Enderûnlu Fâzıl (1757–1810) was an Ottoman

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. He is the author of the Zenanname ("The Book of Women") and the Hubanname ("The book of Beautiful Young Men"), the former of which was banned in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. He achieved fame through his erotic works.

Life

Fâzıl was born in

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

into an Arab family originally of Medina. He spent his early years in

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

Ottoman Palestine The region of Palestine (region), Palestine is part of the wider region of the Levant, which represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia.Steiner & Killebrew, p9: "The general limits ..., as defined here, begin at the Plain of ' ...

. His grandfather

Zahir al-Umar Zahir al-Umar al-Zaydani, alternatively spelled Dhaher el-OmarDAAHL Site Rec ...

and father Ali Tâhir were both

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

(in 1775 and 1776, respectively) for participating in a

rebellion Rebellion is an uprising that resists and is organized against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a ...

. After his father's death, Fâzıl moved to

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. There, he was admitted to the Enderun palace school (taking the name ''Enderuni'' or ''Enderûnlu''), but was expelled in 1783 as a result of his love affairs with other men there. In 1799 he was exiled to

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

because of his satirical writings and was only allowed to return to Istanbul after becoming blind. He spent the rest of his life there, ill and bedridden. He is buried in a tomb in Eyüp.

Works

*''Divan'' *''The Book of Love'' *''The Book of the Beautiful Young Men'' *'' Zenanname'', ''The Book of Women'' *''The Book of the Dancers''

References

* Enderunlu Fazil. In: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfi Ansiklopedisi Islam. 11 TDV Yayını, Istanbul 1995 (in Turkish). * JH Mordtmann: Fadil Bey. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. 2 Brill, Leiden, p. 727 s. (In English).

External links

Enderûnlu Fâzıl – Ministry Of Culture And Tourism
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fazil, Enderunlu 1757 births 1810 deaths 18th-century poets from the Ottoman Empire 19th-century poets from the Ottoman Empire Gay poets People from Safed Arab people from the Ottoman Empire 18th-century Arab people