Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilün

Eyledi Ḥāfıẓ ‘Alemdār Ḥüseyin el-Ġāzī
Baş açıḳ yalın ayaḳ ‘azm-i reh-i dār-ı ḳarār
Rūḥına Fātiḥalar oḳuyalım merḥūmuñ
‘Afv ider cümle günāhını o Rabbü’l-ġaffār
Allāh Allāh diyerek söyledi Vāżıḥ tārīḫ
Ceng idüp cennete dek dikdi ‘alem bayraḳ-dār (1234)

In English

1. Hâfız Alemdar Hüseyin el-Gâzî set out, bareheaded and barefoot, on the road to the abode of permanence (the hereafter).

2. Let us recite the Fatiha for the soul of the departed; that Lord who forgives sins pardons all his sins.

3. Crying "Allah, Allah", Vâzıh gave the chronogram: "Fighting, the standard-bearer planted the banner all the way to Paradise."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Babaarslan records this poem as "chronogram for the death of Alemdar Hüseyin Gâzî (1234)"; the year 1234 corresponds to 1818-19. The three couplets are in the remel pattern "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The second lines rhyme on the "-ār" of "ḳarār, ġaffār, bayraḳ-dār"; the first lines are free. 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. The date is given by the last line, "Ceng idüp cennete dek dikdi ‘alem bayraḳ-dār".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem starts from the dead man's title. "Alemdar" means standard-bearer; in the last couplet the title becomes a battle scene: the standard-bearer has fought his way and planted the banner all the way to Paradise. There is a clear congruence of images (tenasüp) among "‘alemdār (standard-bearer), ġāzī (warrior for the faith), ceng (battle), ‘alem (banner), bayraḳ-dār (flag-bearer)". "Crying Allah, Allah" refers both to a prayer said on beginning the chronogram and to the battle cry "Allah, Allah" raised on the field; this double reading is our observation. "Bareheaded and barefoot" in the first couplet describes the dead man walking into the hereafter with a dervish's humility, taking nothing from the world. The word "Hâfız" before his name shows that he knew the Qur'an by heart.

Historical Context

The poem does not explain who Hâfız Alemdar Hüseyin el-Gâzî was. The epithet "Gâzî" suggests that he took part in a war, and the title "Alemdar" that he served as standard-bearer of a military unit. Hüsameddin's work mentions a Topçuoğlu Alemdar Hüseyin Ağa who was executed in Amasya in 1241, when the Janissary corps was abolished; but this man died seven years after Vâzıh's chronogram and is not the same person. Since the poems in Vâzıh's chronogram section are not arranged in order of date, the poem's position offers no clue either.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources