# Nef'i
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{{short description|Turkish poet}}
alt=|thumb|Portrait of Nef'i of Erzurum (1572-1635), an Ottoman poet
'''Nefʿī''' (نفعى) was the [pen name](/source/pen_name) ([Ottoman Turkish](/source/Ottoman_Turkish_language): مخلص ''maḫlaṣ'') of an [Ottoman](/source/Ottoman_Empire) [poet](/source/Ottoman_poetry) and [satirist](/source/satirist) whose real name was ʿOmer (عمر) (c. 1572, in [Hasankale](/source/Pasinler_(town)), [Erzurum](/source/Erzurum_Eyalet) – 1635, in [Istanbul](/source/Istanbul)).
==Biography==
Nefʿī came to the Ottoman capital of [Istanbul](/source/Istanbul) sometime before the year 1606, when he is noted to have been working in the bureaucracy as the comptroller of mines (''maden mukataacısı''). Nef'i attempted to gain the [sultan](/source/sultan)'s favor for his poetry, but was unsuccessful with [Ahmed I](/source/Ahmed_I) (reigned 1603–1617) and [Osman II](/source/Osman_II) (reigned 1618–1622). However, finally, Sultan [Murad IV](/source/Murad_IV) (reigned 1623–1640) recognized his skill and granted him a [stipend](/source/stipend).
Because of his vicious literary attacks on government officials, he was executed by strangulation in 1635 at the request of ''[kaymakam](/source/kaymakam)'' [Bayram Pasha](/source/Bayram_Pasha).[{{cite book |author1=Shaw, Ezel Kural |author2=Shaw, Stanford J. |title=History of the Ottoman empire and modern Turkey. Vol. 1, Empire of the Gazis: the rise and decline of the Ottoman empire, 1280-1808. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1976 |isbn=0-521-29163-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofottoman00stan }} p. 285]
==Story of his execution==
Turkish historian and journalist Mahmut Sami Şimşek tells the following story about the execution of Nef'i:[{{cite web |url=http://www.sosyalokulu.com/yazilar.asp?goster=dos&id=198 |publisher=Sosyal Okulu |title=Biçimsiz Taş Altında İsimsiz Cellatlar |author=Şimşek, Mahmut Sami |date=2009-01-29 |language=tr |access-date=2009-04-19 |archive-date=2009-04-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090402055331/http://www.sosyalokulu.com/Yazilar.asp?goster=dos&id=198 |url-status=dead }}]
Nef'i's execution was decided due to his satirical verses on Grand Vizier Bayram Pasha.
As Nef'i went to [Topkapı Palace](/source/Topkap%C4%B1_Palace) to present his newly written [satire](/source/satire) book "''Sihâm-ı Kazâ''" ({{langx|en|Arrows of Misfortune}}) to Sultan Murad IV, lightning struck the dome of the palace. The sultan ordered him away yelling "''You evil! Take your book and get off so that we get rid of the arrows of misfortune''".
After leaving the sultan's audience, Nef'i asked the palace master ({{langx|ota|Dâr-üs Saâde Ağası}}) to mediate for his pardoning. The black master of [African origin](/source/Afro-Turks) started to write an application to the grand vizier while Nef'i stood nearby and watched. A short while after, a drop of black ink fell onto the white paper, and Nef'i promptly commented in [sarcasm](/source/sarcasm) "''Sir, your blessed sweat dripped."'' The palace master tore the paper in anger, and Nef'i was delivered to the executioner. He was courageous until the last moment as he said to his executioner "''Go man, you slacker!"'' After he was strangled with an oiled rope in the woodshed of the palace, his corpse was thrown into the sea.
The following verse became famous describing the event:
{{Verse translation|lang=tr
|Gökten nazîre indi Sihâm-ı Kazâ’sına,
Nef'i diliyle uğradı Hakk’ın belâsına!
|A recompense came down from the heaven to (Nef'i's) "Arrows of Misfortune", (the name of Nef'i's Divan)
On account of his utterance, Nef'i suffered God's damnation!}}
The verse is interpreted as both a poetic epitaph and an [Abjad](/source/Abjad) [chronogram](/source/chronogram), as its letters, when given their numerical values in the Abjad system, are said to yield the year of Nefʿi’s execution, 1044 in the [Islamic calendar](/source/Islamic_calendar). While modern scholars acknowledge this symbolic link, the exact numerical derivation is not uniformly documented, and some biographical sources list 1045 AH (1635–1636 CE) as an alternative.[{{cite web |last=Akkuş |first=Metin |title=Nef‘î |website=TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi |url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nefi |access-date=10 November 2025 |language=tr}}][{{cite web |title=Övgü ve Yerginin Zirve Şairi Nef’î |website=Ondokuz Mayıs University (course handout/article) |url=https://avys.omu.edu.tr/storage/app/public/semih.yesilbag/139260/Ovgu_ve_Yerginin_Zirve_Sairi_NEFI.pdf |access-date=10 November 2025 |language=tr}}][{{cite book |last=Yakıt |first=İsmail |title=Türk-İslâm Kültüründe Ebced Hesabı ve Tarih Düşürme |publisher=Ötüken |location=İstanbul |year=1992}}]
==Works==
Nef'i was strongly influenced by classical [Persian poetry](/source/Persian_poetry), but also developed the [Ottoman Turkish](/source/Ottoman_Turkish) ''[kaside](/source/Ottoman_poetry)'' form. In addition to odes, especially about Sultan Murad IV, Nef'i wrote sarcastic and often vitriolic verse about the failings of specific governmental officials.