Diwan (poetry)In Islamic cultures of the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily and South Asia, a Diwan (دیوان, divân, ديوان, dīwān) is a collection of poems by one author, usually excluding his or her long poems (mathnawī). The vast majority of Diwan poetry was lyric in nature: either ghazals or gazels (which make up the greatest part of the repertoire of the tradition), or kasîdes.
Imadaddin NasimiSeyid Ali Imadaddin Nasimi (Seyid Əli İmadəddin Nəsimi, سئید علی عمادالدّین نسیمی; 1369/70-1418/19), commonly known as Nasimi (Nəsimi, نسیمی), was a 14th- and 15th-century Hurufi poet who composed poetry in his native Azerbaijani, as well as Persian and Arabic. He is regarded as one of the greatest Turkic poets of his time and one of the most prominent figures in Azerbaijani literature. Born around 1369–70, Nasimi received a good education and was drawn to Sufism at an early age.
Azerbaijani literatureAzerbaijani literature (Azərbaycan ədəbiyyatı) is written in Azerbaijani, a Turkic language, which is the official state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan, where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken. It is also natively spoken in Iran, where the South Azerbaijani variety is used, and is particularly spoken in the northwestern historic region of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani is also spoken natively in Russia (especially Dagestan), Georgia and Turkey.
MathnawiMathnawi (مثنوي mathnawī) or masnavi (مثنوی Mas̲navī) is a kind of poem written in rhyming couplets, or more specifically "a poem based on independent, internally rhyming lines". Most mathnawī poems follow a meter of eleven, or occasionally ten, syllables, but had no limit in their length. Typical mathnawi poems consist of an indefinite number of couplets, with the rhyme scheme aa/bb/cc. Mathnawī poems have been written in Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish and Urdu cultures.
NedîmAhmed Effendi, better known by his mahlas (nom de plume) Nedîm (Ottoman Turkish: نديم; c. 1681–1730), was an Ottoman lyric poet of the Tulip Period. He achieved his greatest fame during the reign of Ahmed III. He was known for his slightly decadent, even licentious poetry often couched in the most staid of classical formats, but also for bringing the folk poetic forms of türkü and şarkı into the court. Not much is known about Nedîm's early life, except for what can be inferred from records of the time.
Turkish literatureTurkish literature (Türk edebiyatı) comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Turkish language. The Ottoman form of Turkish, which forms the basis of much of the written corpus, was highly influenced by Persian and Arabic literature, and used the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. The history of the broader Turkic literature spans a period of nearly 1,300 years. The oldest extant records of written Turkic are the Orhon inscriptions, found in the Orhon River valley in central Mongolia and dating to the 7th century.
AzerbaijanisAzerbaijanis (ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒæni,_-ɑːni; Azərbaycanlılar, آذربایجانلیلار), Azeris (Azərilər, آذریلر), or Azerbaijani Turks (Azərbaycan Türkləri, آذربایجان تۆرکلری) are a Turkic ethnic group living mainly in the Azerbaijan region of northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. They are predominantly Shia Muslims. They comprise the largest ethnic group in the Republic of Azerbaijan and the second-largest ethnic group in neighboring Iran and Georgia.
Bektashi OrderThe Bektashi Order or Bektashism is an Islamic Sufi mystic order originating in the 13th-century. It is named after the saint Haji Bektash Veli (d. 1271). The Albanian community is currently led by Baba Mondi, their eighth Bektashi Dedebaba and headquartered in Tirana, Albania. Bektashism began as a Shia Islamic Sufi order in Anatolia during the Ottoman Empire. In 1876, a Salih Nijazi was appointed as the baba "leader" by prominent Bektashi members.
Azerbaijani languageAzerbaijani (ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒæni,_-ɑːni ) or Azeri (æˈzɛəri,_ɑː-,_ə- ), also referred to as Azeri Turkic or Azeri Turkish, is a Turkic language from the Oghuz sub-branch spoken primarily by the Azerbaijani people, who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken, and in the Azerbaijan region of Iran, where the South Azerbaijani variety is spoken. Although there is a very high degree of mutual intelligibility between both forms of Azerbaijani, there are significant differences in phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax, and sources of loanwords.
Persianate societyA Persianate society is a society that is based on or strongly influenced by the Persian language, culture, literature, art and/or identity. The term "Persianate" is a neologism credited to Marshall Hodgson. In his 1974 book, The Venture of Islam: The expansion of Islam in the Middle Periods, he defined it thus: "The rise of Persian had more than purely literary consequences: it served to carry a new overall cultural orientation within Islamdom.... Most of the more local languages of high culture that later emerged among Muslims.
