Original Persian Text

Metre: mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün (hezec; the pattern is marked in Jacob's edition)

اکر آن کبر افرنجی بدست آرد دل مارا
بخال هندویش بخشم ستنبول وقالاتارا

Eger ân gebr-i efrencî be-dest âred dil-i mâ-râ
Be-hâl-i Hindûyeş bahşem Sitanbûl u Kalâtâ-râ

In English

1. If that Frankish infidel takes our heart into his hand, I will give Istanbul and Galata for his Indian (jet-black) mole.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is the only couplet written in Persian in the divan. Missing from the Millet manuscript, it is taken by Doğan from page 4 of the edition published by Georg Jacob in Berlin in 1904. Jacob's edition is based on an anthology in the library of Uppsala University and gives the couplet in Arabic script, as the third piece, under the heading "Ve lehu tâbe serâh" (also his, may his dust be sweet); it also marks the pattern of the metre as hezec. The Arabic-script text on this page is taken from Jacob's printing, the Latin-script reading from Doğan's edition. In Jacob's printing the first letter of the word "gebr" is printed with kâf (کبر), in keeping with Ottoman printing practice. Jacob notes in a footnote that he finds this spelling of the word "efrencî" (افرنجی) suspect.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is a response poem (nazire) to one of the most famous couplets of Persian poetry, Hafez of Shiraz's "Eger ân Türk-i Şîrâzî be-dest âred dil-i mâ-râ / Be-hâl-i Hindûyeş bahşem Semerkand u Buhârâ-râ" (If that Turk of Shiraz takes our heart into his hand, I will give Samarkand and Bukhara for his Indian mole). Jacob too, in his footnote, presents it as an imitation of the first couplet of ghazal 8 in Brockhaus's edition of Hafez: "gebr-i efrencî" stands in place of "Türk-i Şîrâzî", and "Sitanbûl u Kalâtâ" in place of "Semerkand u Buhârâ".

The changed words give the couplet its whole meaning. Hafez's beloved is a Turk of Shiraz; Avnî's is a "gebr-i efrencî", a Frankish infidel, a European Christian. Samarkand and Bukhara, which Hafez is ready to give away, are distant and legendary cities not in a poet's hands; Hafez's generosity is known as an exaggerated joke. Istanbul and Galata, which Avnî is ready to give away, are cities truly in his hands. That Mehmed II should offer the capital he conquered and its Genoese quarter as the price of a mole brings Hafez's joke, in a ruler's mouth, close to a real offer. "Hâl-i Hindû", the Indian mole, is a mole associated through its black colour with Indian slaves.

Historical Context

The couplet belongs to the same world as the divan's fourteenth and sixty-first ghazals: there too Galata is named as the quarter of Frankish and Christian beauties. Jacob says in the introduction to his edition that the poems presupposing the conquest of Constantinople must have been written after 1453; since this couplet names Istanbul and Galata as cities the poet can give away, it too must belong to the time after the conquest. There is no record of the occasion on which it was composed.

Bibliography

  • Fâtih Sultan Mehmed (Avnî), Fâtih Dîvânı ve Şerhi / Dīwān of Sultan Mehmed II with Commentary, ed. Muhammet Nur Doğan, English trans. Michael D. Sheridan, 3rd ed., Istanbul: Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı, 2023, poem 79, pp. 551-552 (not in Millet 305; Jacob 1904, p. 4 (III)). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx
  • Georg Jacob (ed.), Der Divan Sultan Mehmeds des Zweiten, des Eroberers von Konstantinopel, zum ersten Male nach der Uppsalaer Handschrift, Berlin: Mayer & Müller, 1904, p. 4 (III, Arabic-script text and footnote). https://archive.org/details/derdivansultanm00jacogoog

Online sources