Habibi spent the early years of his life in the court of Aq Qoyunlu ruler Yaqub Beg, where he began writing his first poems.
According to the Safavid prince Sam Mirza, while out shepherding one day, Habibi encountered the Aq Qoyunlu ruler Yaqub Beg, who was on a hunting trip and took him under his patronage because of his genius.
[7][8][9] According to the academic Hamid Arasly (1902–1983), Habibi was one of 1700 artists brought to Constantinople by Ottoman Sultan Selim I after the capture of Tabriz in 1514.
[3] The depiction of Habibi as Selim I's courtier by Evliya Çelebi suggests that the sultan, who was very interested in Turkish and Persian literature, may have shielded him from Shah Ismail, who could have been upset at the poet for leaving the Safavid court.
[4] The language used in Habibi's poems, which may be classified as simply Azerbaijani, accompanied by numerous characteristic Persian elements, also displays Chagatai influence.
[3][8] According to the Turkish scholar Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, he represented a transitional period between Nasimi, Khatai (the pen name of Safavid Shah Ismail), and Fuzuli, the three poets regarded as among the greatest in Azerbaijani literature.
Love, alcohol, sajdah to Adam, and spiritual themes such as reaching unity with God are the most important concepts in Habibi's poems.
[9] In spite of this, he is virtually entirely forgotten today, with only a handful of his poems having survived to this day, which in turn has been credited in part to Fuzuli and the Ottoman poet Bâkî (died 1600), who surpassed him in popularity shortly after his death.