Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Zihī merāsim-i cūduñ mürebbi-yi fużalā
Levāyıḥ-ı himemüñ old-ı feyż-i ehl-i ḥużūr

In English

1. How excellent: the customs of your generosity are the nurturer of the learned and virtuous; the gleams of your lofty endeavours have become the bounty of those in your presence. ("Ehl-i huzur" may denote both those admitted to the ruler's presence and those who have attained peace of heart. In Sehî Bey's text the second line means "the gleams of your endeavours bestow bounty on the people of presence".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Since the couplet is quoted on its own, it is given as a müfred (single couplet); but its real place is a kaside (qasida). The metre is the müctes family of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün"; the tezkires do not state the metre, which emerges from scansion. The word "ḥużūr" at the end of the second line points to the "-ūr" rhyme of the qasida. The couplet is not among the Turkish poems in the divan manuscript. Ahmet Kartal gives it under the heading "Basîrî'nin Diğer Şiirleri" (Basîrî's other poems), relying on Mustafa İsen's edition of the Künhü'l-ahbâr. The typesetting "old-ı" in Kartal's printing has been left as it is in the text; the reading in the Künhü'l-ahbâr is "oldı".

The authorship of the couplet is disputed. Gelibolulu Âlî, in the Basîrî entry of the Künhü'l-ahbâr, quotes this couplet among Basîrî's poems with the words "Ve lehū", "and this too is his". In Sehî Bey's Heşt Bihişt, however, the same couplet, in the form "Zihī merāsim-i cūduñ mürebbiyü'l-fużalā / Levāyıḥ-ı himemüñ feyż-baḫş-ı ehl-i ḥużūr", stands among the couplets of a qasida by Mevlânâ Emîrî praising Bayezid II. Sehî gives the couplet inside a named qasida, together with the couplets before and after it; Âlî quotes it on its own. For this reason Emîrî's authorship is a strong possibility, but no definite judgement can be made.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet carries the language of praise of the qasida tradition. It opens with the exclamation "zihī", "how excellent, well done", and lists two qualities of the person praised: his generosity and his lofty resolve. Generosity is described as a "mürebbî", a nurturer, one who raises and trains the learned and the virtuous. Resolve sheds "levâyih", gleams, rays, and these rays become bounty for those in the presence. The paired use of "merâsim" (customs, usages) and "levâyih" (gleams) builds the two lines as two matching halves. The reading in Sehî, "mürebbiyü'l-fuzalâ" and "feyz-bahş-ı ehl-i huzûr", uses a more ornate language of Arabic and Persian compounds.

Historical Context

According to Sehî Bey, Mevlânâ Emîrî was a scholar whose real name was Seyyid Mahmud, who served as nakîbüleşraf (head of the Prophet's descendants) under Bayezid II and Selim I and died in the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent. Sehî writes that he was the son of Sultan Bayezid's tutor, that he chose the path of asceticism and piety, and that he was considered a man whose prayers were answered. The qasida in which the couplet stands was, according to Sehî, written "in praise of Sultan Bayezid in the manner of admonition" and compares two Bayezids, the Sultan and the mystic Bâyezîd-i Bistâmî. In this context the addressee of the praise in the couplet is Bayezid II. If the couplet is Basîrî's, it too must come from a qasida he presented to a sultan or a statesman; it is known that Basîrî presented qasidas to the sultan and to the notables of the age and received rewards for them.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî, Künhü'l-ahbâr'ın Tezkire Kısmı, ed. Mustafa İsen, Ankara: Atatürk Kültür Merkezi, 1994, pp. 152-153, entry on Basîrî.

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 Mevlânâ Emîrî, pp. 64-65. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Books

Online sources