An Ottoman Scholar and Statesmen: Ahizade Abdulhalim Efendi and His Poems

Abstract

Diwan literature is a literature built by high class society, and where artistic concerns are prioritized. In general, the personalities from the Ottoman court and its neighbourhood made up its representatives, they were highly educated and cultured people. Hence, majority of the divan literature poets were of people coming from professions such as kadi (Muslim Judge), mudarris (Professor), Kâtip (Secretary), hacegân, defterdar (receiver general) and kadi-ul asker (judge of the army), who were performing duty in big settlement centres of Ottoman State. Ahîzâde Abdulhalîm Efendi, who lived in the second half of XVI century, when Divan literature was close to zenith, is also one of those poets of scholar origin. Besides his responsibilities such as kadi, kadi-ul asker and mudarris, he was a scholar who produced a great number of works. Though no diwan belonging to Ahîzâde Abdulhalîm Efendi was found out, his poem samples with the pen name “Halîmî” are presented in all resources of the period especially in collections of biographies. In this study, initially, information about his life, personality and works of Ahîzâde Abdulhalîm Efendi has been given. And, after his work Şevâhidü’n-nübüvve Tercümesi (The Translation of the Witnesses of Prophethood) was first investigated together with the literature, history and culture resources of the time, the poems that are identified to be his were studied. The poems were studied from various perspectives; and the classifications made about some subjects were shown in tables. © 2022, Abidin Temizer. All rights reserved.