Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün Mefā‘ilün Fe‘ilün

Buldı rif‘at sipihr-i ‘izzetde
Yine bir mihr-i müşterī fıṭnat
Oldı bir gevher-i girān-māye
Dürretü’t-tāc-ı devlet ü şevket
Ol seḫā’ ma‘deni kerem-kānı
Kim odur baḥr-i şefaḳat ü re’fet
Müstaḥiḳḳ-i sa‘ādet-i a‘ẓamī
Müsta‘idd-i celālet ü ‘aẓamet
Luṭf u cūd ile Ḥaydarī-meşreb
Ḥüsn ü ḫulḳ ile Aḥmedī-ḫaṣlet
Kim dürür dirseñ ol kerīmü’ş-şān
Ehl-i iḳbāl ü ṣāḥib-i devlet
Ḥażret-i muḥterem Sinān Beg kim
Odur iḳbāl ile felek-rütbet
Ṣol bölügüñ ‘ulūfecilerine
Kātib iken o ṣāḥib-i ḳudret
İrtifā‘ itdi iki üç pāye
İrişüp luṭf-ı ḥażret-i ‘izzet
Zümre-i evvele olup kātib
Ḳadr ile buldı rif‘at ol ḥażret
Didi tārīḫin işidüp Fażlī
Ebed olsun ziyāde zī-rif‘at (sene 954)

In English

1. In the sky of honour a sun whose intelligence shines like Jupiter has risen once more.

2. A precious jewel has appeared, the pearl of the crown of fortune and splendour.

3. He is the mine of generosity, the source of bounty, a sea of compassion and mercy.

4. He is worthy of the greatest felicity and disposed to eminence and majesty.

5. In kindness and generosity he has the temper of Ali, in beauty and character the nature of the Prophet.

6. If you ask who that generous man of lofty glory is: one of the fortunate and a man of standing,

7. The venerable Hazret Sinan Bey, whose rank through fortune is as high as the sky.

8. That man of power, while he was secretary to the salaried horsemen of the Left Division,

9. Rose two or three degrees when the grace of God reached him.

10. Becoming secretary to the Zümre-i evvel, his Excellency gained eminence through his worth.

11. Hearing of it, Fazlî spoke its chronogram: "May it be eternal and grow; what fine eminence" (954).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a chronogram (tarih manzumesi) of eleven couplets (beyit) and the longest of Fazlî's chronograms. The last line, "Ebed olsun ziyāde zī-rif‘at", gives the year of the event by the ebced system; according to Mustafa Özkat the date is 954 (1547), and like all the chronogram lines of the divan it is arranged by the "târih-i tam" method. The metre is the "fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün" pattern of the hafif family; the rhyme is the sound "-et": fıṭnat, şevket, re'fet, ‘aẓamet, ḫaṣlet, devlet and the same sound in the following couplets. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet.

Özkat publishes the poem as the fifth chronogram of the divan from the Fazlî divan section (fol. 229a) of a miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. The spelling in the manuscript of the word "a‘ẓamī" in the fourth couplet is shown separately in the edition. In the edition the Arabic-script form of the chronogram line is also given under the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem follows an arrangement often used in chronograms of divan poetry: first the person praised is extolled without being named, then his name is revealed with the question "Kimdür dirseñ", "if you ask who he is", then the event is related and the chronogram given. In the first five couplets Sinan Bey is likened to a sun rising in the sky of honour, to the pearl of the crown of fortune, to a mine of generosity and to a sea of compassion. A link is made between "rif‘at buldı" (rose) in the first couplet and "zī-rif‘at" (what fine eminence) in the last line; the word "rif‘at" is repeated in the tenth couplet too and stresses the rise in rank that is the poem's subject. The words "Ḥaydarī-meşreb" and "Aḥmedī-ḫaṣlet" in the fifth couplet are comparisons with the Prophet and Ali, frequent in Fazlî's praises.

The eighth, ninth and tenth couplets carry an unusually concrete piece of bureaucratic information for a poem: Sinan Bey, while secretary to the salaried horsemen of the Left Division, rose two or three degrees and became secretary to the "Zümre-i evvel", the First Company. An ulufeci is a soldier who receives the salary called ulufe.

Historical Context

According to Özkat, the poem was written in 954 (1547) on the appointment of Sinan Bey, secretary to the salaried horsemen of the Left Division, as secretary to the "Zümre-i evvel" after rising two or three grades. Özkat gives no further information on Sinan Bey, and no record of this man has been found in any other source in the course of this study. The poem does not state whether the appointment had any connection with Şehzade Mustafa's court. In 954 Fazlî was secretary in Mustafa's divan at Amasya; in the same year he also composed a chronogram for Ahmed Çelebi, who became defterdar of the timars of Rumelia. These two chronograms show that the poet followed closely the appointments among the men of the pen.

Bibliography

Online sources