Lāmi̇ʿī Chelebi̇ and His Works

M AHMUD bin cOsman bin Naqqdsh CAll bin ilyds (878/1472-938/1532) is a sixteenth century Turkish literary figure known by the pseudonym of LdmiCi whose works in prose and verse have won him a well-deserved fame in both areas. Born in Bursa where he received a good medrese education, he devoted all 60 years of his life to his works and died in the city of his birth.1 Unfortunately, no serious study of this highly prolific author has so far been undertaken. Only five of his many works have been published, and these publications have little scholarly value. Lamici was an Ottoman Turkish poet, prose writer, and thinker of the same caliber as the great Chaghatay Turkish poet, Mir cAli Shir Neva'i (d. 906/1501) and was versed in Iranian culture and literature; he introduced into Turkish literature Persian works of diverse literary forms, hitherto unknown to Turkish poets. Particularly interested in the works of CAbd al-Rahman Jami (d. 898/1492), Ldmici not only adapted them into Turkish but always added something of his own to his adaptations, thus, indeed, creating new works. Consequently he gained the title of Jdmi-i Ruim or Jami of Anatolia.2 In his religious thought, also, Lamic was influenced by Jami as well as Neva'I and joined the mystic order of the Naqshbandiyya.3 Having chosen the mystic path, Lamici preferred a life of seclusion and, living as a hermit, he devoted his entire being to this path and realized the precepts of the Naqshbandi order both in his life and in his works.4 Lamici belonged to a family which was eminent in the fine arts. His grandfather, Naqqdsh cAli was a well-known artist of the fifteenth century. A young man at the time