Simulation Figures in the Diwan by Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha Adni

Abstract

The famous Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha Adni is considered one of the leading military, diplomatic, and cultural personalities in the history of the Ottoman Empire.  A direct participant in some of the most important events in the second half of the 15th century, a person sensitive to the needs of the people, and a poet considered by authors of most the memorial collections (tezkir) of Ottoman poetry to be on a par with Ahmed Pasha, contributed considerably to the territorial expansion and cultural development of the great and mighty empire. Still, his life remains partly shrouded in mystery. Despite the fact that he served two terms of office as the grand vizier, there is not much relevant historical information about his childhood, his arrival to the Ottoman court and the sequence of events that promoted him to the rank of one of the leading commanders of the siege of Constantinople, and the valuation of his poetry remained for centuries limited to the description of his personality and eloquence noted in the first collections of Ottoman poetry. This paper presents Adni’s poetic communication with the great Persian poets, particularly with Hafez Shirazi, and the role of simulation figures in the work of this great poet who wrote in Ottoman Turkish and Persian.