Mehmed Hulûsî’s Commentary on Hikemiyât-ı Sâ'ib-i Tebrîzî

Sâ’ib-i Tebrîzî, one of the prominent figures of 17th-century Persian literature, is an influential poet whose impact transcends his own age and shapes the literary outlook of later centuries. His impact, particularly on poets in Turkish literature, prompted Ottoman şârihs (commentators) and mütercims (translators) to produce numerous commentaries and renderings of his dîvân. The considerable volume of his Dîvân made it necessary to provide explanations and interpretations, which over time laid the groundwork for these commentary and translation endeavors. Sâ’ib-i Tebrîzî’s Dîvân is remarkable in terms of both richness and scope; this vastness makes a complete commentary on the entire work quite challenging. Consequently, scholars approaching the dîvân found it more practical to focus on selected couplets organized around specific themes rather than attempting to cover the entire collection. The same method was adopted in the commentary Hikemiyât-ı Sâ’ib-i Tebrîzî, in which couplets highlighting various subjects from the dîvân were chosen and elucidated. One of the significant works in this context belongs to Mehmed Hulûsî, who lived during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Hulûsî approached Sâ’ib-i Tebrîzî’s poetic world with profound understanding and commented on and translated selected couplets from his poems in his works Mücevherât-ı Sâ’ib-i Tebrîzî and Hikemiyât-ı Sâ’ib-i Tebrîzî. In both works, he focused not on the entire Dîvân, but on the couplets he deemed noteworthy in terms of meaning and theme, providing detailed explanations. This study aims to introduce Mehmed Hulûsî’s Hikemiyât-ı Sâ’ib-i Tebrîzî and to elucidate the place of this work in the history of literature.