Fuzûlî

Fuzuli (fDwly) was the pen name of the poet Muhammad bin Suleyman (mHmd bn slymn) (c. 1483 - 1556). He is one of the greatest contributors to the Divan tradition of Azerbaijani literature,
Fuzuli wrote his collected poems (divan) in three different languages: Azerbaijani, Persian, and Arabic. Although his Turkic works are written in Azerbaijani, he knew both the Ottoman and the Chagatai Turkish literary traditions as well. He was also very able in mathematics and astronomy.
Life
Fuzuli was born around 1483 in what is now Iraq; he was probably born in either Karbala' or an-Najaf. Fuzuli's ancestors had been of nomadic origin, but his family had long since settled in towns.
Fuzuli was educated by his father--who was a mufti in the city of Al Hillah -- and then by a teacher named Rahmetullah. It was during this time that he learned the Persian and Arabic languages in addition to his native Azerbaijani.
One of the few things that is known of Fuzuli's life during this time is how he arrived at his pen name. In the introduction to his collected Persian poems, he says: "In the early days when I was just beginning to write poetry, every few days I would set my heart on a particular pen name and then after a time change it for another because someone showed up who shared the same name". Eventually, he decided upon the Arabic word fuzuli--which literally means "impertinent, improper, unnecessary"--because he "knew that this title would not be acceptable to anyone else".Despite the name's pejorative meaning, however, it contains a double meaning--what is called tevriyye (twryh) in Ottoman Divan poetry -- as Fuzuli himself explains: "I was possessed of all the arts and sciences and found a pen name that also implies this sense since in the dictionary fuzul (l) is given as a plural of fazl (; 'learning') and has the same rhythm as 'ulum (m; 'sciences') and funun (n; 'arts')".
In 1534, the Ottoman sultan Suleyman I conquered the region of Baghdad, where Fuzuli lived, from the Safavid Empire. Fuzuli now had the chance to become a court poet under the Ottoman patronage system, and he composed a number of poems in praise of the sultan, and as a result, he was granted a stipend. But he did not really get it. Therefore he citicized bureaucracy in one of his best-known works, the letter Sikayetname (shkhyt nmh; "Complaint"):
slm wrdm rshwt dgldr dyw almd~lr
Selam verdim rusvet degildir deyu almadilar.
I said hello, but they didn't accept it since it wasn't a bribe.
The loss of his stipend meant that Fuzuli never became secure. He died during a plague outbreak in 1556, in Karbala', either of the plague itself or of cholera.
Works in Azerbaijani
Divan ("Collected Poems")
Beng u Bade (bng w bdh; "Hashish and Wine")
Hadikat us-Sueda (Hdyqt ls`d; "Garden of Pleasures")
Dastan-i Leyli vu Mecnun (dstn lyl~ w mjnwn; "The Epic of Layla and Majnun")
Risale-i Muammeyat (rsl yt; "Treatise on Riddles")
Sikayetname (shkhyt nmh; "Complaint")
Works in Persian
Divan ("Collected Poems")
Anis ol-qalb (nys lqlb; "Friend of the Heart")
Haft Jam (hft jm; "Seven Goblets")
Rend va Zahed (rnd w zhd; "Hedonist and Ascetic")
Resale-e Muammeyat (rsl yt; "Treatise on Riddles")
Sehhat o Ma'ruz (SHt w m`rwD; "Health and Sickness")
Works in Arabic
Divan ("Collected Poems")
Matla' ul-I'tiqad (mTl` ld; "The Birth of Faith")
References
Primary
Fuzuli. Fuzuli Divani: Gazel, Musammat, Mukatta' ve Ruba'i kismi. Ed. Ali Nihad Tarlan. Istanbul: Ucler Basimevi, 1950.
Fuzuli. Leyla ve Mecnun. Ed. Muhammet Nur Dogan. .
Secondary
Andrews, Walter G. "Fuzuli" in Ottoman Lyric Poetry: An Anthology. pp. 235-237. .
"Fozule, Mohammad b. Solayman". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 25 August 2006.
"Fuzuli, Mehmed bin Suleyman." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopaedia Britannica Premium Service. 23 Aug. 2006 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9035730>.
Kudret, Cevdet. Fuzuli. .
Senturk, Ahmet Atilla. "Fuzuli" in Osmanli Siiri Antolojisi. pp. 280-324. .
Notes
Other websites
FUZULI
Muhammed Fuzuli--a website with a brief biography and translated selections from Leyli vu Mecnun
Fuzuli in Stanford J. Shaw's History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey
1480s births
1556 deaths
Azerbaijani poets
Turkish poets
Pen names