SULEYMAN CELEBI

born , Bursa, Ottoman Empire [now in Turkey] died 1429, Bursa also called Sleyman Of Bursa one of the most famous early poets of Anatolia. Sleyman appears to have been the son of an Ottoman minister, Ahmed Pasa, who served in the court of Sultan Murad I. Sleyman became a leader of the Khalwatiyah dervish order and then imam (religious leader) to the court of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I (13891402). After Bayezid's death, Sleyman took the position of imam in a mosque in Bursa. Sleyman's most famous and only surviving work is the great religious poem Mevld-i Nebi, or Mevld-i Peygamberi (Hymn on the Prophet's Nativity, Eng. trans., 1943, reprint, 1957). The Mevld, as it is more commonly called, tells the story of the Prophet Muhammad's birth, life, and death; his miracles; and his journey to heaven. Written in simple 15th-century Ottoman Turkish style, it is a work inspired with religious fervour and is often recited at religious ceremonies, particularly funerals in present Turkey. It is chanted during the celebrations of the Prophet's birthday.