Poetry
Divan
Not translated into English
Imadaddin Nasimi · 1400
Synopsis
The Turkic divan gathers four hundred and fifty-seven ghazals, more than three hundred tuyugh quatrains, three masnavis and a few other forms. In it the poet upholds the Hurufi idea that God manifests Himself in the human face and that the letters of the alphabet, which make up the Quran and describe the features of the body, hold the key to it; he blends in the unity of being, praise of the twelve imams and the memory of Hallaj, to whom tradition will compare him. The language remains accessible and musical despite the density of Quranic references.
Context
What survives amounts to two divans, one Turkish and the other Persian, the latter comprising two hundred and ninety ghazals, with a few Arabic and mixed pieces; the copies are numerous and poems scattered in anthologies are still being added to them, Fatih Köksal and Ömer Zülfe having published unpublished quatrains. Printed in Istanbul as early as the nineteenth century, the Turkish divan was edited in Baku by Selman Mümtaz in 1926 and by Cihangir Qəhrəmanov in 1973, then in Ankara by Hüseyin Ayan. UNESCO celebrated the six-hundredth anniversary of his birth in 1973, and Kathleen Burrill devoted a study to his quatrains in 1972.
Who it is for
A divan in Old Azerbaijani, difficult without notes; it is better to know that, for Hurufism, every written letter is a sign of the divine.
Prizes and reception
Praised as early as the fifteenth century by Timurid poetry, he ranks among the seven great poets of the Alevi and Bektashi traditions.