Original Arabic Text
Metre: vâfir (mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün fe'ûlün); the metre has been identified by us from the text
The Arabic-script text in Kalaycı and Tan's article (footnote 187), as printed:
ورثنا المجد عن آباء صدق
اسائنا في ديارهم الصنيعا
اذا النسب المشرفة توارثته
بغاة السوء اذ شكر أن يضيعا
Reading in Latin script (the reading is ours):
Verisne'l-mecde 'an âbâ'i sıdkın
Esa'nâ fî diyârihimu's-sanî'â
İze'n-nesebu'l-müşerrefetu tevârasethû
Buġâtu's-sû'i iz şükrun en yedî'â
In English
1. We inherited glory from forefathers of truth; (but) what was done in their land wounded us.
2. When a noble lineage becomes the inheritance of the champions of evil, its passing away is cause for thanks.
The translation follows the Turkish version in the article: "Nobility was the inheritance left to us by the fathers of truth. [But] what happened in their land pained us. If the ringleaders of evil have become the heirs, the loss of this noble lineage is worthy of thanks." The second line of the first couplet can also be understood differently. If the printed word "اسائنا" is read "esa'nâ", the meaning becomes "we did evil deeds in their land", and the blame falls on the heirs themselves; the metre also suits this reading. The article's translation "pained us" seems to take the word as "sâ'enâ" (it grieved us). In the second couplet the words "المشرفة" and "اذ شكر" appear corrupt in print; the sense "worthy of thanks" is taken from the article's translation. The text has therefore been left as printed.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Where It Was Found and Its Attribution
These two couplets stand on a blank page of a book Emrullah Mehmed Efendi copied in his own hand, but they are not certainly his. The book is Mirzâ Mahdûm's en-Nevâkıd, a work written against the Safavid shahs and the Qizilbash. Emrullah Efendi copied it in 996 (1588) while judge of Baghdad and, within the following year, read it through and wrote notes in its margins, sometimes objections, sometimes explanations. The couplets are on the protective leaf (vikaye) of this manuscript. Mehmet Kalaycı and Muzaffer Tan say plainly that it is impossible to confirm that the piece belongs to Emrullah; there is no signature or note such as "li-muharririhî" (by its writer) beneath it. On the blank page of a manuscript its owner may write his own poem, or the lines of someone else that he read and liked. The poem appears on this page because it is one of the two pieces mentioned together with Emrullah's name.
Lineage and Inheritance
The subject of the couplets is the honour of lineage and what becomes of that honour in the hands of bad heirs. The first couplet opens with pride: glory has been inherited from forefathers "of truth". In the second line this pride turns to pain; what happened in the forefathers' land has wounded the heirs. The second couplet gives the verdict: if a noble lineage is to fall into the hands of the wicked, it is better that nothing of it remain. "Verisnâ" (we inherited) and "tevârasethû" (it inherited) come from the same root and bind the two couplets together; the first speaks of those who deserve the inheritance, the second of those who do not.
Historical Context
Kalaycı and Tan think the piece may be connected with something that occupied Emrullah Efendi during his Baghdad years. Less than a month after copying en-Nevâkıd, Emrullah went to Karbala and there carried out an inquiry concerning in particular the genealogy of Shah İsmail. The Safavid shahs traced their lineage to the Prophet's family (Ahl al-Bayt); Emrullah, too, came from a family of seyyids. The researchers write that the attempt to link Shah İsmail's lineage to the Prophet's family may for this reason have troubled him more than others, and that these couplets may have something to do with that unease. Read this way, the line "when a noble lineage becomes the inheritance of the wicked, its passing away is cause for thanks" becomes a harsh verdict aimed at a dynasty that claimed descent from the Prophet but did evil. This is an interpretation the article itself offers with caution; neither the Safavids nor Shah İsmail are named in the couplets.
Bibliography
- Mehmet Kalaycı, Muzaffer Tan, "Bir 16. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Aliminin Peşinde: Zeyrekzāde Emrullāh Meḥmed Efendi ve Otobiyografik Anlatıları", Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 62(1), 2021, pp. 72-73 and footnote 187 (Mirzā Maḫdūm, en-Nevāḳıḍ, f. IIIa). https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/auifd/article/865559
Online sources
