The traditional depiction of women as beautiful, attractive human beings and the main driving force in

attaining divine love as seen in the classical literature is also present in Taşlıcalı Yahya Bey’s works. As

Taşlıcalı Yahya Bey is a poet with a military background and Albanian origin who holds a significant place

in divan poetry, we decided to review his viewpoint on women in his works.

Our primary goal was to determine whether the notion of a woman is present in his works. After that, we

focused on researching the number of ways women were addressed in his poems. We touched upon the

place women hold in the poet’s expressions as well as the way the perception of women and opinions stated

about her interact in social, environmental, and psychological fields.

The main type of woman we encounter is a woman in love, who is worthy of everything, cause of

lovesickness, a nymph with enchanting beauty, faithful, modest, graceful, unswayed by wealth, and the one

whose cruelty is worth enduring. However, if the woman shows no interest, her features change instantly.

This time she is depicted as a tattletale, a mocker, someone who makes you cry, someone who is always

angry, lets you down, loses her temper, goes back on her word, a cheater, a brick short of a load, and testing.

This depiction of two opposite types of women is also present in his divan poetry works.

The writer has managed to preserve his direct and open expression throughout his works. Regardless of the

sex, he is always frank and even uses brazen examples when conveying his thoughts and opinions about

both men and women. Taking into consideration his inclination to mysticism, we could deduce that he has

done it in the name of Malamatiyya or to abase himself. As the beauty mentioned in Şehrengiz-i-İstanbul

(City Book of Istanbul) mainly refers to men, we will not dwell on it this time.

In certain parts of his literary work, we also encounter women who are considered to be just ornamental

elements, but this type of portrayal only refers to marginal types of women. Although Taşlıcalı Yahya Bey’s

works usually address either the positive or the negative features of women, occasionally both features are

contained in the same work. He appears to be a poet with a realistic point of view when describing,

criticizing, or praising situations and manners. However, in some parts of his works, this realism turns into

an exaggeration depicting manners using humiliating expressions.

Through transformation and patience, the poet enables the transition from earthly to divine love by bringing

together the imagination born from both his realism and mysticism. According to him, love is one and has

no earthly side. He states that love expressed by Mecnun and Vamik is odd and only divine love is true and

leads to ecstasy.