Islamic mystic poet. Not enough information about
his life is available. It is thought that his name was Ahmet and he was born in
Kırşehir. According to a myth, it is claimed that he was sent to Kırşehir to
found a dervish lodge in order to spread Mevlevism after the death of Mevlana
Celaleddin Rumi (1273). Gülşehri, who was mentioned with praise and respected
as a most skillful poet after Yunus Emre in biographies, came to prominence
with Mantıku't Tayr
(The Language of Birds).
Gülşehri made additions to this work, which he
translated from Feridüddin Attar, an Iranian poet, making use of the mesnevi*
of Mevlana in addition to the tale of Kelile ve Dimne (Kelile and Dimne)
by Beydeba and another work by Attar. He proved that he was a real artist with
couplets in Mantıku't-Tayr
(The Language of Birds) in which he explained mystic Islamic thought.
WORKS:
Feleknâme
(Book of Destiny, a lengthy Persian poem on Islam philosophy, written in 1301,
with extensive research by Sadettin Kocatürk with the name: Gülşehrî and Felaketnâme
- Gülşehri and the Book of
Disasters, 1982), Âruz Risâlesi
(Prosodic Treatise, in Persian), Kuduri
Tercümesi (The Translation of Kuduri, has not yet been found.), Mantıku'l-Tayr (The Sense of Birds,
written in 1317 by Agah Sırrı Levend, among the publications of the Turkish
Language Association, 1957), Kerâmet-i
Ahî Evran (The Miracles of Ahi Evran, with translation into German,
published in 1955)
