The Divan of Kazasker Mekkî (Review-analysis-text)

Leaving behind its old glorious days, the Ottoman Empire started to experience its last moments in the 19th century. In order to keep the state alive, various statesmen and intellectuals started to seek salvation solutions. For this reason, the reform and innovation movements that started in the previous century continued to be implemented in this century. Especially with the Tanzimat, innovation movements started in literature as in many other fields. However, these innovations did not return the classical Turkish poetry, which started to lose its old literary quality after Sheikh Galip, into its glorious days. On the contrary, it accelerated its end. Kazasker Mehmed Mekkî Efendi, who was born in this period, wrote poems in the classical Turkish poetry tradition. Mekkî collected his poems in an informal Divan. The only known copy of the Divan is registered in the Ali Emiri Efendi Collection of Millet Library with archive number 34 Ae Manzum 410. It includes 35 odes, 10 museddes, 4 tahmis, 1 muhammes, 4 murabba, 39 songs, two of which are written in syllable measure, 134 ghazals, 46 kıt'a, 1 mesnevi, 16 matlas and 27 mufrets. The language of his poems is Turkish, there are no Arabic and Persian poems in the Divan. Although some of the poems in the Divan contain religious and mystical issues, most of his poems are based on human love and worldly issues. In his poems, he has taken as examples of the masters of classical Turkish poetry, Bâkî, Nâbî and Fuzûlî. For this reason, it is possible to find a trace of them in Mekki's poems. This does not lead to the conclusion that he is an imitative poet. When his poems are examined, it can be easily said that Mekkî has a unique style. The poet used aruz effectively in his poems. He also paid attention to elements related to harmony such as rhyme and redif.