Mihri Hatun, also known as Lady Mihri and Mihri Khatun (born ca. 1460 – died 1506 AD; مهری خاتون), was an Ottoman poet. She was the daughter of a kadi (an Ottoman judge) and according to sources she spent most of her life in and near Amasya, in Anatolia.[1] Documentation places her as a member of the literary circle of Prince Ahmed, the son of Sultan Bayezid II.[2] She is referred to as the "Sappho of the Ottomans".[3]

Poetry

Lady Mihri's poems reveal an artist grounded in both Turkish and Persian literature, writing in such forms as the Gazel, as well as the recipient of a deep literary education.[1] Modern critics, such as Bernard Lewis describe her style as “retaining remarkable freshness and simplicity.”[2]

One of her more popular lines goes as follows:[4]

“At one glance

I love you

With a thousand hearts

Let the zealots think

Loving is sinful

Never mind

Let me burn in the hellfire

Of that sin.”

Another is:[5]

“My heart burns in flames of sorrow

Sparks and smoke rise turning to the sky

Within me the heart has taken fire like a candle

My body, whirling, is a lighthouse illuminated by your image.”

References

  1. 1 2 Havlioglu, 2
  2. 1 2 Lewis, 207
  3. ↑ John Freely (2009), The Grand Turk : Sultan Mehmet II - conqueror of Constantinople, master of an empire and lord of two seas, London: I.B. Tauris, ISBN 9780857719287
  4. ↑ Halman, 35
  5. ↑ Damrosch, 786

Sources

  • Damrosch and April Alliston. The Longman Anthology of World Literature: The 17th and 18th Centuries, the 19th Century, and the 20th Century: V. II (D, E, F) Longman, Inc. ISBN 0-321-20237-6
  • Halman, Talât Sait and Jayne L. Warner. Nightingales & pleasure gardens: Turkish love poems. Syracuse University Press (2005) ISBN 0-8156-0835-7.
  • Havlioğlu, Didem. “On the Margins and between the Lines: Ottoman Women Poets from the Fifteenth to the Twentieth Centuries.” Turkish Historical Review 1, no. 1 (n.d.): 25–54. https://www.academia.edu/806853/On_the_margins_and_between_the_lines_Ottoman_women_poets_from_the_fifteenth_to_the_twentieth_centuries
  • Havlioglu, Didem. Poetic Voice En/Gendered: Mihri Hatun’s Resistance to ‘Femininity'. The Center for Middle Eastern Studies: Sohbet-i Osmani Series (2010).
  • Lewis, Bernard. Music of a Distant Drum: Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew Poems. Princeton University Press; Ltr ptg edition. (2001). ISBN 0-691-08928-0
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