29.01.2026 23:20
In the personal library of Assoc. Prof. İlyas Kayaokay from Munzur University, unknown poems by the great 14th-century Sufi poet Nesimi have been identified in a special notebook determined to belong to the French Lazarist College in Damascus.
Munzur University faculty member Assoc. Dr. İlyas Kayaokay has uncovered a notebook containing six previously unknown ghazals by the 14th-century Sufi poet Nesimi. It is emphasized that the notebook may be related to missionary activities during the Ottoman period.
NESIMI'S MANUSCRIPT WORKS FOUND Assoc. Dr. İlyas Kayaokay, a faculty member of the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Munzur University, reached poems attributed to Nesimi that had not been included in any divan publication to date, as a result of detailed examinations of a manuscript notebook preserved in his personal library, which is traced back to the French Lazarist College in Damascus.
EXAMPLE PUBLISHED IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY As a result of a comparative study of a total of 172 ghazals thought to have been published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was determined that six ghazals were introduced to the academic world for the first time through this notebook. Kayaokay emphasized that the fact that this manuscript is recorded in a missionary college notebook should also be evaluated in terms of showing the interest of missionary institutions operating in the Ottoman geography in literary and cultural texts.
Assoc. Dr. İlyas Kayaokay stated: "We believe that the manuscript, whose origin is clearly seen to be from the French college of the Lazarists in Damascus, was copied between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From its letters, the rhymes it contains, the arrangement of the poems, and the incomplete ending of the text, we understand that it is not a selection but rather that there are at least two more volumes of the manuscript. It is highly likely that there are many unknown poems in these lost volumes.
A total of 172 ghazals identified in the manuscript have been compared with all Turkish Nesimi Divan publications and journals available in Turkey and Azerbaijan. As a result of our investigations, it has been determined that 23 of these poems are not included in the Turkish Divan publication prepared by Hüseyin Ayan. It has also been found that 17 of these poems, which are not present in Ayan's publication, are recorded in some divan publications published in Azerbaijan, some in Arabic and some in Cyrillic letters or various poetry journals."
Kayaokay continued his remarks as follows: "It has been determined that the six poems found are not recorded in any divan publication or poetry journal published in Turkey and Azerbaijan. These six ghazals have been identified for the first time through the Lazarist notebook, which is a very valuable and noteworthy manuscript. The fact that this manuscript is recorded in a very special Lazarist college notebook raises the question of what motivation led to its copying. Nesimi, who is estimated to have lived in the late 14th century and the first half of the 15th century, belongs to the Hurufi faith, which is an esoteric belief.
"A RARE LAZARIST MISSIONARY NOTEBOOK" For this reason, he has been persecuted. This divan, attributed to Nesimi, which has always been met with caution by such official and religious circles, raises the question of whether it was recorded within the scope of missionary activities. Because this is a rare Lazarist missionary notebook, and its sale is not possible. It is also evident from its ink, cover, etc., that it is very special. Missionaries certainly record things they find important. Of course, the data we have cannot currently provide an answer to this question. If this is the case, this manuscript is of particular importance in showing that missionary institutions operating in the Ottoman geography were also closely interested in literary and cultural texts.
Divans of Sufi poets always present a problematic structure. Nesimi's Turkish Divan is also problematic and has hundreds of copies. It is essential to reconstruct the critical text of his divan by taking into account all the copies available both domestically and abroad, as well as poetry journals. This valuable Lazarist manuscript will also be announced in detail to the academic world in the form of an article this year."