Fuzuli (poet)

Fuzuli's given name was Mahammad[lower-alpha 2] and his father's name was Suleyman.[4][5] He took on the pen name Fuzuli, which can be translated both as "presumptuous, superfluous" or "exalted, superior, virtuous". He said that he picked this name to stand out, knowing that no one else would choose such a pen name.[3][4] Contemporary sources sometimes refer to him as 'Fuzuli-yi Baghdadi' (lit. 'Fuzuli of Baghdad'), seemingly in an indication of his birthplace, Baghdad.[2][4]

Little is known about Fuzuli's life.[4] He was born in 1483 and was a Shia Muslim[lower-alpha 3] of Azerbaijani Turkic origin, descending from the Bayat tribe.[7][8][9] Although some contemporary sources refer to him as 'Fuzuli of Baghdad', suggesting he was born in Baghdad or its surroundings, other sources cite places such as Najaf, Hilla, or Karbala as his birthplace. As a child, Fuzuli received a good education and studied literature, mathematics, astronomy and languages. Aside from his native Azerbaijani, he also learned Persian and Arabic at an early age.[10][11] Fuzuli had an interest in poetry since his childhood, getting his first poetic inspiration from the late 15th-century poet Habibi.[2][4][12]

Fuzuli's youth and early adulthood coincided with the rule of the Aq Qoyunlu dynasty. His first Persian qasida (euology) was dedicated to the Aq Qoyunlu Shah Alvand Mirza.[2][3] In 1508, when Safavid Shah Ismail I entered Baghdad, Fuzuli praised him in a short masnavi (poem written in rhyming couplets). This was his first poem in Azerbaijani and imagines a dispute between wine and hashish over their respective merits, entitled Beng ü bāde (lit. 'Hashish and Wine').[3][11] After 1514, Fuzuli received patronage from Ibrahim Khan Mawsillu, the Safavid governor of Baghdad, when he met him during Mawsillu's visit to Najaf and Karbala. He dedicated two qasidas and one terciibent (poem with repeating verses) to him. However, after the death of Ibrahim Khan in 1527, Fuzuli lost his patron and moved to Hilla or Najaf where he worked as a custodian of the Imam Ali Shrine.[2][3] Despite this position, he did not have much money and relied on different patrons for support.[3] His life between 1527 and 1534 is largely unknown.[4]

Imam Husayn Shrine where Fuzuli worked as a candle-lighter later in his life

When Suleiman I conquered Baghdad in 1534, Fuzuli was already in his fifties. He presented the Sultan with a long qasida and also wrote qasidas to Ottoman officials in his entourage in order to earn their favour. One of these officials, Celalzade Mustafa Çelebi, was appointed chancellor while in Baghdad and arranged for Fuzuli to receive a stipend of nine akçes a day from the excess of Shia sanctuary donations. However, when administrators withheld stipend claiming that there was no excess, Fuzuli expressed his disappointment in a poetic letter called Şikayetname (lit. 'Complaint'), written in Azerbaijani and addressed to Çelebi.[3] In the letter, Fuzuli declared that he had abandoned all hope. Among the reasons for this loss of hope were the political and theological instability of his age that profoundly influenced him.[2] At the time, Fuzuli was working as a candle-lighter at the Bektashi convent in the Imam Husayn Shrine in Karbala.[13][14] Fuzuli wrote that he never managed to find a patron to his heart's content and his desire to join a prince's court or any other court was never realised.[2][3] Despite expressing a strong desire to see places like Tabriz, Anatolia and India, Fuzuli never managed to travel outside Iraq. The majority of his life was spent in the cities of Karbala, Hilla, Najaf and Baghdad.[4] In 1556, Fuzuli died from a plague outbreak, probably in Karbala, and was buried in Karbala, on the grounds of the Bektashi convent.[2][3][14]

Fuzuli composed poetry and prose in Azerbaijani, Persian and Arabic. Of his works, only fifteen remain extant. His poetry is distinguished by its fusion of the spiritual and sensual, its authentic expression of conventional themes, and its powerful portrayal of love, empathy, and perseverance.[3] Fuzuli's poetry also expressed a deep sense of humanism and conveyed the dissatisfaction of both the general population and the poet himself with authoritarianism, aristocracy, and institutionalised religion.[15] His poems have a multi-layered structure due to his skillful use of mystic metaphors and symbols.[5] A key characteristic of his poetry is its ability to unite and connect diverse ideas, cultures, and traditions.[3][12]

Works

Miniature scene of Ishmael's sacrifice from Ḥadīqat es-suʿadā in British Library

Fuzuli is most famous for his works in Azerbaijani, especially his ghazals and his masnavi Leyli and Majnun. This epic poem, written in 1536, is Fuzuli's interpretation of the well-known Middle Eastern love story of Layla and Majnun. The work is often considered the pinnacle of Turkic masnavi style poetry as Fuzuli elevates a personal love story to a level of spiritual longing and otherworldly aspiration.[3] Through Fuzuli, the story of Leyli and Majnun became as familiar as a local tale and is recognised as one of the most lyric works and a masterpiece of Turkic literature.[2][16] Another famous work by Fuzuli is the maktel (poem about historic deaths) Ḥadīqat es-suʿadā (lit. 'Garden of the blessed') which deals with the Karbala tragedy. Adapted from Husayn Kashifi's Rawżat al-šohadāʾ, it is considered a masterpiece of the Turkic maktel genre and is the most popular among other contemporary works on the Karbala tragedy.[17] Fuzuli is also the author of a divan (collection of short poems) in Azerbaijani, which is his longest work in this language and consists of 302 ghazals, several panegyrics, and rubaʿis.[4][18] Other works by Fuzuli in Azerbaijani include the 445 couplets long allegorical-satirical poem Beng ü bāde,[19][20] a translation of Jami’s Forty hadith titled Ḥadīth-i arbaʿīn tercemesi (lit. 'Translation of forty traditions'), and an allegorical masnavi titled Sohbetü’l-esmâr (lit. 'Conversation of fruits'), which depicts vineyard fruits engaging in self-praise and arguments. Additionally, Fuzuli wrote four poetic letters to Ottoman officials and one to Sultan Bayezid II.[3][4] According to literary researcher Muhsin Macit, Fuzuli's poems in Azerbaijani have a complex structure and flawless expression that "gives them permanence".[2]

