Abstract:

Zâkirî Hasan Efendi was one of the famous figures who made his mark as a Sufi, composer and poet in the field of science and art in the 17th century. Although there is limited information about him in the sources, Zâkirî is known to have joined the Sufi community with his commitment to a religious sect called Halvetiye. Being in charge as a head religious songster in the Nûreddin-zâde Dervish Lodge for many years, he was appointed as a preacher to Kazancılar Mosque. Besides fulfilling these duties, Zâkirî became known for his compositions by the musical society. He gained recognition for the compositions he made in the form of mosque music which was a kind of religious Turkish music, but unfortunately only a few of his compositions have reached the present day. Besides being a famous composer, Zâkirî is also known to have written poems in line with the tradition of religious-mystic literature. Because of his Sufi personality, the poet used the nickname Zâkirî for his poems. He adopted a notably simple and clear language in his poems instead of being preoccupied with artistic purposes in the form of syllabic meter and aruz wezni. Like many other Sufi poets, he expressed his Sufi thoughts with his poems and hence tried to show the public the true way. His poems were not compiled in a separate work either in his period or later on, but it is possible to come across Zâkirî’s poems in some written journals and junks. His 4 poems were published by Vasfi Mahir Kocatürk. One of these journals including the poems of Zâkirî is kept as Mecmû’a-i Eş’âr numbered 2708 in Bursa İnebey Manuscript Librarian Ulucami. In this article, the above mentioned Mecmû’a-i Eş’âr is introduced and some information about Zâkirî is presented as well. The article also includes some of the poems of Zâkirî we found out in the journal and a poem previously published by Vasfi Mahir Kocatürk which was not included into the journal.

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