Focusing on the work and reception of the Ottoman poet Zati (1477-1546) during his lifetime and in the decades after, this study explores a time when literature written in Turkish rapidly grew in parallel with an expanding bureaucratic state. It situates the changing reception of Zati within the context of a shift in critical attitudes toward the value and function of poetry that was brought about by newly emergent bureaucratic literati.

Sooyong Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Comparative Literature at Koç University, Istanbul.

Introduction

1. Contexts: The Court and Beyond

1.1 The Court and Poetry

1.2 State, Society, and the Ottoman Way

1.3 The Social Spread of Poetry

1.4 The Matter of Poetic Training

2. A Poet in Istanbul

2.1 The New Cultural Capital

2.2 The Early Years

2.3 The Later Years

2.4 On Patronage

3. A Poet and His Work

3.1 The Remarkable Lyricist

3.2 Varieties of Convention, Questions of Audience

3.3 Of (Qualified) Praise

4. An Emerging Tradition

4.1 The Issue of Influence

4.2 Refashioning Familiar Poetry

4.3 Eastward Back

4.4 The Plain Turkish Movement Reconsidered

5 The Making of a Legacy

5.1 Mentor at Large

5.2 Zati and Baki

5.3 Linguistic Identity and Cultural Difference

5.4 A Poet Caught in Transition

Epilogue