Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Çün gazâdur fahr-i Âlem san’ati
San’atine eyle dilden rağbeti
İşret-i dünyâya rağbet eyleme
Hak yolunda fırsatun fevt eyleme
Nakşına dil bağlamaz dânâ olan
Dil virür mihrine nâ-bînâ olan

In English

1. Since holy war is the craft of the Pride of the World, the Prophet, devote yourself with all your heart to his craft.

2. Do not long for the pleasures of the world; do not let slip your chance on the path of God.

3. The wise do not bind their hearts to the world's painted show; it is the blind who give their hearts to its love. (The world is likened to an ornate painting that deceives people; whoever is taken in by it is one who cannot see the truth.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

These three couplets form a short mesnevi (poem in rhyming couplets) in Hubbî's work İmâdü'l-cihâd. Mücahit Kaçar, noting that short mesnevis are sometimes included in the work, cites this passage as "a three-couplet mesnevi on fol. 11b"; he does not state clearly to which manuscript the folio number belongs. Each couplet rhymes within itself: ṣan‘ati / raġbeti, eyleme / eyleme, dânâ olan / nâ-bînâ olan. In the second couplet the word "eyleme" is repeated in both lines as the redif (refrain word); the rhyme lies in the words "raġbet / fevt". The metre is from the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre), "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün"; this pattern is much used in didactic mesnevis, above all in Rumi's Mesnevî. The text is given in Kaçar's transcription.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In İmâdü'l-cihâd the subject of each section is summarised in verse at its end under the heading "Nazm", followed by a ghazal or a mesnevi. This passage must be such a summary poem. The first couplet repeats an idea that also appears in the closing couplet of the holy-war ghazal in the same work: the Prophet called holy war his own "craft"; the believer should therefore devote himself wholeheartedly to that craft. The repetition of the word "ṣan‘at" in both lines dwells on this idea.

The second and third couplets extend the counsel. The pleasure of the world is set against the path of God; to long for the world is to let slip the chance on the path of God. In the third couplet an antithesis (tezat) is drawn between the wise and the blind. The world is a "nakş", an ornate painting; the wise do not bind their hearts to it, while those who give their hearts to its love are people who cannot see. The use of the word "dil" in the sense of heart in both lines, and the meeting of "dânâ" (wise) and "nâ-bînâ" (blind) in the rhyme, form the plain but balanced structure of the couplet. This idea of the world as a deceptive painting appears again in the couplet "Var iken Nakkâş Hubbî nakşa meyl itmek neden" in the same work.

Historical Context

İmâdü'l-cihâd is a work made up of verses of the Qur'an, hadiths and stories on the merits of jihad, the conduct of war and the states of the warriors. As Kaçar reports, a couplet in the Paris manuscript of the work contains the phrase "Hân Selîm devri", the age of Khan Selim; on this basis Kaçar thinks the work was written in the reign of Selim II (1566-1574). This short mesnevi must have been written in the same period, together with the work as a whole.

Bibliography

  • 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 (mesnevi: p. 173), https://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/G00431/2018/2018_KACARM.pdf.
  • Mustafa İsmet Uzun, "Hubbî Hatun", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 18, Istanbul 1998, pp. 265-266. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr

Online sources