It was there that he composed a qasîdeh and presented it to his patron, Sultan Suleiman. After that, being at an old age, he turned to Islamic Mysticism.
While in exile in Bosnia, Yahya met in 1574-75 with Mustafa Âlî, a local and well known Ottoman historian and bureaucrat. The life-story of Yahya made an impression on Ali, who would later use it as a baseline when he referred to himself as "a poet too talented to be supported by jealous politicians and subsequently condemned to exile in the border provinces". Yahya sent his son Adem Çelebi to Ali with a draft of the most recent revision of his diwan for Ali to proofread, especially the Arabic construction parts, although apparently there was no need for that.
There is no wide consensus for the year of death. Yahya bey could have died in 1575, 1573 (982 in Ottoman calendar), even 986 for some, or 1582 (990), most of the sources pointing to 1582. Place of death also varies. The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism claims Timișoara in Romania, while Bursalı Mehmet Tahir Bey and Muhammed Hadzijahić place Loznica (in Serbia) as place of death. There are also claims that he was buried in Istanbul.
Poetry
Yahya bey Dukagjini is the author of a large diwan of poems and of a group of five mesnevî, (long narrative verse-romances about allegorical-mystical love) that contained rhymed couplets which he wrote without the influence of Iranian traditions and put together in a Khamsa ("five poems"). The most popular of the latter is Shâh u gedâ (The King and the Beggar), which he claimed to had finished in just one week, and Yusuf ve Züleyha (Yusuf and Züleyha). This much-appreciated metrical romance idealizes the pure love for an Istanbul youth of unequalled beauty. His Gül-i Şadberk (Rose of a Thousand Petals) describes Profet Muhammed's miracles.
Like many other poets, Yahya's work was inspired by the work of Sufi poet Mevlevî (also known as Rumi, Mevlânâ, or Jalāl ad-Dīn, founder of Mevlevi Order). There are references to Mevlevi in a few couplets in Yahya Bey’s diwan, and in some other rhymed couplets in his khamsa as "Mevlana", "Molla Hünkar", "Molla-i Rum". Mevlana is the leading character in three different stories: Gencine-i Raz, Kitab-i Usul, and Gulşen-i Envar. Moreover, he retold the story Süleyman Peygamber'le Sivrisinek that appears in Mevlana’s mesnevi without changing it.
Yahya also wrote "Şehrengiz" (City Book), describing Edirne. Some of his poems were published in diwan collections in Istanbul in 1867-1868.
Legacy
A brave soldier, he is remembered as representative of a type which admirably combined the sword with the pen. His independence intertwined with frankness and courage is his most notable trait. Yahya Bey is considered one of the greatest Ottoman poets.
Yahya bey Dukagjini is depicted in the Turkish TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl (The Magnificent Century), performed by Serkan Altunorak.
See also
References
- ^ İ. Güven Kaya (2006), Divan edebiyatı ve toplum (in Turkish), Donkişot, p. 123, ISBN 9789756511527, OCLC 171205539,
Divan edebiyatının büyük şairlerinden biri olan Dukaginzâde (Taşlıcalı) Yahya...
- ^ H. T. Norris (1993). Islam in the Balkans: Religion and Society Between Europe and the Arab World. Univ of South Carolina Press. pp. 62–63. ISBN 978-0-87249-977-5.
- ^ İdris Güven Kaya (2009), Dukagin-zade Taşlıcalı Yahya Bey'in Eserleridne Mevlana Celaleddin (PDF), Turkish Studies, vol. 4, Erzincan
{{citation}}: Unknown parameter|trans_title=ignored (|trans-title=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Elsie 2012, p. 127. sfn error: no target: CITEREFElsie2012 (help)
- ^ M Th Houtsma (1987), First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936, E.J. Brill, p. 1149, ISBN 9789004082656, OCLC 15549162
- ^ Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture and Tourism - TAŞLICALI YAHYA
- H. T. Norris (1993), Islam in the Balkans: Religion and Society Between Europe and the Arab World, University of South Carolina Press, p. 79, ISBN 9780872499775, OCLC 28067651
- Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Bernard Lewis, Johannes Hendrik Kramers, Charles Pellat, Joseph Schacht (1998), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 10, Brill, p. 352, OCLC 490480645
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Cornell H. Fleischer (1986), Bureaucrat and intellectual in the Ottoman Empire : the historian Mustafa Âli (1541-1600), Princeton University Press, pp. 63–64, ISBN 9780691054643, OCLC 13011359
- Marcel Cornis-Pope, John Neubauer (2006), History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures, Comparative history of literatures in European languages, Book 20, vol. 2, J. Benjamins Pub, p. 498, ISBN 9789027293404, OCLC 9789027293404
{{citation}}: Check|oclc=value (help) - ^ Emine Fetvacı (2013), Picturing History at the Ottoman Court, Indiana University Press, p. 51, ISBN 9780253006783, OCLC 827722621
- Muhamed Hadžijahić, Jedan Nepoznati Tuzlanski Hagiološki Katalog (PDF) (in Bosnian), p. 217
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