Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḥażret-i Ḫaḳan-ı a‘ẓam pāk-şāh-ı her ṣunūf
Tāc-baḫşā-yı şehān Sulṭān Maḥmūdü’l-‘uṭūf
Ṭuydı Īrān şāhınıñ eṭvār-ı nā-ber-cāsını
Ġayẓ-ı keẓm-ālūdesi ile didi bir kerre uf
Ṣadr-ı sābıḳ bende-i ṣādıḳ Ra’ūf Paşasını
Gönderivirdi anıñ te’dībine sellü’s-süyūf
Dīn ü devlet mefḫarıdır ol vezīr-i kāmkār
Mecma‘-ı ‘aḳl-ı Arisṭū feyleḳūs-ı feylesof
Mū-be-mū aḥvāl-i dīn [ü] devlete ‘ālimdir ol
Ḥaḳ budur ḫalḳ olmamışdır böyle bir ṣāḥib-vuḳūf
Āfitāb-ı ‘izzete nūru’s-semavāt ḥürmeti
Vāżıḥā āmīn āmīn virmesün Rabbim küsūf
Sırr-ı el-ḥarbü’s-sicāli bilmez ol rūbāh-ı dīn
İbtidā’en çarḫaya gelmişse de kesru’ṣ-ṣufūf
Şübhesizce ḫud‘a-i ḥarbiyyedir vehm eyleyüp
Rezmgāha gelmedi bir dāḫi meydān pek maḫūf
Yapdı encām ol vezīr-i nā-medār ‘aḳl-ı küli
Bī-cidāl [ü] bī-ḳıtāl [ü] bī-curūb [u] bī-zuhūf
Ẕāt-ı Maḥmūdiyyeñi bildi tamām tārīḫdir
Oldı Īrān şāhı ıṣlāḥ ṣuçını geç yā Ra’ūf (1239)

In English

1. His majesty the exalted khan, pure padishah of every class of people, bestower of crowns on kings, Sultan Mahmud of abundant favours,

2. Heard of the unseemly conduct of the shah of Iran; swallowing his anger, he said "ugh" once.

3. He sent his faithful servant, his former grand vizier Rauf Paşa, with swords drawn, to bring him to his senses.

4. That fortunate vizier is the pride of faith and state; a gathering place of Aristotle's intellect, a philosopher.

5. He knows the affairs of faith and state hair by hair, to the finest detail; the truth is that no one so knowledgeable has been created.

6. O Vâzıh, amen, amen, for the sake of the Light of the heavens (God); may my Lord grant no eclipse to this sun of glory.

7. That fox of the faith does not know the secret that "war goes by turns", even if at first he came to skirmish and broke the ranks.

8. Taking it beyond doubt for a stratagem of war, he took fright; he never came to the battlefield again, the field (became) most fearful.

9. In the end that vizier, with universal intellect, settled the matter without dispute, without fighting, without wounds and without marching armies.

10. (The shah of Iran) fully recognised the person of Mahmud (the sultan's might); the chronogram is this: "The shah of Iran has mended his ways; forgive his fault, O Rauf."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a ten-couplet chronogram in the remel pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün", and all its couplets rhyme on "-ūf" ("ṣunūf, ‘uṭūf, uf, süyūf …"). Babaarslan records it as "chronogram for Sultan Mahmud's bringing the shah of Iran to order (1239)"; the year 1239 corresponds to 1823-24. 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 "اولدی ایران شاهی اصلاح صوچنی گچ یا رؤف", it gives "oldı" 51, "Īrān" 262, "şāhı" 316, "ıṣlāḥ" 130, "ṣuçını" 159, "geç" 23, "yā" 11 and "Ra'ūf" 286; the total is 1238. If the hamza in "Ra'ūf" is counted as 1, the total is exactly 1239. The calculation is ours; the chronogram matches the edition's year provided the hamza is counted.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem is like a shortened victory kaside (qasida): first the sultan is praised, then the vizier, and then the enemy's defeat and the peace are told. The shah of Iran is belittled as "rūbāh-ı dīn" (the fox of the faith). The saying "el-ḥarbü sicāl" (war goes by turns) appears in the seventh couplet and the phrase "ḫud‘a-i ḥarbiyye" (a stratagem of war) in the eighth; both rest on well-known Arabic sayings about war. In the ninth couplet four words built with the prefix "bī-" (without) are lined up one after another to tell how peace was achieved without war; this repetition stresses the ease of the outcome.

The last word of the chronogram line is a double entendre (tevriye). "Ra'ūf" is both the name of the vizier who made the peace and, as one of the names of God, means "the Most Compassionate". "Forgive his fault, O Rauf" can thus be read as an appeal both to the vizier and to mercy. The analysis is ours.

Historical Context

The poem deals with the end of the Ottoman-Iranian war that began in 1821. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, the Iranian crown prince Abbas Mirza crossed the border in the autumn of 1821, took Kars and Bayazıt and laid siege to Erzurum, but withdrew because of resistance and an epidemic; under the peace treaty concluded at Erzurum in 1823, Iranian forces were to withdraw from the lands they had occupied. The "former grand vizier Rauf Paşa" of the poem is Mehmed Emin Rauf Paşa, who had served as grand vizier in 1815-1818. According to Kemal Beydilli he was given the command of the East together with the governorship of Erzurum in 1821, was dismissed on account of the Iranian war, and took part as a delegate in the peace talks that began at the end of the war. Vâzıh's poem attributes the peace largely to Rauf Paşa's wisdom; the picture given by the sources is more complicated. The poem should be read as a document of praise reflecting the echo of these events in the provinces and loyalty to the sultan.

Bibliography

Academic studies

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