Yunus Emre

Who is Yunus Emre?

Yunus Emre was a 13th and early 14th century Anatolian Turkish folk poet and Sufi mystic whose verse profoundly shaped Turkish language and spirituality. Living during the twilight of the Seljuk period and the early rise of the Anatolian beyliks, he composed his poetry in plain, spoken Turkish rather than the courtly Persian and Arabic favored by the elite, making him a foundational figure of Turkish-language literature. His poems, collected in the Divan and the didactic Risalat al-Nushiyya, express humanistic Sufi themes of divine love, tolerance, humility and the unity of all creation. Lines such as his call to love the created for the sake of the Creator remain widely quoted across Turkey. Little is known for certain about his life, and several sites claim his tomb. UNESCO declared 1991 the International Yunus Emre Year, and Turkey's cultural institute for promoting the Turkish language abroad bears his name.

Sources: Talat Sait Halman, Yunus Emre and His Mystical Poetry (1981) · UNESCO, International Yunus Emre Year 1991 proclamation