Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Sûfîlerin dileği mihrâb namaz
Er kişinin arzusı meydan olur

In English

1. The Sufis' wish is the prayer niche and prayer; but the true man's (the valiant man's) desire is the field (the field of battle).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is quoted in the section on literary and mystical personality in Hatice Tören's article "Kadı Burhâneddin" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. The article does not give the couplet's place in the divan and gives the text in a plain spelling that marks long vowels; that spelling has been kept here exactly. Since its lines do not rhyme with each other, it is not the opening couplet of a ghazal (gazel); whether it comes from a ghazal or from the last two lines of a tuyugh (tuyuğ) cannot be told from the source. The source does not give the metre. The poet's divan, its editions and his other poems are discussed in Kadı Burhaneddin: Literary Persona, Divan and Poems.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet sets two types of men and two places against each other. On one side is the "sûfî", the pious man who has withdrawn from the world, with his wish, the prayer niche and prayer; on the other is the "er kişi", the valiant man, with his desire, the field. The contrast between prayer niche and field carries the whole weight of the couplet, while the words prayer niche and prayer form a congruence of images (tenasüp) that call each other up. "Meydan" here means the field of battle, and also any place where the valiant man proves himself. Tören cites this couplet as an example of the warlike, bold and harsh bearing seen where Kadı Burhaneddin's life of struggle is reflected in his poetry.

The couplet could also be read as a word belittling the Sufis; but according to the same article Kadı Burhaneddin, though not a Sufi himself, was no stranger to mysticism. As related on the authority of the Bezm ü Rezm by his secretary Esterâbâdî, he said that after reading a copy of the Fusûs al-hikam written in Ibn Arabi's own hand his inner eye was opened, and he showed great respect to Sufis. In the light of this, the couplet may be understood less as a censure of the Sufis than as a word that sets two separate paths side by side and shows the poet's own place to be the field; this reading is our own interpretation. That a poet who was scholar, judge and sultan knew both the prayer niche and the field lends the contrast in the couplet an added weight.

Bibliography

Online sources