Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dāver-i rūy-ı zemīn Ḥażret-i Sulṭān Maḥmūd
Yeñçeri nāmını ḳaldırdı cihāndan yek-ser
Cümleten seyf-i şerī‘atle cezāsın buldı
Dindi tārīḫ-i tamāmına ġazā-yı ekber (1241)

In English

1. The ruler of the face of the earth, His Majesty Sultan Mahmud, removed the name of the Janissary from the world altogether.

2. All of them met their punishment by the sword of the Sharia; for its complete chronogram it was said: "ġazā-yı ekber" (the greatest holy war).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Babaarslan records this poem as "chronogram for Sultan Mahmud's abolition of the Janissary corps (1241)"; the year 1241 corresponds to 1826. The two couplets are in the remel pattern "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The rhyme falls between "yek-ser" and "ekber". Babaarslan notes that "Yeñçeri" in the first couplet is read thus instead of "Yeñiçeri" for the sake of the metre. 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 phrase "ġazā-yı ekber" at the end of the last line. Written "غزای اکبر", the letters of the two words add up to 1018 and 223, exactly 1241; the calculation is ours.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem describes Mahmud II's abolition of the Janissary corps in 1826 in the official language of the state. The sultan is called "dāver-i rūy-ı zemīn", ruler of the face of the earth; the Janissaries' punishment is ascribed to "the sword of the Sharia", and the event is described as "the greatest holy war". By applying a concept of religious war to an internal affair of the state, the phrase "ġazā-yı ekber" stresses the legitimacy of the event. The chronogram is also said to be "complete", that is, it comes out without any adjustment. The poem expresses neither joy nor complaint; it only records and judges the event.

Historical Context

This chronogram is also tied to Vâzıh's life. According to Hüsameddin, in 1232 (1817) a clash broke out in Amasya between the Janissaries and the madrasa students, and some scholars said to have been involved were sent to Limnos in 1233; Hüsameddin writes that the Qur'an commentator İsmâil Efendi of Merzifon was sent to Limnos "together with Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi". Babaarslan and Özçakmak, on the other hand, relate that Vâzıh was sentenced to exile on Limnos but that, because of his age and illness, his place of exile was changed to Tokat. Vâzıh told the story of this exile in his narrative poem Belâ-yı Vâzıh ve Safâ-yı Lâyıh, where he complains of men who incited the townspeople to rebel "against Sultan Mahmud". Considering that the clash with the Janissaries had led to his own exile, writing a chronogram for the abolition of the corps may have held a personal meaning for the poet; this is an interpretation.

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. 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. 260-262.

Online sources