Original Arabic Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün mefâ‘ilün fa‘lün (the khafîf metre; identified by us)

The Arabic-script text in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi (the first two word groups, printed run together, have been separated):

هذه حجة مبانيها
أسست بالوثوق تأسيسا
صح عندي جميع محويها
لن تري في السطور تلبيسا
صار عبد العزيز كاتبها
قاضيا في ديار مغنيسا

Reading in Latin script (the reading is ours):

Hâẕihî ḥuccetun mebânîhâ
Üssiset bi'l-vüs̱ûḳi te'sîsâ
Ṣaḥḥa ʿindî cemîʿu maḥvîhâ
Len terâ fi's-suṭûri telbîsâ
Ṣâra ʿAbdü'l-ʿAzîzi kâtibuhâ
Ḳâḍiyen fî diyâri Maġnîsâ

In English

1. This is a court document; its foundations have been firmly and thoroughly laid.

2. All that it contains is true in my judgement; in its lines you will see no deceit or falsehood.

3. Abdülaziz, who wrote it, has become judge in the land of Manisa.

The rendering follows the translation given by the editor in a footnote: "Bu hüccetin yapısı sapasağlam kurulmuştur, Muhtevâsının tamamı benim nezdimde doğru olup satırlarında herhangi bir yalan-yanlış, aldatma göremezsin, Onun katibi Abdülaziz Manisa diyarında Kadı olmuştur."

Literary and Historical Commentary

These three couplets are a text of confirmation written beneath an official document. Ottoman judges called the documents drawn up in court to record a right or a transaction "hüccet", and set their signatures beneath them together with a formula of confirmation. In Hüsameddin's words, Abdülazîz Efendi "Manisa kadısı iken şu imzâyı yazmışdır": the judge composed his confirming sentence in verse. The three couplets give in turn the three elements of a confirmation formula. The first says that the document rests on firm foundations, the second that its contents are true in the judge's view and that there is no deceit in its lines, the third gives the name and office of the writer. The word "kâtibuhâ" (its writer) in the last couplet shows that the judge either drew up the document himself or wrote this confirmation beneath it with his own hand.

The couplets have a fine order of their own. All the first lines end in the sound "-hâ", all the second lines in "-îsâ"; the rhyme "te'sîsâ", "telbîsâ" and "Maġnîsâ" places the Arabic name of Manisa within a series of legal terms. In the first couplet "mebânî" (structures, foundations) and "te'sîs" (laying foundations) build an architectural language that likens the document to a building; in the second couplet "suṭûr" (lines) and "telbîs" (deceit, confusion) turn to the written face of the document. The Arabic poetry of Abdülazîz, whom Hüsameddin calls a "poet in three languages", is limited to these couplets, and so the only concrete example of his poetic gift is this confirmation in verse born in a courtroom.

The date of the document is unknown. Abdülazîz Efendi was in Manisa after choosing the judicial path and before resigning the judgeship of Trabzon; Hüsameddin does not give the years of these posts. What the document concerned, where it is today and where Hüsameddin saw these lines are not recorded either. The Latin-script reading and the metre are the work of this study; the spelling "تري" in the Arabic text would be expected as "ترى" in Arabic orthography and has been left as printed. The Ümm-i Veledzâde family and Abdülazîz's life of judgeships and the mufti's office are treated in Ümm-i Veledzâde Abdülazîz Efendi.

Bibliography

Online sources