Abstract

The tradition of poets presenting eulogy to the sultan, being common in Turkish-Islamic societies, has strong religious backgrounds. According to the people, the sultanate is of divine origin and obedience to the sultan is obedience to Allah and his Messenger. The people respected the sultans because the Ottoman sultans were seen as the last guardians of the order with their justice. There are many examples of this in literary works such as odes, masnavis, and historical, religious-mystical works. Therefore it is a very shortsighted approach to think that every poet presenting an ode to the sultan only expects rank and material gain. Sultan Bayezid II is an artist and an art-loving sultan who generously patronized scholars, artists and especially poets from all over the world during his princedom of in Amasya and his thirty-one-year reign (1481-1512). Being as an important calligrapher, composer and poet, Sultan Bayezid II is popularly known as "saint" in public. An inâmât book including registers of the gifts given to the poets during the reign of Sultan Bayezid II are an indication of the importance that the sultan gave to the poets. However most of the poets patronized by Sultan Bayezid II are unknown. Jauhari who is one of these poets, also his life and works are unknown. In this article, the newly found poems of Jauhari and the findings about his life are introduced.