Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Çün rūz-ı ezelī ḳısmet olmış bize devlet
Taḳdīre rıżā virmeyesüñ buña sebeb ne
Ḥaccü'l-ḥarameynem diyüben da‘vi ḳılursın
Bu salṭanat-ı dünyeye pes bunca ṭaleb ne

In English

1. Since sovereignty fell to our lot on the day of pre-eternity, why is it that you will not consent to what was decreed? (The day of pre-eternity is thought of as the day on which each person's share was fixed before coming into the world. "Devlet" literally means both sovereignty, rule, and good fortune, happiness.)

2. You make your claim, saying "I am a pilgrim of the Two Sanctuaries"; then why so much craving for this worldly sultanate? (The Two Sanctuaries, Haremeyn, are Mecca and Medina. Bayezid finds it unbecoming of his brother that one who has made the pilgrimage should chase after worldly rule.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a two-couplet kıt‘a (fragment) written in the hezec metre "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün". The redif (refrain word) is "ne", and the rhyme is the "-eb" sound in the words "sebeb" and "taleb". The lines of the first couplet do not rhyme with each other; the rhyme is formed only in the second lines of the couplets. This arrangement is what distinguishes the kıt‘a from the ghazal (gazel); the poem also has no pen name (mahlas). In Bayram's edition it is number 146, under the heading "Kıt‘a" and with the title "Ez Ân Sultân Bâyezîd" (From Sultan Bayezid). According to the edition's footnote it is found in manuscripts T (43b), M1 (44a) and M2 (35b), and is absent from OR and İBB. The second couplet is missing in T and M1; the only manuscript in which the two couplets appear together is M2, copied by Ali Emîrî. The second couplet is also recorded in Sehî's biographical anthology of poets (tezkire).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem is addressed not to a beloved but to a claimant to the sultanate, and in this it differs from the other poems of the divan, written in the language of love. The first couplet rests on belief in fate: the sultanate was written into Bayezid's share in pre-eternity, and to refuse to accept it is to oppose what was decreed. Since the word "devlet" literally means both rule and good fortune, the two meanings work together in the couplet; the fortune granted as a pre-eternal portion is at the same time the throne itself. The words "kısmet" (portion, lot) and "takdir" (decree) complete this circle of meaning.

The second couplet turns the other side's own words against him. One who boasts of having visited the Two Sanctuaries should not chase after worldly rule; a contrast (tezat) is set up between the pilgrimage and worldly ambition. "Da‘vî kılmak" literally means to make a claim; in the couplet it calls to mind both the claim of being a pilgrim and the claim to the throne. Both couplets end in questions carrying the redif "… ne". Rather than awaiting an answer, these questions have a reproachful tone that accuses the other side.

Historical Context

These couplets were composed during Bayezid's struggle for the throne with his brother Cem Sultan, and this is one of the few poems of Adlî for which it is known to whom and on what occasion it was written. When Mehmed the Conqueror died in 1481, a struggle began between Bayezid, governor of the sancak of Amasya, and Cem, governor of the sancak of Karaman. Bayezid went to Istanbul and ascended the throne; Cem had the Friday sermon read and coins struck in his own name in Bursa, and proposed dividing the country. Bayezid rejected this proposal. In his letter, quoted by Bayram from Şimşirgil, he writes that the land of Rum is like a delicate bride who cannot bear two bridegrooms. Defeated at Yenişehir, Cem went to Egypt, to the Mamluks, and during this time had the opportunity to make the pilgrimage. In 1482 he came back to Anatolia and tried to cooperate with the Karamanids; when this failed he took refuge with the Knights of Rhodes and remained in Europe until his death in 1495.

Sehî Bey relates the event in the entry on Sultan Bayezid in his Heşt Bihişt: after visiting the Kaaba and returning, Cem again laid claim to the sultanate in the province of Karaman; when he achieved nothing, Sultan Bayezid composed and wrote the couplet "Haccü'l-haremeynem diyüben…" and sent it to Cem. In Sehî's text the second line reads "Bu saltanat-ı dünye içün bunca taleb ne". Sehî also records that Cem replied with this couplet: "Sen bister-i gülde yatasın şevk ile handân / Cem hicr ile bâlîn idine hârı sebeb ne" (You are to lie laughing with delight on a bed of roses, while Cem in separation takes a thorn for his pillow; why is that?). Accordingly, the couplet was written in the first year of Bayezid's reign, after he had left Amasya.

In manuscript M2 the exchange appears as four couplets. Here Bayezid's couplets bear the heading "Cevâb-ı Sultân" (The Sultan's answer) and Cem's the heading "Kıt‘a-i Cem"; in this manuscript Bayezid's words are thus presented as an answer, whereas in Sehî it is Bayezid who speaks first. In the introduction to the edition Bayram arranges the four couplets alternately: to Bayezid's first couplet Cem replies "Sen bister-i gülde yatasın gül gibi her dem / Ben taş gibi toprak döşenem bâri sebeb ne" (While you lie forever like a rose on a bed of roses, why should I be laid out on the earth like a stone?). His reply to the second couplet is "Bu meşgale-i dünye ola ‘adle mukârin / Haccü'l-harameyn anı taleb kılsa ‘aceb ne": if this worldly business goes together with justice, is it any wonder if a pilgrim of the Two Sanctuaries seeks it? The word "‘adl" (justice) in Cem's reply comes from the same root as Bayezid's pen name Adlî; no source, however, states that this is a deliberate allusion. According to Bayram's footnote, Cem's Turkish divan also contains a couplet resembling his first reply, as the mahlas couplet of a ghazal: "Sen pister-i nâz içre yatup gül gibi her dem / Cem derdile bâlîn idine hârı sebeb ne" (Ersoylu's edition, G279-7).

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 184, poem no. 146 (manuscript information and Cem's couplets in the footnote on the same page; the exchange p. 28; life pp. 15-17). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

Official sources

  • Sehî Beg, Heşt Bihişt, ed. Halûk İpekten, Günay Kut, Mustafa İsen, Hüseyin Ayan, Turgut Karabey, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), entry on Sultan Bâyezîd, p. 17. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Online sources