Gadāʼī (), or Gadā ( chg, كدا, []), was a 15th-century poet of Central Asia who wrote in the Chaghatay Turkic languages, Turkic language.
He is recognised by the better-known Ali-Shir Nava'i as a predecessor, whom he had met.
Life
Little is known about Gadāʼī's life. Based on information about him provided by Navaʼi in the third section of ''Majalis un-Nafāʼis'' (compiled in 1497 or 1498), which describes poets who were still alive and whom Navaʼi knew, it is possible to deduce that Gadāʼī was born around 1403 or 1404.
However, based on other evidence,
Ergash Rustamov concluded in the 1960s that Gadāʼī must have been born no later than 1360 and later served at the court of
Abul-Qasim Babur Mirza
Abul-Qasim Babur Mirza ( Chagatai/ fa, ابوالقاسم بابر میرزا بن بایسنقر بیگ), was a Timurid ruler in Khurasan (1449–1457). He was the son of Ghiyath-ud-din Baysunghur ibn Shah Rukh Mirza, and thus a great-grandson ...
at over 90 years of age.
Name
The poet is referred to as ''Gadāʼī'' by Navāʼi, and in the one manuscript of his divans, as ''Gadā''. This name, meaning "
beggar
Begging (also panhandling) is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars may operate in public place ...
", is understood to be a
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
. It is not known what his given name may have been.
Works
Gadāʼī wrote a
divan
A divan or diwan ( fa, دیوان, ''dīvān''; from Sumerian ''dub'', clay tablet) was a high government ministry in various Islamic states, or its chief official (see ''dewan'').
Etymology
The word, recorded in English since 1586, meanin ...
, or collection of poems, in what would now be considered the
pre-classical Chaghatay literary language.
At the time, this language was known as "Türkī", meaning "
Turkish" or "
Turkic". Rustamov highlights the fact that Gadāʼī was not a
Sufi poet
Sufi literature consists of works in various languages that express and advocate the ideas of Sufism.
Sufism had an important influence on medieval literature, especially poetry, that was written in Arabic, Persian, Turkic and Urdu. Sufi doctr ...
, and incorporated aspects of the local Turkic literary traditions into his work.
The single manuscript containing Gadāʼī's divan is housed in the
Bibliothèque Nationale
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, and is composed of two halves: the first containing the Divan of
Luṭfi (another 15th-century poet who wrote in Chaghatay), and the second containing the "Dīvān-i Gadā", on
folio
The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
s 96b through 161a.
The last folio is missing, and may have included metadata about the manuscript, such as the name of the copyist and when it was copied.
The divan consists of mostly
ghazal
The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a ...
s (229), but also five
tuyugh
A tuyugh is a classical form of poetry in Central Asia found in classical Turkic poetry. Poets to use this style include Ali-Shir Nava'i
'Ali-Shir Nava'i (9 February 1441 – 3 January 1501), also known as Nizām-al-Din ʿAli-Shir Herawī ...
s, two
qaṣīda
The qaṣīda (also spelled ''qaṣīdah''; is originally an Arabic word , plural ''qaṣā’id'', ; that was passed to some other languages such as fa, قصیده or , ''chakameh'', and tr, kaside) is an ancient Arabic word and form of writin ...
s, and one
mustazād.
Research
The first mention of Gadāʼī in non-Chaghatay literature is thought to be in a 1914 work that mentions him by
Mehmet Fuat Köprülü
Mehmet Fuat Köprülü (December 5, 1890 – June 28, 1966), also known as Köprülüzade Mehmed Fuad, was a highly influential Turkish sociologist, turkologist, scholar, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of the Republi ...
, a Turkish historian.
Fuad provided more information about him in his history of Chaghatay literature in 1945.
The Uzbek scholar Ergash Rustamov provides the first "scholarly appraisal" of Gadāʼi's work in a source published in the 1960s.
published a translation of some of Gadāʼī's works in 1960, which formed the basis of Rustamov's work,
and in 1971 published a complete transcription of Gadāʼī's divan, with facsimiles of all the folios, a glossary, and a brief introduction.
References
15th-century Asian people
15th-century poets
Central Asian people
{{poet-stub