AHMED YESEVI & ALISHER NAVOI First Two Chagatai (Early Turkish) Sufi Master Poets SELECTED POEMS Translation & Introduction 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 ‘Attar, 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 (foursomes), Kosmos (robi’as srung together) and munajat (prayers). All are generously represented in this translation in the correct forms for the first time. Alisher Navoi (1441 – 1501) a truly universal man, was of Uyghur origin who was born and lived in Herat (now north-western Afghanistan) like Jami who he knew. He is generally known by his pen name Navoi (‘the weeper’). Alisher Navoi was among the key writers who revolutionized the literary use of the Turkic languages. Navoi himself wrote primarily in the Chagatai language and produced 30 works over a period of 30 years, during which Chagatai became accepted as a prestigious and well-respected literary language. Navoi also wrote in Persian (under the pen name of Fani), and to a much lesser degree in Arabic and Hindi. Navoi’s best-known poems are found in his four divans, or poetry collections, which total 50,000 couplets. Each part of the work corresponds to a different period of a person’s life. He is still greatly revered throughout the Middle East, Asia & Russia and there are many building etc. named after him. Many of his gazels & robai’s are represented in this translation in the correct forms for the first time. Introduction: Turkish & Sufi Poetry & Life & Times & Poetry of both poets, On the Gazel & the Roba’i in Turkish Sufi Poetry, Selected Bibliographies. Large Format Paperback 7” x 10” 415 pages. Illustrated