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)...