As one of the well-known figures of the Ottoman literature of tezkire genre – the collection of biographies – Latifi (1491-1582) is a distinctive scholar with his eccentric discourse in his masterpiece Tezkiretü’ş-Şu’arâ (1546). The tezkire writer projected a critical view of the Ottoman poetry through the discourse he created in his tezkire, as well as the canon he set down, to a great extent, demonstrated the general progress of the art of poetry. Questioning the literary critique on the basis of Latifi’s tezkire, this thesis aims to show the attributed mean to his critical manner in the traditoin. Being aware of that the Ottoman literary critique has no equalent in the modern critical theories the thesis attempts to explicate the critical discourse in the tezkire in the limits of the tradition and rhetoric. In this context, in the first chapter titled “Tezkiretü’ş-Şu’arâ and Critique in the Ottoman Literature”, the essence of the critique in the tezkire and its place on the line of the tradition are discussed; and Latifi’s genuineness within the tezkire tradition is appraised. Furthermore, the writer’s famous classification of poets is explicated in the context of rhetoric, and the precision of attributing genuineness to the writer of the tezkire merely within the bounds of this classification is questioned. In the subchapters entitled “The Poet” and “The Poetry” of the second chapter “The Ideal Type of Poet Reflected from Latifi’s Critical Perspective and a Look to the Art of Poetry” the platforms of criticism are scrutinized. Within the frame of these platforms, the ideal type of poet and poetry reflected in the critical expression of Latifi is discussed, and the poetic discourse presented in the tezkire is stated.