Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dâr-ı İslâmı münevver kıldı envâr-ı gazâ
Âlemi kılmış mu’attar bûy-i gülzâr-ı gazâ
Nutka gelse zerreler şerh eylemez fazlın şehâ
Defter ü evrâka sığmaz fasl-ı güftâr-ı gazâ
Gicesi efdal Kadrden didi çün hayru’l-beşer
Rükn-i İslâmdur didi hem ümmete kâr-ı gazâ
Ehlini Kur’ânda Hak ta’zîm u tafdîl eyledi
Dâimâ meftûh ola Yâ Rab esfâr-i gazâ
San’atüm dedi gazâya Fahr-i âlem Hubbiyâ
Dâimâ meftûh ola gâzîlere kâr-ı gazâ

In English

1. The lights of holy war have illumined the abode of Islam; the scent of the rose garden of holy war has perfumed the whole world.

2. O king, even if the motes of dust gained speech they could not set forth its merit; the chapters of discourse on holy war will not fit into ledgers and pages.

3. The best of mankind, the Prophet, said that its night is more excellent than the Night of Power; he also said that the work of holy war is a pillar of Islam for the community. (The couplet points to hadiths on the merit of jihad and of keeping watch on the frontier.)

4. In the Qur'an God exalted and preferred the people of holy war; O Lord, may the campaigns of holy war ever open in victory.

5. O Hubbî, the Pride of the World, the Prophet, called holy war "my craft"; may the work of holy war ever stand open to the warriors.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets in the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "gazâ", holy war, and the rhyme is the sound "-âr": envâr, gülzâr, güftâr, kâr, esfâr. The word "kâr" is used twice as a rhyme, in the third couplet and in the closing couplet. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Hubbiyâ". The ghazal is found in Hubbî's work İmâdü'l-cihâd. The text is the transcription given by Mücahit Kaçar in his 2018 paper from the manuscript of the work in the National Library in Ankara (Yazma Eserler A 3987, fol. 19a). Kaçar's transcription marks long vowels with a circumflex.

Kaçar states that the same ghazal is also found in the Paris manuscript of the work in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, but that there the number of couplets, some words and the order of the couplets differ and the pen name is absent. In the Paris manuscript the first line of the second couplet ends "fazlın anun", the third couplet is missing and another couplet beginning "Himmet-i merdânla menşûr ola allâm-ı dîn" stands in its place; the closing couplet reads "Fahr-i âlem san'atüm dedi gazâdur dünyede / Haşre dek gâzîlere meydândadur dâr-ı gazâ". Kaçar considers the National Library manuscript a draft of the work and the Paris manuscript its expanded version. In the National Library text the second lines of the fourth and closing couplets are almost identical.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is perhaps the clearest example of the poetry of Hubbî that the sources call "merdâne", manly. In divan poetry the ghazal mostly speaks of love, the beloved and wine; in this ghazal the subject is gazâ, war waged in the name of Islam. The poet carries the familiar language of the ghazal over to this new subject: holy war is a rose garden whose scent fills the world, and its lights illumine the abode of Islam. The use of images familiar from love poetry, light, scent and rose garden, to express the merit of war gives the ghazal a tone of its own.

In the second couplet the boundlessness of the merit of holy war is expressed through hyperbole: even if the motes of dust gained speech they could not express it, and it will not fit into ledgers and pages. The words "defter", "evrâk", "fasl" and "güftâr", chosen from the field of writing and speech, create a congruence of images (tenasüp). The third and fifth couplets allude to sayings attributed to the Prophet: that the night of holy war is more excellent than the Night of Power, that holy war is counted one of the pillars of Islam, and that the Prophet called holy war his own "craft". Since the first section of İmâdü'l-cihâd gathers forty hadiths on jihad, these couplets are directly connected with the subject of the work. The fourth couplet recalls that the Qur'an exalted the people of holy war and prays that its campaigns may always end in victory. The repetition of the word "meftûh" (opened, conquered) in two couplets reinforces the prayerful mood of the ghazal.

Historical Context

The sources do not mention İmâdü'l-cihâd as a work of Hubbî; Müjgân Cunbur first introduced it at the Ninth Turkish Historical Congress in 1981 and suggested that it might belong to Hubbî. Mücahit Kaçar, noting that the pen name Hubbî appears at the end of the poems in both manuscripts of the work, argues that the attribution is certain. At the end of the National Library manuscript the translator says that, on a campaign, hoping to win the blessing of some of the warriors, he translated this treatise from Arabic into Turkish in three days from the Kitâb-ı Cihâd of İmâm Dımışkî, and then presents ghazals under the heading "Der medḥ-i ġazā" (in praise of holy war). On the basis of the phrase "Hân Selîm devri", the age of Khan Selim, in a couplet of the Paris manuscript, Kaçar thinks the work was written in the reign of Selim II (1566-1574). Since Hubbî is known to have been in Selim II's close circle, it is possible that these poems on holy war were written in a setting connected with the campaigns of his reign; but the sources do not say which campaign is meant.

Bibliography

Academic studies

  • Mücahit Kaçar, "Hubbî Hatun'un İmâdü'l-Cihâd İsimli Eseri", Uluslararası Amasya Şairleri Bilim Şöleni Bildiriler Kitabı, ed. M. Fatih Köksal - Sibel Murad - Mevlüt İlhan, Amasya 2018, pp. 167-175 (ghazal: p. 173), https://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/G00431/2018/2018_KACARM.pdf.
  • Müjgân Cunbur, "İmâdü'l-Cihâd ve XVI. Yüzyıl Kadın Şairlerinden Ayşe Hubbî Kadın", IX. Türk Tarih Kongresi Bildiriler, vol. II, Ankara 1988, pp. 901-913 (as reported by Kaçar and the TDV entry).
  • Mustafa İsmet Uzun, "Hubbî Hatun", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 18, Istanbul 1998, pp. 265-266, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/hubbi-hatun.

Online sources