Şeyyad Ḥamza (thirteenth-century CE) was mystical poet of Turkish ethnicity, particularly noted for his playwriting.

Life and works

The evidence for Şeyyad's life comes from sixteenth-century CE biographical scholarship, but this reveals little certain about his life. He seems to have lived most of his life around

Akşehir Akşehir is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Konya Province, Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 93,965 (2022). It was known historically as Philomelium. The town is situated at the edge of a fertile plain, on the north ...

and

Sivrihisar Sivrihisar is a municipality and district of Eskişehir Province, Turkey. Its area is 2,748 km2, and its population is 20,087 (2022). Its elevation is . Location The town of Sivrihisar lies north of the historical site of Pessinus, at the f ...

. He supposedly had a daughter, Aṣlī Khātūn, whose tombstone was believed to be found in Akşehir.Kathleen Burrill, 'Sheyyād Ḥamza', in ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', ed. by Paul Bearman and others, 2nd edn (Ledein: Brill, 1960-2005), s.v. ''Sheyyād Ḥamza''. . The first modern scholar to study Şeyyad was

Mehmed Fuad Köprülü Mehmed or Mehmet is the most common Turkish form of the Arabic male name Muhammad () (''Muhammed'' and ''Muhammet'' are also used, though considerably less) and gains its significance from being the name of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Origina ...

, who published fifteen lines of a '' methnewī'' by Şeyyad which he had found in ''Jāmiʿ al-neẓāʾir'' by Egerdirli Ḥājjr Kemāl. Mehmed saw Şeyyad as typical of bāṭiniyya thought during the period of the

Mongol invasions of Anatolia Mongol invasions of Anatolia occurred at various times, starting with the campaign of 1241–1243 that culminated in the Battle of Köse Dağ. Real power over Anatolia was exercised by the Mongols after the Seljuks surrendered in 1243 until the ...

. Thereafter, scholarship identified a number of works by Şeyyad, and suggested 'his importance as a predecessor of Yūnus Emre ..and his place in the early experimental period of Ottoman literature'. Some were in the tradition identified by Kathleen Burrill as 'folk poems'; some of these 'contain coarse elements and reflect the turmoil of 7th/13th-century Anatolia. In general, however, they express with simple lyricism his moral and religious views'. Şeyyad also composed literary poetry, including religious pieces contemplating death and avoiding worldly entrapments, work in the '' naʿt'' genre, amatory verse, and a '' naẓīre'' responding to one of Rūmī's ''

ghazal ''Ghazal'' is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry that often deals with topics of spiritual and romantic love. It may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss, or separation from the beloved, and t ...

''s.

''Destān-ı Yūsuf''

Probably Şeyyad's best known work is a 1529-line morality play ''Destān-ı Yūsuf'' ('Tale of Joseph'), an adaptation of the

Qur'ān The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

's Sūrat Yūsuf, about

Joseph son of Jacob Joseph (; ) is an important Hebrew figure in the Bible's Book of Genesis. He was the first of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's twelfth named child and eleventh son). He is the founder of the Tribe of Joseph among the Israelites. His stor ...

, which introduces mystic elements into a traditional Islamic telling of Joseph's life. According to Burrill, 'the format, while adhering in general to the Persian '' mathnawī'' tradition, replaces interspersed ''ghazel''s with five ''nükte'' or moral commentaries. The poem's general tone is strongly reminiscent of folk narrative. The Turkish (largely free of Arab- or Persianisms) requires frequent prosodic licence to achieve the chosen (''remel'') metre, and the rhyme structure lacks polish'.

''Hādhā dāsitān-i̊ Sulṭān Mahmūd''

Şeyyad also composed the 76-line ''methnewī'' called ''Hādhā dāsitān-i̊ Sulṭān Mahmūd'' ('This is the tale of Sultan Maḥmūd'), referring to

Mahmud of Ghazni Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Sabuktigin (; 2 November 971 – 30 April 1030), usually known as Mahmud of Ghazni or Mahmud Ghaznavi (), was Sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire, ruling from 998 to 1030. During his reign and in medieval sources, he is usuall ...

. In the poem, Maḥmūd meets a poor

dervish Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from ) in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage is found particularly in Persi ...

, and the two debate how best to win a place in Paradise. This topic was a traditional one in Persian poetry.

Editions and translations

* Sheyyad Hamza, ''The Story of Joseph: A Fourteenth-Century Turkish Morality Play'', trans. by Bill Hickman (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2014) . * Şeyyad Hamza, ''Tusuf ve Zeliha'', ed. by Dehri Dilçin (Istanbul 1945).

References

{{reflist Turkish folk poets Divan poets from the Ottoman Empire Poets from the Ottoman Empire 13th-century poets Date of birth missing Date of death missing