Yusuf Nabi

Yusuf Nabi (1642 – 13 April 1712) was an Ottoman Divan poet born at Urfa, author of the Hayriyye, the book of counsel he composed for his son and his most famous work.¹² No text read names a school for the man himself; his Hajj, his book of the Hajj journey and his documented career are stated in his record without a named school, and his faith is recorded as unknown.

Nabi was born in 1642 at Urfa and grew up in poverty; at twenty-four he left for Istanbul, continued his education and began to be known for his poems.¹² He accompanied Sultan Mehmed IV to the Edirne court and joined the sultan's hunts, and in 1672 he was on the Polish campaign and wrote the Fetihname-i Kamaniçe on the fall of Kamianets, his first independent work.¹ In 1679 he went on the Hajj, became steward to Mustafa Pasha on his return, and wrote the Tuhfetü'l-Harameyn, his account of the journey.¹ He then lived some twenty-five years in Aleppo, comfortably supported by the state, writing most of his works there; in 1701 he composed the Hayriyye in Aleppo for his son Ebulhayr, who was born there, and from Aleppo he followed the capital's news closely, congratulating Mustafa II on his accession with a cülus ode while staying silent at the accessions of Suleyman II and Ahmed II.¹²

When Baltacı Mehmed Pasha became grand vizier he took Nabi back to Istanbul, where Nabi was appointed superintendent of the mint and then chief registrar.¹ He was by then an old man, and he died at Istanbul two years after his return: the Turkish article's lead gives 13 April 1712 and its body 12/13 April, while the English and Urdu stubs give 10 April 1712 — both readings preserved in his record. The English and Urdu claim that he died of wounds from a wild honey badger attack has no counterpart in the Turkish article or in the TEİS entry behind it, and is preserved in his record without endorsement.¹²³ He was buried in Karacaahmet cemetery in Üsküdar, and Sultans Mahmud II and Abdulhamid II had his tomb repaired.¹

Nabi lived through the empire's stagnation and witnessed corruption in administration and society, which turned him to didactic, critical poetry; he held that poetry should stand inside life and its problems rather than apart from human concerns, and his language is plain and unadorned, filled with popular sayings.¹ A famous couplet plays on his pen name: na and bi are Persian for "without" — he has no patience, the beloved no fidelity, so what can come of two nothings.¹ Besides the works already named he left the Hayrabad, the Surname and his Divan, and he is also remembered for a beautiful voice and compositions under the name Seyyid Nuh.¹