If you are a libertine, don’t turn from the cup of pure wine
If you are wise, take your glass in the direction of Galata
…
Pious one, should you see those Frankish (European) boys but once
You would never cast an eye on the houris in paradise
…
Everywhere is filled with paradisiacal boys and girls, Revani,
Who enters it looks no more to the highest heaven
These lines which depict the life in Istanbul of 16th century are from a poem by Revani, an Ottoman poet, an infamous libertine who lived in late 15th and early 16th centuries. And revani the dessert is said to be named after Revani the poet. The association is not rooted in Revani’s notorious ways in entertainment or financial matters (he never gets any positive remarks on his character in biographies), but in his famous unique and novel work İşretname (Book of Wassail) which deals with anything related to Ottoman carousals: the wine, best seasons for drinking wine, wine glasses, flagons, young men serving wine, and, of course, food. E.J.W. Gibb in his colossal work on Ottoman poetry defines Revani as a “thorough-going hedonist” but not a “mystic.” In “Book of Wassail” he proves Gibb right. Revani gives a long list of delicasies in his lines and with vivid metaphors likens them to serpents (sausages), pearl (rice), or blond beauty (saffron) (see Gibb for more info on “Book of Wassail”).
Although he wrote couplet after couplet praising pleasures of food, I don’t know why particularly revani, a sponge cake, a semolina sponge cake to be accurate, soaked in syrup is named after Revani.
