Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Manṣıb-ı ḥüsnin dirīġ eyler bu ben üftādeden
Dilberüm bī-raḥmrek olmış Mü’eyyed-zādeden

In English

1. My heart-ravisher withholds the office of her beauty from me, the fallen one; she has become more merciless than Müeyyedzâde. (In Âşık Çelebi's text "manṣıb-ı vaṣlın", the office of union, is read for "manṣıb-ı ḥüsnin". "Manṣıb" means both an office or post and the share of something granted.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Since its two lines rhyme ("üftādeden / zādeden"), the couplet is an opening couplet (matla). The rhyme is "-âde" and the redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-den". The metre is from the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre), "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". In Ahmet Kartal's edition it appears under the heading "Matla" as number LII. Âşık Çelebi gives the same couplet in the form "Manṣıb-ı vaṣlın dırīġ eyler bu ben üftādeden / Dil-berüm bī-raḥmrek olmış Mü’eyyed-zādeden"; in one manuscript of the anthology "ḥüsnin" is read for "vaṣlın", and in another "ḥüsnin" has been corrected to "vaṣlın". The text Kartal gives from the divan manuscript carries the reading "ḥüsnin". Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi also mentions the couplet together with the same incident.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is built like a love couplet, but its real target is a real person. In the first line what the beloved withholds from the lover is a "manṣıb", an office or post: the office of beauty or the office of union. In divan poetry the lover asks the beloved for favour, union or a glance; Basîrî expresses this in the language of a petition for office. In the second line comes an unexpected comparison: the beloved has become more merciless than Müeyyedzâde. Thus the name of a chief judge is set within divan poetry's formula of the "merciless beloved". The wit of the couplet arises from blending a refusal in real life with the cruelty of the beloved in love poetry. The fact that the word "manṣıb" can be used in the language of both love and state gives the couplet a double entendre (tevriye).

Historical Context

Âşık Çelebi tells the story of the couplet. When Basîrî first came, Müeyyedzâde was chief judge (kazasker); Basîrî asked him for an "‘askerī tevliyet", the trusteeship of an endowment attached to the military class. Hearing that Müeyyedzâde always said "şefḳat bir marażdur ol bizde yoḳdur", "compassion is a disease, we do not have it", Basîrî uttered this couplet. When Müeyyedzâde heard the couplet and paid it no heed, Basîrî wrote a Persian kıt‘a as well and put it under his cushion, and Müeyyedzâde read it. In this Persian kıt‘a the poet says that for one who has contentment the world is not worth a grain of barley, and that even if Müeyyedzâde does not give him an office, sustenance comes from God.

Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Efendi was a scholar and poet born in Amasya in 1456, who in his youth joined the circle of Prince Bayezid, then governor of Amasya. According to the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam he became chief judge of Anatolia in 907 (1501) and of Rumelia four years later. Ahmet Kartal, however, ties Basîrî's request to the time around 897 (1491) when he was briefly in Istanbul. According to the dates in the TDV entry, Müeyyedzâde was not yet chief judge in those years; Âşık Çelebi's statement that Müeyyedzâde was chief judge "evvel geldüginde", when Basîrî first came, therefore gives no definite date. The incident may also belong to the years after 1501. The couplet is also interesting for bringing together two names connected with Amasya: Müeyyedzâde, who came from Bayezid's circle in Amasya, and Basîrî, whom Hüseyin Hüsameddin counts a native of Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 180, entry on Basîrî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Aysun Sungurhan, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), pp. 235-236, entry on Basîrî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Abdizâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi 6-8. Cilt, ed. Songül Keçeci Kurt - Recep Orhan Özel - Metin Hakverdioğlu, Amasya: Amasya Belediyesi, 2022, pp. 418-419. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

Books

Online sources