Poetnames written by poets are poems that give information about poets who lived both in the period they were written and poets who lived in previous periods. In the quatrains in poetnames, sometimes only the name of the poet is included, and sometimes information is given on subjects such as birth or death dates, where they are from, where they live and their poetic qualities. Poetnames, a genre of Turkish folk literature, bear witness to history in this respect. In other words, these quatrains written by minstrels contain information about both the lives of minstrels and the social conditions of the period. Within the context of the study, poems containing biographical information of minstrels were selected from the book titled Şairnâmeler prepared by Doğan Kaya. The selected poems were categorized according to the lives of the minstrels, their poetic qualities, their friendships with other poets, the folk story heroes used in the poem and the personal views of the minstrel who is the author. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that the information about the lives of the minstrels often does not exceed one or a few lines. In the light of this information, it has been concluded that poetnames are a source for the history of folk literature, albeit in a limited way.
folk poetry, folk literature, poetname, biography.