The guest welcomed in this safalama by Âşık Kul Cemal is a spiritual master, and his road leads to Hacı Bektaş. Delikli Taş (the Pierced Stone), Aslanlı Çeşme (the Lion Fountain), the retreat cell and Hacı Bektaş are named one after another in the second stanza, while the refrain returns each time as "Tabibim sultanım sefa geldiniz", welcome, my physician, my sultan. Words and melody alike are Kul Cemal's. The collectors took the work from the âşık's own voice in Merzifon and filed it under no. 2087; TRT's catalogues have no counterpart to it.

Catalogue Data

  • Archive no.: Repertükül Archive 2087; not a TRT number
  • Region: Amasya, Merzifon
  • Genre: deyiş, subtitled "Safalama" on the score
  • Words and music: Âşık Kul Cemal
  • Source performer: not written separately; recorded from the composer
  • Collected and transcribed by: Erkan Demirtaş, Berkay Gençer
  • Date of collection: not on the score; the collection was made under the CultureCIVIC Culture and Arts Support Programme, which began in 2021
  • Mode: Hüseyni scale; final and closing note La
  • Metre: 4/4
  • Source link: as the work has no TRT counterpart, Repertükül Archive 2087

Lyrics

The opening stanza grows to five lines with the refrain, and only its first four are given here. Kul Cemal, whose recording was taken from his own performance, is a contemporary âşık, so the copyright in the words is his; the full three-stanza text is on the score.

Ehlibeyt soyundan Ali yolundan
Hünkârım sultanım sefa geldiniz
Himmetini eksik etme kulundan
Hamdullah efendim sefa geldiniz

The guest is a "hünkâr", a master descended from the Prophet's family who follows the path of Ali; the âşık asks him not to withhold his himmet, his spiritual aid. The fifth line added to each stanza, "Tabibim sultanım sefa geldiniz", greets the master as a physician who heals sorrows. In the last stanza the âşık says he received his pen name from his master and that his lamp is lit; with the words "Nur Cemali" he places his own name in the master's mouth. What the song depicts is a scene of authorisation, the giving of a pen name.

Story

Kul Cemal says he received his pen name from a master, but who that master was and when the authorisation was given cannot be drawn from the words. The collection note does not fill the gap, and no published record describes the giving of the name.

Musical Features

The melody uses a range of seven notes from La to Sol, which makes it clearly wider than the other safalama in the same archive, Veli Saimi's four-note "Amasya İli'nde Merzifon Şehri'nde". Hüseyni supplies the scale; the lower limit rests on the final La, the highest note is Sol, and the tune ends again on La. The metre is written as 4/4. The five-line stanzas are formed by adding the refrain to the end of a four-line pattern.

Performers and Recordings

The known performance is the one Kul Cemal sang for the collectors. The same archive holds another deyiş by him, no. 2093, "Kaşlarında Mim-i Vafi Yazılı". No record or broadcast of it is known. A broad picture of the song tradition of which the safalama is one link is what The Melody of Yeşilırmak sets out to give.

Bibliography

Online sources