Ahdi of Baghdad (d.1593[1]), also referred in Turkish as Bağdadlı Ahdi Ahmed Çelebi,[2] was an Ottoman and Safavid era poet and bibliographer of the 16th century. He was one of the first four Ottoman poets to write a tezkire (bibliographical dictionary of poetry).

Ahdi was born in Baghdad and was of Persian descent. His birth name was Ahmed bin Shemsi.[3] In the year 960, by the Islamic calendar, he went to Constantinople. There he learned the Ottoman Turkish language and made contact with many distinguished poets of the time. After residing in the capital for 11 years, he returned to Baghdad (971 IC). There he continued being part of the poetic circles. The Ottoman historian and traveler Mustafa Âlî mentions Ahdi as one of the best known Arabic poets in Baghdad during 1585–1586, out of 30 in total.[4]
Ahdi's main work is the tezkire named Gülşen-i Şuara (Rosebed of Poets), which he wrote the same year on his return home. It was different from the previous ones written until then because it covered only author's time contemporary poets. It was finished in 1563, and was dedicated to Prince Selim, afterwards known as Sultan Selim II.
Ahdi died in Baghdad towards Selim's reign end.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ Halil Inalcik, Peter Burke, ed. (1999), History of Humanity, vol. V: From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, Paris: UNESCO, p. 235, ISBN 92-3-102814-6, OCLC 223951055
  2. ^ Mustafa bin Ahmet Âli; Esra Akın (2011), Muṣṭafá Alī's Epic deeds of artists : a critical edition of the earliest Ottoman text about the calligraphers and painters of the Islamic world, Islamic history and civilization, vol. 87, Boston: Brill, p. 90, ISBN 9789004178724, OCLC 744465897((citation)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ a b Elias John Wilkinson Gibb (1904), Edward Browne (ed.), A History of Ottoman Poetry, vol. 3, London: Luzac & Co, pp. 8, 73, OCLC 2110073
  4. ^ Cornell H. Fleischer (1986), Bureaucrat and intellectual in the Ottoman Empire : the historian Mustafa Âli (1541-1600), Princeton studies on the Near East, Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, p. 123, ISBN 9780691054643, OCLC 13011359
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