Nematullah Kishvari (, ) was a 15th- and 16th-century poet. He is considered one of the leading poets of Azerbaijani literature during that time and his poems played a significant role in the development of the Azerbaijani literary language.
Born in Salmas in modern-day Iran, little is known about Kishvari's life. He spent a part of it in the palace of Aq Qoyunlu ruler Yaqub Beg in Tabriz, where he was in the company of other prominent poets. However, he left the palace when he was repeatedly asked to write eulogies for Yaqub Beg and moved to Samarkand to live with Timurid poet Ali-Shir Nava'i, whom he referred to as his master in his poems. After Yaqub Beg's death in 1490, he returned to Tabriz but faced financial difficulties. In his last years, he dedicated eulogies to Ismail I of the Safavid dynasty of Iran and died in Tabriz a few years after his return.
Kishvari's only surviving work is a (a collection of poems) written mostly in Azerbaijani, with some Persian poems included. His poetry is primarily about love and was heavily influenced by Ali-Shir Nava'i and the 14th- and 15th-century Azerbaijani poet Nasimi.
Biography
Not much is known about the life of Kishvari, including his exact birth date. The majority of information about him is derived from his poetry. Born in Dilmagan (now Salmas) in modern-day Iran, his poems suggest that he likely lived during the latter part of the 15th century and the early part of the 16th century. His given name was "Nematullah", and his surname, as well as the name he used in his poems, was "Kishvari". Kishvari's poetry was first brought to light by the Turkish literary historian in 1928. In 1946, his only known work, a (a collection of poems), was discovered.
At some point of his life, Kishvari relocated to Tabriz. There, he resided in the palace of Yaqub Beg () of the Aq Qoyunlu, where he lived alongside other Azerbaijani poets such as , , and Habibi, with whom he was friends. However, he left the palace after being compelled to continuously compose (eulogies) for Yaqub Beg and relocated to Samarkand to live with Ali-Shir Nava'i, a Timurid poet, whom he referred to as his master in his poems. After Yaqub Beg's death in 1490, Kishvari returned to Tabriz because of his old age and the difficulties of living abroad. His poems reveal that he experienced financial hardships after his return and expressed a longing for the "old days". His final years coincided with the reign of Ismail I (), the founder of the Safavid dynasty of Iran. The poet dedicated one (a form of amatory poem) and one (a four-line poem) to Ismail I. He died in Tabriz a few years later, although the exact year of his death remains unknown.
Poetry
The only known work of Kishvari is a , titled (). Primarily written in Azerbaijani, this work also includes some Persian poems and features a variety of poetic forms, such as 799 , 42 , three (poems with repeating verses), and several (a form of monorhyme poetry). In the work, Kishvari often creates new vocabulary by adding Turkic suffixes to Persian or Arabic words, or by appending Persian suffixes to Turkic words. Many of his poems praise the officials and their families in the countries where the poet resided, including Yaqub Beg, his mother Selçuk Şah Begüm, cousins of Yaqub Beg, and the Safavid king Ismail I. The main theme of his poetry is love, with a few mystical poems included. Love and the beauty of nature are also the focus of his . Six copies of the are known to exist and are located in Bursa and Istanbul (Turkey), Baku (Azerbaijan), Samarkand and Tashkent (Uzbekistan), and Tehran (Iran). The Bursa and Tehran copies were first researched by Jale Demirci, a scholar of Turkic literature, in 1994. The Baku copy, which dates back to 1690, is almost identical to the Tashkent and Samarkand copies. Demirci concluded that this is because the Tashkent and Samarkand copies were made from the Baku copy. Ümran Ay Say, a scholar of Turkish literature, states that the does not follow the prescribed order of verse forms, but it does follow the alphabetical order in its . The primary poetic form in the is the beit (a line divided into two hemistichs of equal length, each containing between 16 and 32 syllables); the main poetic genre, on the other hand, is the .