View source for Bâkî

{{Short description|Ottoman Turkish poet}}
{{refimprove|date=December 2009}}

[[Image:Mahmud Abdülbâkî.jpg|thumb|150px|Bâkî (1526–1600)]]

'''Bâḳî''' (باقى) was the [[pen name]] ([[Ottoman Turkish language|Ottoman Turkish]]: مخلص ''mahlas'') of the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[Turkish people|Turkish]] poet Mahmud Abdülbâkî (محمود عبدالباقى) <span dir="ltr">(1526 &ndash; 1600)</span>. Considered one of the greatest contributors to [[Turkish literature]]. Bâkî came to be known as ''Sultânüş-şuarâ'' (سلطان الشعرا), or "[[Sultan]] of poets".

==Life==
Bâkî was born to a poor family in [[Constantinople]], his father being a [[muezzin]] at the [[Fatih Mosque]]. Originally, his family apprenticed him to a harness-maker, but he would often skip work to attend classes at a nearby ''[[Madrassa|medrese]]'', or [[Islam]]ic school. Because of this, his family eventually allowed him to formally attend school. Bâkî was a good student, and he attended the lectures of many of the famous lecturers of the time. It was during his school years that his interest in and talent for poetry began to take shape, helped largely by the established poet [[Zâtî]] (ذاتی) <span dir="ltr">(1471–1548)</span>. After completing school, he worked for some time as a teacher, but later, as his poetic fame began to grow, he was granted a number of different positions—generally as a ''[[Qadi|kadı]]'' (ﻗﺎضی), or Islamic judge—in the Ottoman [[bureaucracy]]. Bâkî died in Istanbul in the year 1600.

Bâkî was always very close to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] palace, particularly during the reign of [[Suleiman the Magnificent|Süleymân I]], with whom he had good relations. During the subsequent reigns of [[Selim II]] and [[Murad III]], he remained close to the palace and to state affairs, and received a great deal of attention and interest both from the public and the palace.

==Works==
{{History of Turkish literature}}
Bâkî lived during the [[Classical Age of the Ottoman Empire|height]] of the Ottoman Empire, and this affected his poetry greatly. Love, the joy of living, and nature are the primary subjects of his poems. Although almost no [[Sufism|Sufi]] influence is found in his poetry—as it is in many other Ottoman-era poets—his concept of love as revealed in his poetry was not entirely divorced from the [[Sufism#Basic beliefs|Sufi concept]] thereof.

One of his most celebrated works is his ''Mersiye-i Hazret-i Süleymân Hân'' (مرثیه ﺣﻀﺮت سليمان خان; "''Elegy for His Excellency Süleymân Khan''"), among the most famed of [[Elegy|elegiac]] works in Turkish literature.

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*{{Citation
 | last=Shaw
 | first=Stanford J.
 | author-link=Stanford J. Shaw
 | title=History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume 1, Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1280-1808
 | publisher=Cambridge University Press
 | year=1976
 | isbn=9780521291637
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Xd422lS6ezgC&pg=PA148
 }}.
*{{Citation
 | title=E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936
 | publisher=E. J. Brill
 | year=1987
 | isbn=9004082654
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wpM3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA948
 }}.

==External links==
* [http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/2013/10/baki-ah-my-dear-from-ottoman-turkish.html One of Baki's poems in English translation] at ''Poems Found in Translation''
* [http://www.thebakiproject.org/main/ The Baki Project]

{{Turkish Literature}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baki}}
[[Category:16th-century poets from the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Divan poets from the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:1526 births]]
[[Category:1600 deaths]]
[[Category:Male poets from the Ottoman Empire]]