Abstract
A Poet Void of Courtesy of the Master in Exile: Mu‘îdî of Kalkandelen
The 16. century is marked down as the most brilliant
era of the Ottoman Empire politically and socially was
also a period during which Classical Turkish Literature
had lived its golden age. Cultural activities soared in
parallel with socio-economical welfare across the empire
living its most flamboyant years with the period of Sultan
Suleyman the Magnificent and also the state rulers/
administrators promoted and protected the artists by
showing the necessary interest in art and literature.
Mu‘idi of Kalkandelen was a powerful and productive
poet who lived through the second half of that century.
Although his poet identity was formed in Istanbul that
served as the school of poets for the period, his mandatory
exile to Rhodes Island causing him to separate from
Dersaâdet (door of happiness) and the years of absence
from home he lived through in Egypt and Aleppo during
pilgrim’s journey led him not to get the recognition he
deserved and wished. This theme was what influenced
strongly the poems of the poet who deeply experienced the
agony of absence from home that was mentioned as long
as he lived. The poet who struggled for survival and
existence in the backcountry away from Istanbul was also
deprived of the courtesy of absolute authority, namely the
master.
In this study, the life history of a poet who suffered
from homesickness and fell from favour during his years
of exile will be discussed and reviewed in the context of
poet-master relationship based on his biography to which
the poems of Mu‘idi of Kalkandelen himself gave shape.
Keywords
Patronage, protector, exile, homesickness, Mu‘idi of Kalkandelen.