Cem Sultan and Sultan Bayezid II

Two Brothers in a Couplet: Cem Sultan and Sultan Bayezid II Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Ali Karavelioğlu             Sultan Bayezid II, the eighth Ottoman sultan, was born in Didymoteicho in 1448. His father was Mehmed the Conqueror, and his mother was Gülbahar Hatun. He was sent to Amasya as a sanjak bey at a young age. There, in addition to some military achievements, he attracted attention for transforming Amasya into a center of science, culture, and the arts. Indeed, as a poet sultan, his interest in cultural matters continued during his reign. He was both a skilled poet and a skilled calligrapher. It is said that this was due not only to his education but also to his gentle nature and reluctance to fight. He was one of the poet sultans with a divan (divan). He ascended to the throne upon his father's death in 1481. Reigning over thirty-one reigns, he was one of the longest-reigning rulers of the Ottoman Empire. His tomb is in the courtyard of the Beyazıt Mosque in Istanbul. ... One of Mehmed the Conqueror's sons was Cem Sultan, born in 1459. He was sent to Kastamonu as a sanjak bey (sanjak bey) and then to Konya as a child. Like his father and brother, Cem Sultan was a prince deeply interested in culture and the arts, especially music and literature. After losing the long-lasting struggle for the throne with his brother Beyazıt, he fled first to Egypt, then sought refuge in Rhodes, and from there was forced to travel to Europe, eventually leading to the Western powers taking control. The Pope and the King of France, in particular, exploited this for a long time. His sorrowful exile became a defining factor in political relations between states, and the Ottoman Empire suffered great hardship in every aspect until Cem Sultan's suspicious death in Italy in 1495. Of the poems in his Divan, the ones he wrote while abroad are particularly lyrical, melancholic, and moving. The fifteen poets who gathered around him, known in literary history as "Cem Poets," never left him alone until the end of his life. His grave is in the Muradiye Mosque graveyard in Bursa. As is known, two of Mehmed the Conqueror's three sons, Cem Sultan and Bayezid II, began a struggle for the throne after their father's death. As a result of this long struggle, Prince Cem Sultan was forced to live far from his homeland and died in exile in Velletri, Italy. The events of his short life and the information he knows about him suggest that, perhaps partly due to his poetic nature, he was a man who readily believed in those around him and was easily manipulated. Indeed, he was used as leverage against Bayezid II by numerous enemies who would have relished the Ottoman Empire's predicament, including the Karamanids, the Mamluks, the Knights of Rhodes, Italy, France, and even the Hungarian king. The enmity between this unfortunate prince and his older brother, the Sultan, was a fateful one, sometimes overpowering in its emotional aspects. While we have some evidence that he regretted his struggle from the very beginning, the events that unfolded proved incapable of preventing his tragic end.   Cem Sultan: Meshair al-Shu'ara, vr. 193b. Cem Sultan began his 46-couplet poem, the 9th ode of his divan, in a state of complete submission and acceptance to fate.Halil Ersoylu; Cem Sultan's Turkish Divan, Ankara: TDK Publications, 1989, 32-35). It is possible to read in the following couplet that he wrote a poem, presumably written towards the end of his life, for his brother, and his regret: Didi Cem, this poem is in memory of Sultan Bayezid Remember that gathering, your eyes will bleed (couplet: 45) CEM SULTAN AND SULTAN BEYAZID II In the couplet, the poet states that he wrote this ode to commemorate Sultan Bayezid, and that when he recalled that gathering, tears flowed from his eyes. "That gathering" refers to the presence of the sultan. Here, a connection is established between bloody tears and wine, evoking a gathering of friends and acquaintances where conversations and scholarly, political, and literary matters were discussed. In the couplet, the prince's gaze, years later, towards the sultan, that is, his older brother, is seen as one of longing and perhaps regret, contrary to what is written in history books and widely accepted by the public. For interesting details on this and similar topics, see: Murat Ali Karavelioğlu; “Literature of History: Historical Background in the 15th and 16th Century Qasidas”, International Symposium on Ode to Qasida (Observations on Form, Function and Content), Murat Karavelioğlu Istanbul Şehir University 27 April 2012, Istanbul 2013; Klasik Publications, Istanbul 2013, 380-455.