Traces of “Poet Yaḥyā” in the Ottoman Archives

A Contribution to the Biography of Taşlıcalı Yaḥyā Beg through the Information on his Zi‘āmet

Abstract

What is known about the biographies of Ottoman poets is generally limited to the information contained in literary sources. Apart from these sources, various records about poets who served the empire or received in‘ām from the palace can also be found in the archives. Taşlıcalı Yaḥyā Beg (d. 1582?), one of the famous classical Ottoman poets of the 16th century, is a historical figure who can be traced in the archives thanks to his membership in the military and the zi‘āmet he held. In this study, in order to determine the details of Yaḥyā Beg’s zi‘āmet in the sanjak of Zvornik in the province of Budin, icmāl taḥrīr registers and daybooks of tīmār bestowals in the Ottoman Archives belonging to this sanjak are analyzed. Furthermore, an effort is made to compare these archival records with the information Yaḥyā Beg gave about his own zi‘āmet in his poems. In this way, it is possible to obtain new information about the poet’s last years in Zvornik. Also, thanks to these archival sources, in addition to Yaḥyā Beg’s three known sons, another son named Mehmed has been identified, and some issues such as these sons’ tīmārs in Zvornik and what they did after the death of their father is revealed as much as possible through these registers.