Ahmed Yesevi: Life and Poems

AHMED YESEVI: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Ahmed Yesevi, born in Sayram in 1093, and died in 1166 in Hazrat-e Turkestan (both cities now in Kazakhstan), was a Turkish poet and Sufi or Dervish who exerted a powerful influence on the development of mystical orders throughout the Turkish-speaking world

Yesevi is the earliest known Turkish poet who composed poetry in an early Turkish dialect, Chagatai. He was a pioneer of popular mysticism, founded the first Turkish order, (the Yeseviye), that quickly spread over the Turkish-speaking areas. Yesevi had numerous students/followers in the region.

His poems created a new genre of mystical folk poetry in Central Asia and influenced many Sufi/Dervish poets including Rumi, Hafiz (who both knew Turkish) and Yunus Emre. The book of his poems, the Divan-e Hikmet (Book of Wisdom), consists mainly of gazels and murabbas and munajat (prayers). All are represented in this translation in the correct forms for the first time.