Original Arabic Text

فريد المعصر وحيد المعهد
شريف و مظهر بكل المحامد
و اعطى اليه الله فى سلخ ذى الحجج
و ليد ذكور كالبدور الموقّد
الهى طول عمره بالا ماجد
بحرمة جاه المصطفى والحفائد
فقال لميلاده تاريخ واضح
و اشرف التحايا على محمّد (1240)

Ferīdü’l-ma‘ṣari vaḥīdü’l-ma‘hedi
Şerīfun ve maẓharun bi-külli’l-maḥāmidi
Ve a‘ṭā ileyhi’llāhu fī selḫi ẕi’l-ḥicec
Velīden ẕükūran ke’l-büdūri’l-müveḳḳadi
İlāhī ṭavvil ‘umrahu bi-ālā’i mācidin
Bi-ḥurmeti cāhi’l-Muṣṭafā ve’l-ḥafā’idi
Fe-ḳāle li-mīlādihi tārīḫu Vāżıḥin
Ve eşrefu’t-teḥāyā ‘alā Muḥammedi

In English

1. (He is) the unique one of his age, the singular one of his circle; noble (Şerîf) and the manifestation (Mazhar) of all praiseworthy qualities.

2. God gave him, on the last day of Dhu'l-Hijja, a male child like shining full moons.

3. My God, lengthen his life with the bounties of a generous one (?); for the sake of the rank of Mustafa (the Prophet) and his grandsons.

4. (Vâzıh) spoke a clear chronogram for his birth: "The noblest of greetings be upon Muhammad."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

According to Babaarslan, this four-couplet Arabic poem is an "Arabic chronogram for the birth of someone named Muhammed Alî (1240)"; Özçakmak also refers to it as "a 4-couplet Arabic poem dated 1240 said for the birth of someone named Muhammed Ali". The year 1240 corresponds to 1824-25. The edition gives the poem in Arabic script without a reading or a translation; because the letters in the text extraction were corrupted, we read the poem from the edition's PDF page as an image. The Latin-script reading and the English rendering are ours. The reading of the phrase "بالا ماجد" in the third couplet is doubtful; we have understood it as "bi-ālā'i mācid" (with the bounties of a generous one). The word "المعصر" in the first couplet is also written thus in the edition; in sense, "age" appears to be meant. Babaarslan does not give the poem's metre; the second lines of the couplets rhyme on the letter dāl (d) ("maḥāmid, müveḳḳad, ḥafā'id, Muḥammed").

A chronogram (tarih) gives the year of an event through a phrase or line whose letters, added up by their numerical values (the ebced system), yield that year; here the chronogram is the whole of the last line. In the line "و اشرف التحايا على محمد", "ve" gives 6, "eşref" 581, "et-teḥāyā" 451, "‘alā" 110 and "Muḥammed" 92; the total is exactly 1240. If the opening conjunction "ve" (and) is not counted, the total stops at 1234; the chronogram works only when the whole line is counted. The calculation is ours.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most striking feature of the poem is its play on names. The phrase "tārīḫu Vāżıḥin" in the last couplet means both "a clear chronogram" and "the chronogram of Vâzıh"; the poet has hidden his pen name inside an Arabic adjective. The words "على محمد" (‘alā Muḥammed, upon Muhammad) at the end of the chronogram line, written side by side in Arabic script, can also be read as "Ali Muhammed"; thus the prayer of greeting to the Prophet also carries the child's name, Muhammed Ali. The words "şerîf" (noble) and "mazhar" (manifestation) in the first couplet also look like ordinary epithets of praise; but Vâzıh's friend Mazhar Efendi was known as "Şerîf Bey" and his pen name was Mazhar. The use of these two words side by side suggests that the father being praised was Mazhar Efendi. These readings are ours.

Historical Context

If the reading that the father was Mazhar Efendi is correct, the poem is a kind of return gift. Mazhar Efendi had sent two chronograms for the birth of Vâzıh's son Ni'metullah in 1237 (Chronograms 8 and 9), and one in Cemâziyelâhir 1240 for the birth of his second son, Ahmed Tayyib (Chronogram 10). When a son was born to Mazhar on the last day of the same year, Vâzıh's answering with an Arabic chronogram would be a natural continuation of this friendship. In the Dîvânçe this poem is immediately followed by a single-couplet Turkish chronogram for the birth of the same child (Chronogram 18). Babaarslan and Özçakmak do not name the child's father; the link with Mazhar Efendi is our inference.

Bibliography

Academic studies

  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1922-1984 (text of the poem: p. 1979; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 74b). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264
  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1924-1930 (life and description of the Dîvânçe; chronograms: pp. 1929-1930). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264
  • Fatma Özçakmak, "Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi ve Dîvânçe'si", Kesit Akademi Dergisi, 7(26), 2021, pp. 255-278, pp. 262 and 275.

Online sources