Unpublished Poems of Reşid Âkif Pasha

Abstract

The Ottoman Empire is a great state that has taken its place in the distinguished pages of history with its numerous achievements in every field over a period of more than six centuries. The main factors that cause a state to live healthy and long and to achieve success are the building blocks it has trained, such as valuable scholars, poets, engineers, architects, bureaucrats, soldiers and state dignitaries. The Ottoman Empire, whose sultans included poets, musicians, calligraphers and painters who spoke several languages and wrote poems in those languages, raised countless influential and qualified people in these fields. Being able to serve as a high-level bureaucrat in such a state, which is equipped with superior qualifications from head to toe, requires being well-equipped. Reşid Akif Pasha is one of the high-ranking bureaucrats of the Ottoman Empire. He served as the Governor of Sivas between 1902 and 1908, during the last period when the administration and will of the Ottoman Empire was shaken, and he successfully completed his duty by exercising the power and representative power of the state in the best possible way. Apart from this duty, Reşid Âkif Pasha also distinguished himself with his engagement with poetry and literature and the poems he wrote in aruz meter. Although the poems he wrote were sufficient to form a small divan, his poems were lost as a result of his house burning in the Vefâ fire. His verses that have survived to this day and are known consist of seven poems. As a result of our research and analysis, it was determined that Reşid Âkif Pasha, in addition to the letters and poems he sent to İbnülemin Mahmut Kemal İnal, also sent poems to Elmalılı Muhammed Hamdi Yazır. In addition, in the manuscripts of Ahmed Remzi Akyürek, ghazals belonging to Reşid Âkif Pasha and nazîre, tahmis and tastir made to his ghazals were detected. The subject of our study is the eight ghazals of Reşid Âkif Pasha, which have been identified and will be published for the first time, and the nazîre, tahmis and taştir made to his ghazals In this study, the poems in question will be transcribed and examined, and poems that we believe are important to the history of classical Turkish literature will be included.