THE KÜTAHYA ŞEHRENGIZ BY ARİF

“Kütahyalı Arif”, meaning Arif from Kütahya, is a 17th century poet, who penned a Şehrengiz and a Divan. Spending a great portion of his life in Kütahya, Arif was also appointed as kadi (judge) to other cities. However, there is no mention of other cities in his works but Kütahya. Available earliest sources, which give reference to Arif, quote some of his exemplary couplets from his Şehrengiz. But sources dating to later periods refer neither to his Divan nor to his Şehrengiz. Moreover, some sources falsely attribute his Divan to another poet with the name of Bursalı Arif Agha.This article has been written in order to introduce a recently discovered second copy of Arif’s Divan, with a particular focus on his Şehrengiz on Kütahya present in this copy. The poet presumably read, controlled, and added new poems to this piece himself. The newly discovered manuscript comprises valuable information about Arif, the poet, and Kütahya. The article first discusses the life story of Arif and his literary personality in the light of information obtained from biographic and prosopographic works as well as from his Divan. Later, the divan manuscripts are introduced and the text of the şehrengizwhich is composed of 52 couplets in the recently discovered Divan copy is given. The two eulogies in the Divan which are about the Yoncalı and the Ilıca, two excursion area in the region of Kütahya, are added to the end of the text because of they are complementary to the şehrengiz.