Shahrenghiz of Adli Celebi on Mostar

Abstract

Shahrengiz is the most rarely found genre in mediaeval Turkish literature. The reason is probably the fact that there has not been any research on it until recently. This XVIth century genre has not even been defined yet. There are opinions that it was a poem written with the object of describing the beauty of a town and its young men and women; then, that it was a poem in which a town and its more prominent citizens were depicted. The description could be praise or criticism, written in simple colloquial language, which stirred excitement and gossip. There are other, different opinion put forth in the introduction to the present paper.

These are some meditations and comments on this insufficiently studied genre, .offered as an ~ntroduction to the shahrenghiZ on Mostar of Adli Celebi of Most;lr (his full name was Adli Husam Celebi Shahin-zade), a poet from the end of the XVlth century, a contemporary of the famous Dervish-Pasha Bajezidagić of Mostar, and Haj Dervish Žagrić of Mostar, published in the present paper for the first time. This is another shahrenghiz from among several unpublished poems of the same kind written by Yugoslav poets on Yugoslav towns in Turkish, in this case on Mostar and its prominent citizens. The poet writes about each of them separately, and discusses their good and bad characteristics. The poem is being published as a sample of the genre and as an argument in favour of the research and evaluation of this poetic genre.