by Necati and Baki

Necati was born in the first half of the fifteenth century, probably somewhere in Eastern Europe. Like many elite members of Ottoman society, he came into the empire as a slave. He was educated and freed, then made his way to Istanbul, where his talents attracted the attention of powerful patrons. In 1481, near the end of the reign of Sultan Mehmed II, called Mehmed the Conqueror (of Constantinople), his poetry won the admiration of the ruler and he received an appointment in the palace bureaucracy. Necati later served as a secretary in the retinue of two royal princes; he died in 1509 as one of the empire’s most popular poets.

The most renowned poet of the latter half...