Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilün

Ḥażret-i el-Ḥāc Aḥmed Begefendi-i kerīm
İbni el-Ḥāc ‘Alī Paşa-yı ṣāḥib-cerbeze
İtdi bugünlerde sūr-ı pür-sürūr-ı izdivāc
Ḳoymadı ḥācet gice şenligi ay u yıldıza
Ḥaḳ mübārek eylesün Vāżıḥ didi tārīḫini
Geldi Aḥmed ḳoynına şaḳḳu’l-ḳamer bā-mu‘cize (1239)

In English

1. His excellency the generous Hacı Ahmed Beyefendi, son of the shrewd and capable Hacı Ali Paşa,

2. Has in these days held his joyful wedding feast; the night's festivities (were so bright that they) left no need of moon or stars.

3. Saying "May God bless it", Vâzıh spoke its chronogram: "The moon came into Ahmed's embrace with the miracle of the splitting of the moon."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a three-couplet wedding chronogram in the remel pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". Babaarslan records it as "chronogram for the wedding and marriage of El-Hâc Ahmed Begefendi (1239)"; the year 1239 corresponds to 1823-24. The rhyme is the sound "-ze" in "cerbeze, yıldıza, mu‘cize". 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.

Written as "گلدی احمد قوینه شق القمر با معجزه", it gives "geldi" 64, "Aḥmed" 53, "ḳoynına" 171, "şaḳḳu'l-ḳamer" 771, "bā" 3 and "mu‘cize" 125; the total is 1187. If "ḳoynına" is spelled "قوینینه" the total rises to 1247, and if spelled "قویننه" to 1237. None of the spellings we tried gives the edition's 1239. Without seeing the manuscript it cannot be said whether the difference arises from spelling or from the reading. The calculation is ours; the chronogram could not be verified.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The point of the poem rests on the bridegroom's name, Ahmed. Ahmed is one of the names of the Prophet, and şakk-ı kamer, the splitting of the moon, is counted among the Prophet's miracles on the basis of the first verse of the sura al-Qamar. Since in divan poetry a beautiful face is likened to the moon, the bride too is conceived as "the moon": the moon's coming into Ahmed's embrace is the bride's union with the groom. The poet thus describes a wedding through an allusion (telmih) to the Prophet's miracle. In the second couplet the festivities leaving no need of moon or stars at night is a hyperbole describing the brightness of the wedding lights; the words moon and star also create a congruence (tenasüp) with "ḳamer" (moon) in the last couplet. This analysis is ours.

Historical Context

Who the bridegroom Hacı Ahmed Bey and his father, the "sâhib-cerbeze" (shrewd and capable) Hacı Ali Paşa, were cannot be learned from the poem or the edition. Many persons named Ali Paşa appear in Hüsameddin's records of Amasya, but we found no record that could be linked to a son who married in 1239.

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, p. 275.

Online sources