In my paper, I will argue that the oft-repeated maxim that Ottoman poetry is but an “imitation” of Persian poetry needs to be re-examined from a critical and interpretative perspective supported by textual evidence. To this end, my study of the Ottoman reception of Hafez aims to demonstrate that the Otto-Persian literary relations can not be treated from a one-sided perspective which celebrates Persian poets by labeling the Ottomans as mere “imitators.” Nor can those relations be studied without any reference to the actual texts and their contexts. Therefore it is only after carefully studying the texts of both traditions that some valid and verifiable conclusions can be drawn as to the Ottoman “imitation” of Persian poetry, which also requires us to be attentive to the historical contexts and situations of those literary texts. I will focus my attention on selected examples of Ottoman lyric poetry composed by the Ottoman sultans and their companion poets by focusing on the 1451-1566 period of the Ottoman literary history. There are two reasons for focusing on this period: first, the beginnings of this period mark the emergence of institutionalized Ottoman court poetry under the direct patronage of the Ottoman sultans. Second, thanks to this royal support and encouragement, the whole period is characterized by a gradually increasing interest in the firmly established literary tradition of the neighboring Persian lands. The sultans and their court poets included in my study are chronologically as follows: Mehmed II (r. 1451-1481) and his poet Ahmet Pasha (d. 1496), Bayezid II (r. 1481-1512) and his state official Cafer Chelebi (d. 1514), Selim I (r. 1512-1520) and his supporter Revani (d. 1523), and finally Süleyman I (r. 1520-1566) and his close companion Baki (d. 1600). In exploring poems by these poets, I will trace the nature and extent of the influence of Hafez of Shiraz (d. 1389), the most celebrated lyric poet of medieval Persia. Specifically, I will concern myself with the Ottoman reception and appropriation of the following two famous poems by Hafez: the opening poem of his Divan and his “Shirazi Turk” poem. To supplement my textual findings, I will also broaden my perspective by taking a brief look at the following three biographies of poets which provide us with information on the Ottoman perception of Hafez and the Ottoman-Persian poetic interactions of the period: Sehi’s Hesht-Bihisht (1538), Latifi’s Tezkiretu’s-Shuara (1546), and Ashik Chelebi’s Meshairu’s-Shuara (1566).