Pamukkale Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi

Abstract

Dīvān Literature, which reached its peak with poets such as Fuzūlī and Bākī, began to lose its former power after Sheyh Gālib, who was its last great poet. This process continued until the beginning of the 20th century. During this period, even though Dîvân Literature could not catch its old originality, it continued its influence for a while with its form and content. Mehmed Rızā Safvet Bey, who lived in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, is also one of the poets who left the last examples of Dîvân Literature. Rızā Safvet Bey comes of a bureaucratic family that trains artists and scholars. Calligrapher Suûdü'l-Mevlevī, the son of Rızā Safvet Bey, wrote a voluminous dīvān following the path of his poet father. All of the poems of Rızā Safvet Bey are also included in the section "Āsār-ı Peder" of this dīvān named Zādegān. Āsār-ı Peder contains the biographical information and poems of Rızâ Safvet Bey. He wrote poems in forms of ghazal, song, tahmis, muhammes and kıt’a. Rızâ Safvet Bey wrote his munācāts and na'ts as ghazal. In his poems in the ghazals and songs section, the main subject was love, beloved, longing, spring, moonlight and nature. The poet enthusiastically described the roses, tulips and nightingales of Istanbul in his songs. The songs of the poet, who had a special interest in music, were composed by Reşid Efendi and Tanbūrī Ali Efendi, one of the music masters of his time. The poet, who also took music lessons from his musical master Hācı Arif Bey and Tanbūrī Ali Efendi, is also a calligrapher who trained himself in calligraphy.