Military elements of the divan poetry in the 16th century

The main purpose of this study is to examine the military elements of the divan poetry during the 16th century. We analyse the essential divans of the most notable and distinguished artists of the period such as; Baki, Fuzuli, Muhibbî, Nevi, Taslicali Yahya Bey, Zatî, Baghdad Rûhî, Hayâlî Bey and Usûlî. The Ottoman Empire showed an outstanding development in the military area in the 16th century and they also accomplished a brilliant achievement in their literature. It is inevitable that the political and military elements of this century was reflected in their poetry as well. Therefore we chose "military elements of the divan poetry in the 16th century" as the subject of our study. The study consists of four parts. In first chapter of our study, we reflect the general situation of the 16th century and introduce the sultans with some individual informations in order to understand better the political, social and economic situation of this period. In this section we analyse the divans but also the poets. In the second chapter we study the military location and it's related issues. In the third chapter we examine military situation and it's affairs. In the fourth chapter we analyse the war weapons and vehicles which are mentioned in the poems. In this study we identified the military elements frequently used in the divan poetry during the 16th century and we explained the reasons why the poets used these elements. We evaluated these elements which were literally or metaphorically used in the tradition of divan poetry. Keywords: 16th Century, Divan, Military, Poetry