JĀMI RUMI

 

JĀMI RUMI (or Jāmi Meṣri), AḤMAD, Ottoman official, poet, and translator (fl. 10th/16th century). Next to nothing is known about him beyond his career as a ranking official of the Ottoman state, even the dates and places of his birth and death are not recorded. He was a professional soldier in the service of the royal court. In the reign of Sultan Süleymān (Solaymān) the Magnificent (r. 1520-66), he worked as a treasurer (ḵazīna-ye ʿāmera kātebi) in Egypt, where he lost four sons during a plague epidemic. He was sent to Mecca in order to renovate the Kaʿba, where he stayed for three years (ca. 1551-55). Upon returning to Istanbul he was promoted and once again sent to Egypt. During this time he translated Wāʿeẓ Kāšefi’s Rawżat al-šohadāʾ from Persian into Ottoman Turkish under the title of Saʿādat-nāma for Süleymān the Magnificent. He became famous for this translation and became governor of a sanjaq (provincial district) in Egypt, the position in which he also served under Sultan Murād III (r. 1574-94).

His poetical works were apparently never collected in a divān, but some of his poems can be found in taḏkeras and anthologies. In Saʿādat-nāma he used simple language but adorned it with poems of Turkish and Persian poets. There are many manuscripts of Saʿādat-nāma; the oldest known manuscript dates from 986/1578 and is kept at Topkapı Palace Library in Istanbul (Revan, no. 1092; see Uzun, p. 103).

 

Bibliography:

Meḥmed-Ṭāhir Bursalı, ʿOtmānlı müʾ-ellifleri I, Istanbul, 1914, pp. 273-74.

“Câmî-i Rûmî,” in Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Ansiklopedisi II, Istanbul, 1977, p. 14.

M. Cunbur, “Câmî-i Rûmî,” in Türk Dünyası Edebiyatçıları Ansiklopedisi II, Ankara, 2002, pp. 383.

Dāneš-nāma-ye adab-e fārsi VI: Adab-e fārsi dar Ānāṭuli wa Bālkān, ed. Ḥasan Anušah, Tehran, 2004, pp. 270-71.

Sadeddin Nüzhet Ergun, Türk şairleri II, Istanbul, 1936, pp. 900-02.

Fehmi Edhem Karatay, Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi kütüphanesi Türkçe yazmalar kataloğu I, Istanbul, 1960, p. 367; II, Istanbul, 1961, pp. 7-78.

ʿAbd-al-Laṭif Čelebi Laṭifi, Taḏkerat al-šoʿarāʾ, ed. Mustafa İsen as Latifi tezkiresi, Ankara, 1990, pp. 141-42.

Ḥasan Čelebi Qenālizāda (Kınalızāde), Teḏkeret al-šoʿarā, ed. İbrahim Kutluk, I, Ankara, 1989, p. 245.

Moḥammad Ṯorayyā (Meḥmed Süreyya) Bey, Sejell-e ʿOtmāni: Taḏkera-ye mašāhir-e ʿOṯmāniya, 4 vols., Istanbul, 1890-97, II, p. 66; repr., 1971.

Charles A. Storey, Persian Literature: A bio-bibliographical Survey, 2 vols., London, 1927-39; tr. Yu. E. Bregel as Persidskaya literatura . . . , Bio-bibliograficheskiy Obzor, 3 vols., Moscow, 1972; Pers. tr. Yaḥyā Ārinpur, Sirus Izadi, and Karim Kešāvarz as Adabiyāt-e fārsi, bar-mabnā-ye taʾlif-e Estori, tarjama-ye Y. Bregel, ed. Aḥmad Monzawi, 2 vols., Tehran, 1983, II, p. 909.

Āqā Bozorg Ṭehrāni, al-Ḏariʿa elā taṣānif-e al-šiʿa, 24 vols. in 27, Najaf and Tehan, 1936-78, XII, p. 181.

Mustafa Uzun, “Câmî-i Rûmî,” in Türkiye Diyanet vakfi İslâm Ansiklopedisi VII, 1993, pp. 102-3.

Taḥsin Yāziji (Tahsin Yazıcı), Pārsinevisān-e Āsiā-ye Ṣaḡir, Tehran, 1992, p. 28.

(Osman G. Özgüdenli)

Originally Published: December 15, 2008

Last Updated: April 10, 2012

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Vol. XIV, Fasc. 5, pp. 482-483