Bir kadın şehrengizi: Azîzî’nin İstanbul Şehrengizi

Şehrengizs (city books) in Divan literature written in verses, which emerged in 16th century and became unpopular after 18th century, generally tell beauties of a city and natural and historical beauties. Beauties mentioned in literary works of that kind are young men of artisan class with reputations in various arts and occupations of a given city. In Turkish literature, a total of 68 sehrengizs of such qualities have been tracked. One of them is Şehrengiz of Istanbul by Azizi (died in 1585), a 16th century poet There have also been sehrengizs of Istanbul written by poets other than Azizi. However, in Azizi’s Şehrengiz, well known female beauties of Istanbul are told contrary to the tradition. Therefore, Azizi’s Şehrengiz of Istanbul is an authentic, unique literary work among sehrengizs in Turkish literature in that it mentions women. The work has four manuscripts available. This article includes the poet of the above mentioned work, qualities of form and content, reviews and information about female descriptions in the work and the criticized text.