Abstract:

Seyyid Yahyâ Vâkıf was born in Istanbul. He is a member of a scholar, poet and calligrapher family. Vâkıf's father was Abdürrahim Fâiz Efendi (d. 1726) and his maternal grandfather Abdülbâkî Ârif Efendi (d. 1713-14). His grandfather, father, brother Mehmed Şeref Efendi and himself are all poet and calligrapher. A copy of Riyâzu’sh-Shu‘arâ was copied by Vâkıf, who was a master in talik script. The poet, who was a professor, a religious professor in Cairo, a cadet in Aleppo, a military qassam, died in Istanbul on 15 Ramadan 1150 / January 2, 1738, and was buried in a location near his grandfather in the Eyup Cemetery. No other work of Vâkıf other than Dîvân is known. We do not have this work, which is reported as a prepared divan. Aleppo Menzilname can also be included inn his Dîvân. There are 28 ghazels and 1 coupletb belonging to Vâkıf in the magazine which is recorded in Yapı Kredi Sermet Çifter Research Library with number of Y-619. Together with the poems found in tezkires, biography books and art history studies, the available poems reach 40, including 3 qasidahs, 32 ghazals, 3 qit’ahs (chronogram) and 2 couplets. The 3 ghazals which are included in these poems were either written as a nazeerah to Seyyid Vehbî or formed the basis for Vehbi’s nazeerah. In addition, while the chronogram of Seyyid Vehbi was written in one of the inscriptions in the Kabataş Hekimoğlu Ali Pasha Square Fountain, the chronogram in the other inscription was attributed to Vâkıf Mahmûd Efendi, a scholar from Bursa. However, the poem belongs to Seyyid Yahyâ Vâkıf. The information given in the sources for Vâkıf’s poetry consists of mentioning that he is a good poet.

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