Poetry as a Religiously Based Political Propaganda Tool: The Divans of the Ottoman Sultans

Poetry, the bearer of collective memory in the Turkish state tradition, has been used as an art and administrative tool for generations in the Ottoman dynasty. The fact that 27 of the 36 Ottoman sultans wrote poetry and 10 sultans owned a “divan” (poetry book) suggests that this art served a political function for the dynasty. This study aims to investigate whether the sultan poets used poetry as a religiously based political propaganda tool to appear pious and artistic and to reinforce the legitimacy of their reign. Because the poems in these works are noteworthy as texts that promote the image of the sultan as a just, pious, and powerful ruler, legitimise Islamic expansionist policy (jihad), and aim to perpetuate cultural superiority. The study includes an analysis of relevant examples selected from the poems of ten Ottoman sultans (Mehmed II, Bayezid II, Selim I, Suleyman I, Selim II, Murad III, Ahmed I, Osman II, Ahmed III, Selim III). It is argued that these types of poems by Ottoman sultans, besides being the result of a simple literary pursuit; they served as a means of communication that reinforced the religious and political legitimacy of the sultans.