Abstract
The First Elegation in Classıcal Turkish Literature: Hamza Bey’s Elegy
Death is an inevitable end for all living things. However, there is a common belief that humans are the only living creatures knowing that they will eventually die. Despite this, human beings could not fail to develop discourses such as "every death is an early death" and mankind has had difficulties in every age to accept the death of the people they love. As a result of this, some traditions have been derived to commemorate the name of the deceased in some way and even to keep her/his name alive for many years. Many traditions such as lamenting after the deceased, singing folk songs; burial and visiting the place where the deceased is buried; a charity or sacrifice on behalf of the deceased; making a fountain or establishing a foundation and helping the needy on behalf of the deceased etc. have been a direct or indirect consequence of this “not accepting death”. In the field of literature, poets sang poems for the deceased. These poems have been caused in the creation of a literary genre called elegy over time. Throughout our literary history, very important elegies have been written that deeply affect the reader because they are very touching. Thanks to these elegies, the name of the person to whom the poem is attributed continued to be mentioned even after centuries.
Keywords
Aydınoğulları, Ahmadî, İsa Bey, Hamza Bey, Death, Elegy, Lament.