Hayâlî (1500?–1557) was the pen name

Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

 (Ottoman Turkish

Ottoman Turkish language

The Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...

: ﻡﺨﻠﺺ mahlas) of an Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 poet.

Life

Hayâlî lived in the Divan tradition. Though the exact birth date of the poet later called Hayâlî is not known, it is known that he was born during the reign of Sultan Bâyezîd II

Bayezid II

Bayezid II or Sultân Bayezid-î Velî was the oldest son and successor of Mehmed II, ruling as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512...

 (1481–1512), in the city of Yenice-i Vardar

Giannitsa

Giannitsa is the largest town and a former municipality in Pella regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pella, of which it is a municipal unit...

 in Macedonia

Macedonia (region)

Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...

. His real name was Mehmed (محمد).

Apparently, Mehmed was interested in poetry from a very young age, as the biographer ‘Âşık Çelebi recounts that he read the Bôstân

Bostan

Bostan is a book of poetry by the Persian poet Saadi, completed in 1257.It was Saadi's first work, and its title means "the fruit orchard". The book contains the fruits of Saadi's long experience and his judgements upon life, and is illustrated by a vast collection of anecdotes. It includes...

("The Orchard") and the Gülistân ("The Rose Garden") of the Persian

Persian literature

Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...

 poet Sa‘di

Saadi (poet)

Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī better known by his pen-name as Saʿdī or, simply, Saadi, was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period. He is not only famous in Persian-speaking countries, but he has also been quoted in western sources...

 in his youth. At some time during his youth, the wandering Sufi

Sufism

Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...

 dervish

Dervish

A Dervish or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.-Etymology:The Persian word darvīsh is of ancient origin and descends from a Proto-Iranian...

 Baba ‘Alî Mest-i ‘Ajem ("Father ‘Alî the Drunkard of Persia") came to Yenice-i Vardar with his disciples, and Mehmed was attracted enough to him to leave home, join the group, and follow Baba ‘Alî to Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, the Ottoman capital. During the journey, he was further educated in poetry, as well as in Sufi thought and practice, by Baba ‘Alî.

In Istanbul, one of the city's chief judges

Qadi

Qadi is a judge ruling in accordance with Islamic religious law appointed by the ruler of a Muslim country. Because Islam makes no distinction between religious and secular domains, qadis traditionally have jurisdiction over all legal matters involving Muslims...

, Sarı Gürz Nûreddîn Efendi, saw the young Mehmed together with Baba ‘Alî's band of dervishes, and—considering this inappropriate for the boy—he removed him from among them and entrusted him to the care of one of the city's police chiefs. Here, he continued his education and also began to attract notice as a poet, writing under the name Hayâlî ("the Imaginative").

Eventually, Hayâlî came to the attention of İbrâhîm Pasha

Pargali Ibrahim Pasha

Pargali Ibrahim Pasha , also known as Frenk Ibrahim Pasha , Makbul Ibrahim Pasha , and referred to him as Maktul Ibrahim Pasha after his murder in the Topkapı Palace, was the first Grand Vizier in the Ottoman Empire appointed by Suleiman the Magnificent...

—the Ottoman Grand Vizier

Vizier

A vizier or in Arabic script ; ; sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir) is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in a Muslim government....

 at the time—and through him to the attention of Sultan Süleymân I. He became one of the sultan's favored poets, was supported by him through the patronage

Patronage

Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...

 system in place in the Ottoman court at the time, and accompanied the sultan's forces in their siege of the island of Rhodes

Rhodes

Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...

 in 1522 and the conquest of the city of Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

 from the Persian Safavid Empire

Safavid dynasty

The Safavid dynasty was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Persian empires since the Muslim conquest of Persia and established the Twelver school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning...

 in 1534; during this latter campaign, Hayâlî is rumored to have met the great Azerbaijani

Azerbaijani people

The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...

 poet Fuzûlî

Fuzûlî

Fużūlī was the pen name of the Azerbaijani or the Bayat branch of Oghuz Turkish and Ottoman poet, writer and thinker Muhammad bin Suleyman...

. For his poetic talents, Hayâlî was given a number of informal titles: Melik-üş-şuarâ ("Sultan of poets"), Diyâr-ı Rûm'un Sultân-ı Şuarâsı ("Sultan of the Poets of the Western Lands"), and Hayâlî-i meşhûr ("Hayâlî the famous"). Hayâlî's popularity with the Grand Vizier and the sultan, however, also earned him many enemies among other poets, and he was frequently the subject of lampoons.

After the fall and execution of Hayâlî's main patron İbrâhîm Pasha in 1536, and the ascension to the post of Grand Vizier of Rüstem Pasha—who was less tolerant towards the somewhat decadent

Decadence

Decadence can refer to a personal trait, or to the state of a society . Used to describe a person's lifestyle. Concise Oxford Dictionary: "a luxurious self-indulgence"...

 lifestyle of the court—Hayâlî's life became more difficult, and eventually he requested and was given the position of sancakbey

Sanjak

Sanjaks were administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire. Sanjak, and the variant spellings sandjak, sanjaq, and sinjaq, are English transliterations of the Turkish word sancak, meaning district, banner, or flag...

, or governor of a provincial district, outside of Istanbul, near to the Thracian

Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...

 city of Edirne

Edirne

Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...

; this position allowed him to add the title bey

Bey

Bey is a title for chieftain, traditionally applied to the leaders of small tribal groups. Accoding to some sources, the word "Bey" is of Turkish language In historical accounts, many Turkish, other Turkic and Persian leaders are titled Bey, Beg, Bek, Bay, Baig or Beigh. They are all the same word...

to his name, and he is still often known as "Hayâlî Bey". He died in Edirne in the year 1557.