SEYHI, SINAN

died 1428, Ktahya, Ottoman Empire [now in Turkey] Seyhi also spelled Sheykih poet who was one of the most important figures in early Ottoman literature. Little is known of his life. Besides being a poet, Seyhi seems to have been a man of great learning and a disciple of the famous Turkish mystic and saint Haci (Hajji) Bayram Veli of Ankara, founder of the Bayrami order of dervishes. Seyhi also was reputedly a skilled physician. A prolific poet, he is best known for his rendition of a popular love story in Islamic literature, Hsrev Sirin (Khosrow and Shirin). Inspired by the work of the same name by the great Persian poet Nezami (d. 1209), Seyhi's poem is written in masnavi (rhymed couplets), and, although incomplete because of his sudden death, it is considered a masterpiece of eloquent and graceful verse. Other of his works include the lyric poems in his Divan (Collected Poems) and a satirical narrative, Harname (The Book of the Ass). It is to Hsrev Sirin, however, that Seyhi owes his fame. He is considered to have introduced the classical Persian style masnavi into Ottoman literature.