"Exploring a seminal period in the cultural history of the Ottoman Empire, this study focuses on the sixteenth century, a time when literature written in Turkish rapidly grew in parallel with an expanding bureaucratic state. The growing corpus, particularly of poetry, led to the compilation of a series of biographical dictionaries of poets; but until now, the part that such dictionaries played in the formation of a poetic canon, and by extension a literary canon, has not been fully explored. This book examines that development by focusing on the work and reception of the poet Zati (1477-1546) during his lifetime and in the decades after. The study situates the changing reception of Zati within the context of a shift in critical attitudes toward the value and function of poetry that was brought about by newly emergent bureaucratic literati. It is to this social group that the biographers mainly belonged and Zati did not, and for that reason, the author argues, in delineating an Ottoman canon they relegated him to a lesser age of poetry. The study adds to the scholarship on canon formation in the fields of Ottoman art and music, and complements recent work done on popular culture in the Ottoman Empire. Framed by ongoing critiques of canon formation, as well as of high and popular culture, among scholars of early modern Europe and East Asia, this study offers a unique historical perspective on those issues."--Provided by publisher.