Beşiktaşlı Yahya Efendi’s diwan: text and textual analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to present the diwan of Beşiktaşlı Yahya Efendi, a 16th century figure who is commonly known for his maqam in Beşiktaş, his being foster brothers with Süleyman The Lawgiver and his saga. Alongside it's text being identified, the diwan is also analyzed in terms of its form, content and style in the thesis. This research also has a purpose to give a portrait of Yahya Efendi, in consideration of his diwan. In order to draw information about his personality and to identify the stories that lie in the background of some of his poems, alongside several historical sources, it is often refered to Mehmed Dâî's Menkabet-i Yahya-yı Beşiktâşî and tazkiras. The poems also found in these sources are compared to the ones in his diwan and a textual ciriticism is applied concerning these common poems. In this research, after that I present Yahya Efendi's life, personality, saga, poesy, politics, critical views and his mystical aspect; I mention the themes taking part in the diwan and Yahya Efendi's environment. I also try to identify his relationship with other poets, in terms of parallelisms and similarities between other poets' poems and his. The last part of the research consists of the transcribed text of Beşiktaşlı Yahya Efendi’s Diwan and the original one.