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Yemenli

A minstrel from Ballıkaya who wrote poems under this pen name after returning from military service in Yemen. Most are lost; a satire criticising the dedes of his time survives.

Translated from the Turkish original.

Who
Minstrel (âşık)
Period
late 19th century
Basis
Reported

This page was compiled from sources by mezirme.com.

According to Fuat Bozkurt, Yemenli lived in the late 19th century. He went to Yemen for military service and stayed there for many years; being literate and clever, he rose to officer rank. Some say he also married and had children in Yemen. After his service, said to have lasted eight to ten years, he returned to his village and wrote poems under the pen name Yemenli (Bozkurt 2017).

According to Bozkurt, most of Yemenli’s poems have been lost. One that survives is a long satire criticising the dedes of his day:

Bilmezsiniz nedir ehli halimi
Gücüm yetmez nidem, hüküm galibi
Bin senelik Şah İbrahim talibi
Çundurdunuz yörüklere dedeler

(roughly: “You do not know the state of the people of the path; / I lack the strength, what can I do, the ruling prevails. / The thousand-year followers of Şah İbrahim, / O dedes, you have … to the nomads.” The dialect verb çundurmak is left untranslated because its meaning is uncertain.)

— Bozkurt 2017

Levent Çoban’s study of music in Hekimhan also names Yemenli among the minstrels raised in Ballıkaya (Çoban 2018, p. 79).

Name and family

Bozkurt and Çoban do not give the minstrel’s real name. Local sources, however, list “Yemenli Abidin” among the village’s well-known names (Özerol, blog; Durum Gazetesi, 18 Apr 2024). In the Başağalar family tree, “Abidin (Yemenli)”, son of Ahmet Ağa, is recorded in the line of İpşir Ağa (family tree). According to Zeynep Oktay’s memoirs, the family is called “Yemenligiller” because of Abidin Efendi, who served in Yemen before the Republic; his grandson was the village instructor Abidin Öztürk, and Yusuf Ağa Dede was his nephew (Oktay, Abidin Öztürk; Oktay, Yusuf Ağa Dede).

These records suggest that the minstrel Yemenli whose poems Bozkurt reports was Abidin Efendi, but we have not seen a document that shows this directly.

What is missing

  • Dates of birth and death; a document showing that the minstrel Yemenli and Abidin Efendi were the same person
  • Other poems, with who collected them and where

If you have information, documents or photographs about this person, please write to us.

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Sources for this page

  1. Academic publicationFuat Bozkurt (2017). Şah İbrahim Veli Ocağı. Fuat Bozkurt's personal blog (Blogger), 2 November 2017. fuatbozkurt.blogspot.com Accessed: 13 October 2026.Not a peer-reviewed publication. These are the author's notes and assessments based on his field trips between 1979 and 1989, including the 1986 visit to Ballıkaya. Quotations are translated from the Turkish original.
  2. Academic publicationLevent Çoban (2018). Hekimhan Müzik Kültürü Üzerine Bir Araştırma. İnönü Üniversitesi Kültür ve Sanat Dergisi, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 77–84. dergipark.org.tr Accessed: 12 October 2026.
  3. Local studySüleyman Özerol (2010–2026). Mezirme Köyü (Ballıkaya Mahallesi) İle İlgili Bilgiler, Haberler ve Diğer. Blogger. mezirmeballikayakoyu.blogspot.com Accessed: 12 October 2026.A local researcher's work. Information taken from it and not confirmed by another source is marked as "reported" on this site.
  4. NewsErhan Kızılyar (2024). Ballıkaya: Bir Köyden Çok Ötesi. Durum Gazetesi, 18 April 2024 (updated 3 August 2024). durumgazetesi.com.tr Accessed: 18 October 2026.Lists people from the village and quotes the village head (Merdan Çelik); the hamlet of Murat Emir's family is the village head's information. Part of the text is taken from Süleyman Özerol's blog.
  5. Family archiveZeynep Oktay (undated). Abidin Öztürk (1918 - 28.12.1993). Memoir; sent by email by Fatoş Oktay on 8 November 2026. The full text is on the person's page on mezirme.com.. mezirme.com Accessed: 8 November 2026.A memoir drawing on family and village memory; the author states that she heard some details from Ayşe Öztürk, Hüseyin Güner and Mahmut Öztürk. Its contents are used on this site as reported information.
  6. Family archiveZeynep Oktay (undated). Yusuf Ağa Dede (Yusuf Öztürk) (1309/1893 - 17.08.1983). Memoir; sent by email by Fatoş Oktay on 2 November 2026. The full text is on the person's page on mezirme.com.. mezirme.com Accessed: 4 November 2026.A memoir drawing on family and village memory; the author states that she heard some anecdotes from grandchildren and villagers. Its contents are used on this site as reported information.

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