Portrait of Warrior Monarch in the 16th Century Qasidas

In qasidas in which the dignitaries and great priests are praised, the glory of the praised is exalted and last of his success is required. Good wishes and pray are made for the praised one. When the praised is appraised, features of ideal governor in the mind and heart of person in the period is exposed. These features can generally counted as generosity, justice, wisdom, poetry and service to religion. Service of ruler to religion brings the missions such as protecting Islam, conquering new places, spreading Allah’s name and exterminating infidelity. Fulfilling this mission necessitates being a good warrior besides huge and strong army. In the qasides the Ottoman sultans who were believed to be charged by Allah to serve Islam, are described as having all features which a good warrior must have. They are good commanders and heroes. They are merciful to Muslims and merciless to enemies of Islam. With their majesty and grandeor they give fear to enemies heart, but they give trust and courage to the soldier. They establish peace and trust in the places they conquered. Sultans in 16th century which was named conquest century in the Ottoman History, participated in campaigns, directed their armies, fought war areas. That warrior caracter of sultans has been subject to works, Selimnames, Suleymannames, Fetihnames has been written. In this paper, warrior features of sultans of the 16th century are examined according to qasides. Divans of poets from different work groups were searched and couplets were found in which the warrior features of the Ottoman sultans were explained, and they were examined, so the sultan portrait in the mind of divan poet was tried to be shown