Turkish poet of 14th century AD.
His personal name was taken to be Ahmed, on the evidence of a single entry in a manuscript of his poem , Mantik al tayr.
Recently , on the strength of several points in the same work, he has been identified with a certain Sheykh Suleyman, whose turbe was in Kirshehir. It can be easily supposed that this town from which as a poet he took his name Gulsheri, was his home.
His date of death is considered to be 1317 AD, when he is supposed to have completed his above work.
Gulsheri wrote two great didactic Sufi poems, mathnawis in remel metre, one in Persian entitled ” Falak Nama ” ( completed 1301-02 AD ) about 4,000 distichs ( bayts ), of which the so far unique manuscript in now in the public library in Ankara, The other work is written in Turkish and is entitled ” Mantik al Tayr “: it lijewise consists of about 4000 distichs and now exists in the fascimile edition, also in Ankara.
Gulsheri`s ” Mantik al tayr ” ( Speech of the Birds ) is a free adaptation in verse of the poem of the same name also in the remel metre, by the Persian poet Farid al Din Attar and not really a translation.
The ideas and construction of the work are the same as with Attar: it is an allegory of Sufi monism, in the form of a story of the journey of birds under their leader , the hoopoe ( hudhiid ) , to their queen, the Simurgh, whose eyrie was far off on Mount Kaf, and their arrival there, after the hardships of the journey only 30 of them attaining their goal, where they were finally compelled to recognize themselves to be the ” Si murgh ” ( 30 birds ).
In another place in the Mantik al tayr , Gulsheri also speaks of a verse translation of a work by the poet Kuduri in Turkish as his own work
A manuscript of a further work of Gulsheri ” Arud Risalesi ” is in Istanbul.
Finally, from various manuscripts now dispersed there still survive some Ghazals by Gulsheri