Öz
The purpose of this study is to specify the historical poetry in the divan of Vak’anüvis Raşid Efendi; one of our 18th century divan poets, who kept records of many historical events during his time; to examine the details of the historical events which were made reference to therein and their influences in our divan poetry. In the study, a total of 56 historical poems scattered throughtout the copies of the divan were located and which historical events these poems make reference to were determined. Four of these works are in the form of kaside, one in the form of a beyit, and the other in the form of kıt'a-i kebira. Raşid Efendi used Ottoman chronograms, an art form in the Classical Turkish Literature, to mark the time when the relevant historical events took place. According to this type of artistic expression, one or more words or verses are skillfully placed in the poetry in order to disclose the date of an event. The abjad equivalent of the letters of the each word or verse are added and thereby the date of the event is obtained. In the works of poetry our study is focused on, the documented historical events were determined and the importance of these events and how they were addressed in the poems were examined.
In conclusion, from this point of view, it has been demonstrated that the divan poets did not write only with the purpose of art in their works, but also discussion on the important historical events which took place in their time.