Fuzuli has also authored several works in Persian, including a divan. This collection of short poems consists of 410 ghazals, several rubaʿis and qasidas, and demonstrates his proficiency in Persian equal to that of any classical Iranian poet. In it, Fuzuli shows great influence from poets like Hafez and Jami.[4] The collection begins with an introductory section written in prose in which Fuzuli praises poetry for its virtues, discusses his lifelong passion for it, and its ability to turn pain into pleasure.[3] Fuzuli also wrote Haft jām (lit. 'Seven goblets'; also called Sāqī-nāma), a seven-part masnavi of 327 couplets with each part focusing on a specific musical instrument. Another Persian masnavi by Fuzuli is Ṣeḥḥat o marazµ (lit. 'Health and sickness'; also called Ḥosn o ʿEšq), which is inspired by Fattahi Nishapuri's Ḥosn o Del and is an important work in terms of demonstrating Fuzuli's knowledge of old science and medicine.[3] It tells the story of a dervish losing and regaining his body's health physically due to its struggle with a disease and later psychologically due to its struggle with love.[4] Fuzuli also has a prose work in Persian titled Rend o zāhed (lit. 'Sufi and Ascetic'), which imagines a discussion between an ascetic who is attempting to instruct his son Rend, who tries to justify his lack of interest in education.[2][3] Additionally, he wrote Resâla-ye moʿammīyāt, a work consisting of 190 riddle poems, and Anīs al-qalb, a 134-couplet long qasida written for Sultan Suleiman.[3][4]

Arabic works by Fuzuli include eleven qasidas and a prose work titled Maṭlaʿ al-iʿtiqād (lit. 'The birth of faith'). It describes the idea that man can reach God by learning the secrets of the universe through gaining knowledge and is related to the Islamic theological discipline ʿIlm al-Kalām. Fuzuli's Arabic qasidas are believed to be fragments from a larger divan. All of them discuss the Islamic prophet Muhammad and Imam Ali.[4][5]

A commemorative coin issued by Azerbaijan in honor of the 500th anniversary of Fuzuli's birth

Fuzuli is considered one of the greatest poets of Turkic literature and one of the most famous poets in the Turkic literary world.[16][21][22] He had a major influence on Azerbaijani and Ottoman literature, and is sometimes considered an Ottoman poet, not because of his language or culture, but because he composed most of his poetry after the Ottoman conquest of Iraq.[23] Fuzuli is recognised as the preeminent poet among all Azerbaijani poets and the leading figure in Azerbaijani literature.[24][25] His poetry was a pivotal moment for the development of the Azerbaijani language.[15] Professor Sakina Berengian refers to Fuzuli as the "Ferdowsi and Hafez of Azeri literature", stating that it was through Fuzuli's work that the Azerbaijani language reached maturity and Azerbaijani classical poetry achieved its highest level of refinement.[26]

Widely recognised and admired throughout the Persianate Turkic cultural domain from the 16th to the 19th centuries, his work was famous not only in the Ottoman Empire, Iran, and Central Asia, but also in the Indian subcontinent, as indicated by Indian library catalogues. The poems were so popular that they were transcribed by scribes from various linguistic backgrounds using different writing systems over a vast area. As a result, three unique Fuzuli textual traditions emerged: Ottoman, Central Asian, and Iranian.[19]

Fuzuli is often seen as a link between Anatolian and the Chagatai literature due to his unique use of language and his ability to reinterpret traditional themes and ideas through his poetry, which helped to bring the two literatures closer together.[2][3] Through his inclusive legacy, Fuzuli successfully brings together Azerbaijani, Persian, and Arabic literary practices and reconciles the differences between Shia and Sunni beliefs.[3][12] His works show influence from Persian poets like Nizami, Jami and Hafez and Azerbaijani poets like Habibi and Nasimi.[5] He is also referred to as a "poet of love" because he frequently incorporated themes of love into his poetry.[12]

Fuzuli's musical knowledge, combined with the harmonious and expressive nature of his poems, makes them suitable for composing music.[2][5] His ghazals continue to be enjoyed in Turkey by both members of high society and performers outside major cultural hubs, where classical Turkish music merges with folk music.[2] The first opera in the Islamic world, Leyli and Majnun, was based on Fuzuli's work of the same name and composed by Uzeyir Hajibeyov in 1908.[5] Fuzuli's ghazals were also the subject of a popular cantata composed by Jahangir Jahangirov in 1959, titled Cantata Fuzuli.[27]

Highly respected in modern-day Azerbaijan and Turkey, Fuzuli has a street and a square named after him in central Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Additionally, an administrative region and its capital city are also named after the poet.[28] In 1995, Turkey solemnly celebrated the 500th anniversary of Fuzuli under the auspices of UNESCO.[29]

• Works by or about Fuzuli at Wikisource
• Media related to Fuzuli at Wikimedia Commons