Kara Fazlî, Kıt'a 5: A Request to a Generous Shah

Kıt‘a (fragment) 5 — İy kerem-kānı mürüvvet ma‘deni luṭf issi şāh

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 07 October 2026 • 3 min reading

Kara Fazlî's incomplete two-couplet kıt'a asking bounty of a shah he calls a "mine of generosity", arguing that even if he is unworthy, his patron is worthy.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün

İy kerem-kānı mürüvvet ma‘deni luṭf issi şāh
Ben ḳuluñ yād eyle luṭf it şemme-i iḥsān ile

Yoġ-ise şānumda istiḥḳāḳ eger iḥsānuña
Ḥamdü-lillāh müsteḥaḳsın himmete sen şān ile

In English

1. O mine of generosity, source of magnanimity, shah full of grace, remember me, your servant, and be gracious with a little of your bounty.

2. Even if there is no merit in my state that earns your bounty, praise be to God, you, in your glory, are the one worthy of doing good.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kıt'a (fragment) of two couplets (beyit). The second lines have the redif (refrain word) "ile" (with), and the rhyme words are "iḥsān" and "şān"; Özkat counts this poem among the kıt'as with a single-word redif. The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" of the remel family. The pen name (mahlas) is not used. The kıt'a is found only in the Fazlî divan section of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library (fol. 230b). In a footnote Özkat records that "the poem is incomplete in the manuscript"; the two couplets we have may be what remains of a longer poem. To whom and when it was written is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The kıt'a is an open request for help and bounty. Özkat states that in this kıt'a Fazlî asks for help from a person he calls "shah", or from the beloved. The first line exalts the person addressed with three epithets: "kerem-kānı" (mine of generosity), "mürüvvet ma‘deni" (source of magnanimity) and "luṭf issi" (master of grace). The second couplet rests on a subtle piece of reasoning: the poet may not deserve bounty, but the patron is worthy of doing good, and so the request is still in place. "İstiḥḳāḳ" (earning a right) and "müsteḥaḳ" (deserving, worthy) come from the same root and bind the two sides of the couplet together. The word "şān" is also used in two different directions in the two lines: in the first it is the poet's state, in the second the patron's glory. The same address, "İy kerem-kānı mürüvvet ma‘deni", also stands at the head of the eighth kıt'a in the divan; this resemblance is our own observation.

Bibliography

Mustafa Özkat, Kara Fazlî'nin Hayatı, Eserleri, Edebî Kişiliği ve Dîvânı (İnceleme-Tenkitli Metin), MA thesis, Marmara University Institute of Turkic Studies, Istanbul 2005, p. 377, kıt'a no. 5 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 230b); also p. 65 (on the kıt'as) and p. 69 (redif), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources