The support of artists by state administrations is a situation frequently seen in the historical process. This support is sometimes given in the form of direct patronage, but it is sometimes provided by the artist taking part in the state organization. It is considerably easier to find historical information about artists who were civil servants assigned to certain duties because official documents related to these duties are part of the historical record. These documents can be in the form of a letter of appointment, a payroll, a letter of assignment, a letter of termination, or even a record of changes in marital status. It is known that some artists participated in the state organization in the Ottoman Empire. It is also known that the Ottoman sultans were among these artists who were working at various levels. Sultans were mainly interested in arts namely poetry, music, and crafts, such as ornamentation and jewelry. One of the most important names in poetry and music (these forms could not be considered separately from each other in the Ottoman period) was Sultan Selim III. In Turkish music where the oral music culture is diversified, it is also known that people from the public who were sometimes trained as poets, composers, and performers received support from the state in different ways. Although there is little information about the sultan’s identity as a musician in the Ottoman Empire, there is a person whose name is known today by almost everyone in the field of music. This person is Bayburtlu Zihni, who according to archive documents was also called El-Hac, Zihni Efendi, or Mehmed Emin Bey. Bayburtlu ˆ Zihni, whose birth date is known to be between the years of 1795-1800, was a civil servant who first worked as a clerk and then as a district manager in Hopa, Of, Karaagac¸, ˘ Unye, Tonya, and Vakfıkebir. He was also married twice, ¨ and it is known from official records that the divorce process from his second wife was troublesome for both parties. It is known that Zihni from Bayburt died in 1860 in the village of Olasa (Bahc¸ekaya) near the Cevizlik (Mac¸ka) town of Trabzon after he set out from Unye to go to his hometown. After his death, although he was buried in the village ¨ where he died, his grave was opened in the year 1936 and his bones were buried again in Imaret Hill in Bayburt. Considering the assets, which may be seen from the archived records in the state book revealed after his death, it is understood that Bayburtlu Zihni lived a very poor life; in fact, after burial expenses were deducted, only 2316 kurus remained. However, his greatest legacy is his poetry. Bayburtlu Zihnˆı, who had a particularly strong satirical aspect, left written works under the names of Dˆıvan-ı Zihn ˆ ˆı, Serg¨uzes¸tname, and Kit ˆ ab-ı Hik ˆ aye-yi Gar ˆ ˆıbe. His verse that starts with the line ”I came and saw that he is gone from his homeland,” which is well known to almost everyone in the field of music, has been the lyrics of several different compositions in both Turkish folk music and traditional Turkish classical music. In the process of carrying out this study, the documents obtained from the state archives were labelled in the same abbreviations as they were written in the archive records. These abbreviations are also given on the references page in the same manner. The first part of the abbreviations refers to the type of archive, the second part refers to the archive fund, and the third part refers to the code and page number. For example; ”BOA. “denotes the Presidency of State Ottoman Archive, “A.MKT.DV.” denotes a Sadaret Devai document, and ”nr.165/46/1” refers to the notebook, box, and sequence number. While thanking all the scholars who worked on Bayburtlu Zihnˆı before this study, I would like to particularly express my gratitude to Prof. Dr. Yunus OZGER for his help in finding one of ¨ the archive documents. In addition, the notes of the works of Turkish classical music and folk music were taken from the repertoire of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation. Documents and notes were subjected to a descriptive analysis for document analysis as qualitative data. Although the historical comparison of the obtained data was evaluated, data comparison was not mentioned in non-contradictory cases in order not to spoil the biographical fluency. While the official documents related to the subject are given when necessary, archive numbers have been added as a reference (ref.) to the continuation of the numbered explanation just below. In addition, since the dates were made according to the Hijri calendar in the Ottoman Empire during the period when Bayburtlu Zihnˆı lived, the abbreviation of the hijri and the expression as the year (h. 1290 or h. 1293) were used in Zihni’s books.