Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün / mefā‘īlün / mefā‘īlün / mefā‘īlün

Şikār-bāz ṭab‘-ı Vāżıḥ avladı murġ[ān]-ı tārīḫi
Hümā-āsā vezāret tünedi Maḥmūd Ṭayyāra (1215)

In English

1. The falconer nature of Vâzıh hunted the birds of the chronogram: like the Hümâ bird, the vizierate perched upon Mahmûd Tayyâr.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a one-couplet chronogram of congratulation in the hezec pattern "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün". Babaarslan records it as "chronogram for the vizierate of Mahmud Tayyar Paşa (1215)"; the year 1215 corresponds to 1800-01. 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 last syllable of the word "murġ[ān]" in the first line was completed by the editor in square brackets for the sake of the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is built on an image of hunting and birds. The poet's nature is a hunting falcon that catches the birds of the chronogram, that is, seizes the right words for the date. In the second line the vizierate is compared to the Hümâ, the bird of fortune. It was believed that whoever the Hümâ's shadow fell upon, or on whose head it perched, would come to power. The vizierate perching on a man named "Ṭayyār", whose name means "flying", completes the bird imagery of the couplet: there is a clear congruence of images (tenasüp) among "şikār-bāz (hunting bird), murġ (bird), hümā, tünemek (to perch), ṭayyār (flying)". This play on the meaning of the name is our observation.

Historical Context

According to Hüsameddin, Tayyâr Mahmûd Paşa was from Trabzon and was the son of Caniklizâde Battal Hüseyin Paşa. The same author writes that in Muharrem 1214 he became revenue governor (muhassıl) of Amasya and governor of Canik in return for great gifts, and in Safer of the same year he arrived in Amasya with a great procession. Hüsameddin also writes that straight after his arrival, on the twentieth of Safer, Kara Müftüzâde Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi, "his favourite", was made mufti of Amasya. Vâzıh's office changed hands several times in these years, following the course of Tayyâr Paşa's politics; these ups and downs are told in the poet's biography. The couplet is clear evidence of the poet's loyalty to this powerful patron.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources