ARİF KAZVİNÎ’NİN SÜLEYMAN NAZİF KASİDESİ

Abstract

Arif Qazvini, who is referred to as an Iranian national poet, had polemic against some of the Ottoman poets and intellectuals during both his years in Istanbul and after on. His 43-couplet qasida which he titled "Suleyman Nazif " is the best known of all. In essence, this qasida is a kind of debate and fight between Pan-Turkist and Pan-Iranist idea. Both Suleyman Nazif and Arif Qazvini adopted stand according to the political and social changes of their time and expressed their opinions by help of literature. However, they used a harsh and less than polite language toward each other. In this article, we attempt to study Arif Qazvini and his 43-couplet qasida which is a good example in terms of explaining role of literature in exploring nation-state notion in the first quarter of 1900's, and rivalry between the Ottoman and Iran at the time.