Mehmed bin Süleyman Fuzuli, most commonly referred to as Fuzuli, was born around 1494 in the Safavid Empire, although his actual date of birth is unknown. He is one of the more famous Ottoman poets, and is considered by many to be one the greatest contrbutors to Turkish literature, especially to the genre of lyrical poetry. It is said that he had a perfect knowledge of Turkish, Arabic and Persian, the three great eastern languages of the time, and wrote his collected poems (Divan) in each of these. In 1556 Fuzuli died of cholera in Kerbela .

Works

Some of his More famous works include the kaside. The Leyla ile Mecnun, a famous work about love and pain. The mesnevi, which is considered to be one the most important works of Fuzuli and has influenced numerous Turkish and Iranian poets. And the hadikad-üs- Sueda in which Fuzuli describes the tragedy of Kerbela which is an extremely sad incident in Islamic history.

A piece of his work in Azerbaijani Turkish;

Dost bi-perva felek bi-rahm devran bi-sükun

Derd çok hem-derd yok düşmen kavi tal'i zebun

Saye-i ümmid za'il afitab-ı şevk germ

Rütbe-i idbar ali paye-i tedbir dun

Translation;

Friend don't care, life is cruel, time goes by so complicated

Many problems, nobody to share, enemy is strong, luck is weak

Even the shadow of the hope is lost, the sun of the desires burns,

The ranking of weakness is high while the one of safety is low

Works Cited:

• Turkish Ministry of Culture
• Poetry Portal
• Encyclopedia Britannica