NESİMÎ

Sufi poet (b. 1339?-1344?, Nesim, Baghdad – d. 1418?, Şirvan). His real name was İmamüddin. There is little information about his life. Nesimi is said to have taken his name from Nesim, the town in which he was born. It is also thought that may have been born in Tebriz, Şirazl or Diyarbakır. It is generally agreed that he was connected to the Hurufi sect and was killed in Aleppo because of his poems and ideas against Islamic doctrine.

Nesimî, who also wrote Arabic and Persian poems, is known in Turkish literature for his poems supporting monotheism written in Azeri Turkish. From historical documents it is known that he was one of the first poets who became well known for his Turkish poems in Anatolia. His Farsça Divan (Persian Divan*) was published several times, and his Türkçe Divan (Turkish Divan*) was published four times between the years 1841 and 1881. Selections from his poems featured in Seyyid Nesimî Divanı' ndan Seçmeler (Selections From the Divan* of Seyyid Nesimi, by Kemal Edip Kürkçüoğlu, 1973) His poems were also published in 3 volumes by the Azerbaijan Science Academy (Baku, 1973).