Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Pederim Ḥācī Simā‘īl Efendi merḥūm
İde Allāh te‘ālā aña çoḳ çoḳ raḥmet
On beşinci gecesi idi meh-i Şa‘bānıñ
Ḳamer-i ‘ömrine irişdi ḫusūf-ı temmet
Aña fetvā-yı berāt-ile virildi ya‘nī
Süd gibi ḥaḳḳı olup Kevs̱er-i bāġ-ı cennet
‘Aşere ile cināna ḳoy anı yā Allāh
Fedḫulī cennetī tārīḫ-i vefātı elbet (1198)

In English

1. My father, the late Hacı İsmâil Efendi; may God Most High grant him much, much mercy.

2. It was the fifteenth night of the month of Şaban; the eclipse of completion reached the moon of his life.

3. To him was given the fatwa of berât, that is, the Kevser of the garden of Paradise became his right, as lawful as mother's milk.

4. O God, place him in Paradise with the Ten (the ten Companions promised Paradise); "Fedḫulī cennetī" (Enter My Paradise) is surely the chronogram of his death.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Babaarslan records this poem as "chronogram for the death of his father Hacı İsmail Efendi (1198)"; the year 1198 corresponds to 1784. The four couplets are in the remel pattern "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The second lines rhyme on the "-et" of "raḥmet, temmet, cennet, elbet". 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. On the basis of the second and fourth couplets Babaarslan states that İsmâil Efendi died on 15 Şaban 1198 (4 July 1784).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most skilful passage is the third couplet. İsmâil Efendi died on the fifteenth night of Şaban, that is, on the Night of Berât. The poet joins this with his father's office: the father, who had been mufti of Amasya, was given "a fatwa of berât" on that night. "Berāt" means both the Night of Berât and a document confirming a right; the fatwa issued on the mufti's death night is the recognition of his right to enter Paradise. The phrase "süd gibi ḥaḳḳı" brings in the idiom "as lawful as mother's milk" and creates a congruence of images (tenasüp) with the waters of the river Kevser. In the second couplet life is compared to a moon and death to its eclipse; the fifteenth night is the night of the full moon, and the word "temmet" (it was completed) also recalls the full moon. This analysis is ours.

The chronogram in the last couplet holds a further detail. When the letters of "Fedḫulī cennetī" (Enter My Paradise, from the last verse of the sura al-Fajr), written "فادخلی جنتی", are added up they come to 725 and 463, that is 1188. The words "‘Aşere ile" (with the Ten) at the beginning of the line seem also to say that ten must be added to this total, which gives the year 1198. Carrying both the sense of "the ten Companions promised Paradise" and the signal "add ten", the phrase becomes a skilful example of the method of adjustment (tamiye) used in chronograms. This calculation and interpretation are ours.

Historical Context

According to Hüsameddin, Kara Müftî İsmâil Hâtif Efendi of Çorum was the first professor of the Sungurlu Madrasa; he became mufti of Amasya in 1184, was dismissed twice, and died on the fifteenth night of Şaban 1198 while serving as mufti for the third time, having been reappointed in Muharrem of that year. Hüsameddin describes him as skilled in jurisprudence and theology, versed in literature, a poet, and lists "es-Seyyid Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi" among his sons. Özçakmak relates, following Vâzıh's own account in the Belâbilü'r-Râsiye, that from an early age the son did clerical work at his father's side. According to the information Özçakmak gives, the father's grave is in the burial ground of the Alagöz Baba tomb in the Şamlar quarter. The chronogram the father wrote for Vâzıh's birth is Chronogram 1.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1922-1984 (text of the poem: p. 1981; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 75a-75b). 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). 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. 258-259.

Online sources