YUNUS EMRE

born c. 1238, , Turkey died c. 1320, , Turkey poet and mystic who exercised a powerful influence on Turkish literature. Though legend obscures the facts of his life, he is known to have been a Sufi (Islamic mystic) who sat for 40 years at the feet of his master, Tapduk Emre. Yunus Emre was well versed in mystical philosophy, especially that of the 13th-century poet and mystic Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi. Like Rumi, Yunus Emre became a leading representative of mysticism in Anatolia but on a more popular level; he was venerated as a saint after his death. His poems, which are devoted mainly to the themes of divine love and human destiny, are characterized by deep feeling. He wrote in a straightforward, almost austere style and mainly in the traditional syllabic metre of Anatolian folk poetry. His verse had a decisive influence on later Turkish mystics and inspired the poets of the renaissance of Turkish national poetry after 1910.