Imadeddin Nasimi

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This article is about the 14th-century Sufi poet. For the 17th-century Alevi poet, see Kul Nesimi.

Imadeddin Nasimi (Azerbaijani language:İmadəddin Nəsimi, Persian: عمادالدین نسیمی‎ ) (?–1417?) was a 14th-century Sufi poet (Nasimi was his pen name, or takhallus). He has written peotry in Turkish and Persian and is considered as one of the greatest poets of the Azerbaijani and Divan traditions. Some consider him as the father of the classic Turkish literature.

Contents 1 Life 2 Poetry 3 Legacy 4 Notes 5 References

[edit] Life

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Poetry | Prose

Very little is known for certain about Nesîmî's life, including his real name. Most sources indicate that his name was `İmâd-üddîn (عماد الدين)<sup>[1]</sup>, but it is also claimed that his name may have been `Alî (علی) or Ömer (عمر)^[2]. It is also possible that he was descended from the Prophet Muhammad, since he has sometimes been accorded the title of seyyid (سيد) that is reserved for people claimed to be in Muhammad's line of descent. Nesîmî's birthplace, like his real name, is wrapped in mystery: some claim that he was born in a province called Nesîm—hence the pen name—located either near Aleppo in modern-day Syria,^[3] or near Baghdad in modern-day Iraq,^[4] but no such province has been found to exist. There are also claims that he was born in Shamakhi or Bursa,^[5] as well as Tabriz, Shiraz, or Diyarbakır.^[6]

What is known for certain—from the clear evidence of his poetry—is that, at some time in his life, Nesîmî became an adherent of the Sufi Hurûfî movement, which was founded by Nesîmî's teacher Fazl-ullah Nâimî (1339?–1394). Nesîmî was, in fact, to become one of the most influential advocates of Hurûfî doctrine, and the movement's ideas were spread to a large extent through his poetry. Sometime around the year 1417 (or possibly 1404^[7]), as a direct result of his beliefs—which were considered blasphemous by the contemporary ulema, or religious authorities—Nesîmî was seized and, according to most accounts,^[8] skinned alive in Aleppo. A number of legends later grew up around his execution, such as the story that he mocked his executioners with improvised verse and, after the execution, draped his flayed skin around his shoulders and departed.^[9] A rare historical account of the event—the Tarih-i Heleb of Akhmad ibn Ibrahim al-Halabi—relates that the court, which was of the Maliki school of religious law, was unwilling to convict Nesîmî of apostasy, and that the order of execution instead came from the secular power of the emir of Aleppo, who was hoping to avoid open rebellion.^[10]

Nesîmî's tomb in Aleppo remains an important place of pilgrimage to this day.

[edit] Poetry

Nesîmî's collected poems, or dîvân, number about 300, and include gazels, kasîdes, and rubâ'îs, as well as some Persian poetry. His best poetry was quite different from other poetry of the time in that, being written mostly in Azerbaijani language rather than Persian, it appealed to a much broader audience. A large body of Bektashi and Alevi poetry is also attributed to Nesîmî, largely as a result of Hurûfî ideas' influence upon those two groups.

One of Nesîmî's most famous poems is the gazel beginning with the following lines:

منده صغار ايكى جهان من بو جهانه صغمازام

گوهر لامکان منم كون و مکانه صغمازام

Mende sığar iki cahan, men bu cahâna sığmazam

Gövher-i lâ-mekân menem, kövn ü mekâna sığmazam^[11]

Both worlds can fit within me, but in this world I cannot fit

I am the placeless essence, but into existence I cannot fit

The poem serves as an excellent example of Nesîmî's poetic brand of Hurufism in its mystical form. There is a contrast made between the physical and the spiritual worlds, which are seen to be ultimately united in the human being. As such, the human being is seen to partake of the same spiritual essence as God: the phrase lâ-mekân (لامکان), or "the placeless", in the second line is a Sufi term used for God.^[12] The same term, however, can be taken literally as meaning "without a place", and so Nesîmî is also using the term to refer to human physicality.^[13] In his poem, Nesîmî stresses that understanding God is ultimately not possible in this world, though it is nonetheless the duty of human beings to strive for such an understanding. Moreover, as the poem's constant play with the ideas of the physical and the spiritual underlines, Nesîmî calls for this search for understanding to be carried out by people within their own selves.

Some of Nesîmî's work is also more specifically Hurûfî in nature, as can be seen in the following quatrain from a long poem:

گوردم اول آيى و بيرام ايلدم

شول ميه بو گوزلرى جام ايلدم

حجّه واردم ازم احرام ايلدم

فا و ضاد لام حق نام ايلدم

Gördüm ol ayı vü bayram eyledim

Şol meye bu gözleri câm eyledim

Hecce vardım ezm-i ehrâm eyledim

Fâ vü zâd-ı lâm-i Heqq nâm eyledim^[14]

Seeing that moon I rejoiced

I made of my eyes a cup for its wine

I went on Hajj in pilgrim's garb

I called Fâ, Zâd, and Lâm by the name "Truth"

In the quatrain's last line, "Fâ", "Zâd", and "Lâm" are the names of the Arabic letters that together spell out the first name of the founder of Hurufism, Fazl-ullah. As such, Nesîmî is praising his shaykh, or spiritual teacher, and in fact comparing him to God, who is also given the name "Truth" (al-Haqq). Moreover, using the Perso-Arabic letters in the poem in such a manner is a direct manifestation of Hurûfî beliefs insofar as the group expounds a vast and complex letter symbolism in which each letter represents an aspect of the human character, and all the letters together can be seen to represent God.

Nesîmî is also considered a superb love poet, and his poems express the idea of love on both the personal and the spiritual plane. Many of his gazels, for instance, have a high level of emotiveness, as well as expressing a great mastery of language:

اوزكى مندن نهان ايتمك ديلرسه ڭ ايتمه غل

گوزلرم ياشڭ روان ايتمك ديلرسه ڭ ايتمه غل

برك نسرین اوزره مسکين زلفكى سن طاغدوب

عاشقى بى خانمان ايتمك ديلرسه ڭ ايتمه غل

Üzünü menden nihân etmek dilersen, etmegil

Gözlerim yaşın revân etmek dilersen, etmegil

Berq-i nesrin üzre miskin zülfünü sen dağıdıb

Âşiqi bîxânimân etmek dilersen, etmegil^[15]

Should you want to veil your face from me, oh please do not!

Should you want to make my tears flow, oh please do not!

Should you want to lay your hair of musk atop the rose

And leave your lover destitute, oh please do not!

[edit] Legacy

Nesîmî's work represents an important stage in the development of poetry not only in the Azerbaijani language vernacular, but also in the Ottoman Divan poetry tradition. After his death, Nesîmî's work continued to exercise a great influence on many Turkic language poets, and authors such as Fuzûlî (1483? – 1556), Khata'i (1487 – 1524), and Pir Sultan Abdal (1480 - 1550) can be counted among his followers

Nesîmî is venerated in the modern Republic of Azerbaijan, and one of the districts of the capital city, Baku, bears his name. There is also a monument to him in the city, sculpted by T. Mamedov and I. Zeynalov. Furthermore, the Institute of Linguistics at the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan is named after him, and there was also a 1973 Azerbaijani film, Nasimi (the Azerbaijani language spelling of his name), made about him. The 600th anniversary of Nesîmî's birthday was celebrated worldwide in 1973 by the decision of UNESCO, and representatives from many countries took part in the celebrations held both in Azerbaijan and in Moscow, Russia.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References