Perception of Sultan Mehmed the Conquest in Ahmed Pasha’s qasidas

This thesis examines the qasida, one of the fundamental verse forms of classical Islamic literature, through its historical development, formal structure, and functional transformations within the framework of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literatures, and specifically examines the perception of Mehmed the Conqueror in Ahmed Pasha's qasidas. The qasida has transcended being a mere eulogy in Islamic cultural geography, becoming a tool of political legitimacy, cultural transmission, and literary representation. In the first part of this study, the emergence of the qasida in Arabic literature, its use during the pre-Islamic and pre-Islamic periods, the tradition of mu'allaqat, and how it was shaped by the contributions of early poets have been explained. In the second part, the development of the qasida in Persian literature, particularly how it was shaped within the framework of a palace-centered literary approach, and how it was enriched by the contributions of poets such as Unsuri, Rudaki, and Enveri have been evaluated. In the third part, Ahmed Pasha's poetic identity, his place within Ottoman qasida tradition, and his relationship with classical discourse have been examined. In the fourth chapter, which forms the main axis of the thesis, how Mehmed the Conqueror was idealized and within which themes he was explored in the qasidas written by Ahmed Pasha has been discussed under eighteen headings. In this context, Mehmed the Conqueror has been depicted as a just ruler, a leader endowed with divine qualities, and a generous and blessed figure and he has been reconstructed around themes such as prophetic virtues, sanctity, solar metaphors, intelligence, beauty, and miracles. The study aims to make an original contribution to understanding the aesthetic power and sociopolitical function of the qasida verse form and to reveal the ideological burden of classical poetry through the literary representation of a sultan in the example of Ahmed Pasha.