Each of the six stanzas gives the besmele, the formula "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful", a new name: a great meaning that strengthens faith, a light that never goes out, a rose that never fades, the key to paradise, the head of the suras, the mirror of hearts. This hymn in the Uşşak mode passed onto paper from the memory of Hacı Asiye Akbaş, the much sought-after reciter at the mevlid and mukabele gatherings of Amasya. The article Fatih Koca published in 2015 lists eleven pieces collected from Akbaş, and "Besmele" is the second name on that list. In the top left corner of the score a single word stands for both words and music: anonymous.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; the piece does not appear in the TRT Turkish folk music repertoire under the Amasya region
  • Genre: ilahi, a religious hymn (score title "Uşşak İlahi - Besmele")
  • Region: Amasya (city centre)
  • Source person: Hacı Asiye Akbaş (born 1951 in Çiviköyü, in the Gediksaray sub-district then attached to Göynücek; a mevlid reciter); her elder sister Ayşe Candaş joined her in the performance
  • Collected by: Osman Akbaş and Fatih Koca (as given at the head of the score)
  • Transcribed by: the ney player Eren Köksal, who revised the collection
  • Place and date of collection: Amasya; the article gives no date, but Koca's interview with Akbaş is dated to the Ramadan Bayram of 2013
  • Makam (mode): Uşşak
  • Metre and tempo: 4/4, crotchet = 70
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • Source publication: Fatih Koca, Rast Müzikoloji Dergisi 3(2), 2015; list of pieces p. 937, score p. 940
  • Where the recording is: not stated in the article
  • Source link: online text of the article; there is no TRT link

Lyrics

The words printed below the score form three blocks in two columns. Each block is given here with its left column first and then its right; spelling and capitalisation are as printed.

Besmele büyük mana
Kuvvet veriri imana
Hiç sönmeyen bir nurdur
uygundur her zamana
hiç solmayan bir güldür
uygundur her zamana
Cennetin anahtarı
Anınla söner narı
Gördüm akar önümden
Bal süt kevser ırmağı
Gördüm akar önümden
Bal süt kevser ırmağı
Besmelesiz iş sakat
Besmele bir hakikat
Kalbimizin başıdır
ayetin nakışıdır
Surelerin başıdır
ayetin nakışıdır
Dertlerin devasıdır
Kalplerin aynasıdır
Görünür Allah ordan
Ruhların gıdasıdır
Görünür Allah ordan
Ruhların gıdasıdır
Besmelede hikmet var
Çek Allahına yalvar
Ne muhteşem bir kelam
Unutturmasın mevlam
Ne muhteşem bir kelam
Unutturmasın mevlam
Mümin çek besmeleyi
O halleder herşeyi
Yanık sesinle oku
Seherlerde sureyi
Yanık sesinle oku
Seherlerde sureyi

Set against the syllables written under the stave, the "veriri" of the second line looks like a typesetting slip: the score divides it as "Kuv-vet ve-rir i-ma-na", so the words actually sung are "Kuvvet verir imana". In English the hymn says: the besmele is a great meaning and gives strength to faith; it is a light that never goes out, a rose that never fades, fitting for every age. It is the key to paradise, and by its mention the fire (nar) of hell is put out; the singer has seen the rivers of honey, milk and Kevser, the river of paradise, flowing before him. Work begun without the besmele stays flawed. The besmele is the remedy for troubles and the mirror of hearts; God is seen through it, and souls are fed by it. In the last stanza the words turn to the listener: believer, say the besmele, for it sets every matter right; recite the sura at dawn in your fervent voice.

The build of the stanzas also gives away the form of the tune. The third and fourth lines of every stanza come back as the fifth and sixth, either unchanged or with one word altered; in the first stanza "Hiç sönmeyen bir nurdur" (a light that never goes out) returns as "hiç solmayan bir güldür" (a rose that never fades). In the score, too, these two lines are written one under the other beneath the second section.

Story

Who composed the hymn, and when, is unknown, and no printed account of its origin exists. What is documented is the path the piece took to Akbaş and from her to paper. According to what she told Koca, Akbaş had lived in Amasya since the age of three, when her mother sold the village house and moved to the Üçler quarter; during one summer holiday of primary school she boarded at the house of the village hoca Şakir Efendi and learned the Qur'an, and she committed Süleyman Çelebi's mevlid, Vesîletü'n-Necât, to memory in Ottoman script from an old woman of the Bulgarian immigrants in her quarter, known as "Muhacir Nene". She says she kept the hymns she sang at mevlid gatherings in her memory without writing them down. "Besmele" came from that memory too: it was recorded in Akbaş's own voice during Koca's interview and then put into notation after revision by Eren Köksal.

Musical Features

It is a 4/4 melody at a slow tempo, with the crotchet marked at 70 beats a minute. The score is built in two sections. The first four bars carry the lines "Besmele büyük mana / Kuvvet verir imana" and are sung twice under a repeat sign. The second section opens in bar five by climbing into the upper register; first and second endings are written out separately, and the two repeated lines of the stanza are shared between those two passes. The melody comes to rest on La; the segno sign at the end of the score shows that the later stanzas are sung to the same tune by returning to the beginning. The score uses the notes from low Sol to the Sol an octave above.

Performers and Recordings

Asiye Akbaş sang the hymn for the collection together with her elder sister, Hacı Ayşe Candaş; these two sisters are the only performers the article names. Akbaş also helped correct the hymns collected from the region for the album İlahi Anadolu: Amasya İlahileri published by Amasya Municipality, but whether "Besmele" is sung on that album cannot be said without seeing its list of pieces. Nor does the article say where the sound recording of Koca's collection is kept. The folk song, long song and hymn tradition of Amasya as a whole is the subject of The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources