Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Otuz bin şeriat otuz bin farzı
On iki bin mesel söyle bakalım
Cebrail imam iken feyz eyledim
Bilal’ı Habeş’ken söyle bakalım
Abdestin farzını dört oldu diyek
Elinen yüz oldu başınan ayak
Teyemmüm iki darp bir niyet sayak
Topraktan abdestin ver de bakalım
Sabah namazını kıldım dört oldu
Selamında melek gören mert oldu
Ten gelmeden ruh da kubbeye doldu
Daha neler gıda sana bakalım
Öyle namazını kıldım on oldu
İkindiyi sekiz kıldım son oldu
Sekizinci uçmak bir nişan oldu
Mahrum etme dede Huda bakalım
Akşam namazını kıldım beş oldu
Din Muhammed dini iman eş oldu
Yatsıyı on üç kıldım namaz oldu
Size Haktan nida gelir bakalım
Bir günün farzını on yedi bildir
Yirmi sünnetine üç fikir kıldım
Altı yüz teravim eyloldum geldim
Daha neye geldik dede bakalım
Savum dedim oruç tuttum cihanda
Salat dedim namaz kıldım bu handa
Bir hayrın bin olur ulu divanda
Malının zekâtın ver de bakalım
Şahadetim la ilahe illallah
İbadet Muhamedün resülallah
Adem’in kıblesi ol habübullah
Bin bir dört bin ada burda bakalım
Namazın farzı da on iki başta
Altısı içte de altısı dışta
Dışı dünya dışı ahret ne hoş da
Kulda uyku cana gıda bakalım
İçimdeki budur ibdida tekbir
Kıyam kıraatle tasdik ola ser
Ruhu sücut ile gedayı akın
Teşahhüd miktar irada bakalım
Oturunca oku ettahiyatı
Onda okunur bayi bismillah
Sırat iman altı amentü billâh
Umut duttucağım suda bakalım
Gusülün farzını üçtür dediler
Bilmeyen emeği boştur dediler
Namaza indi şah hoştur dediler
Sayir bedenini yuda bakalım
İsa Musa Halil İbrahim canım
Otuz iki esma yazdı olmağım
Ahkâmı şeriya sekiz İbrahim
Hele kırk süvari ver de bakalım
Yüz dört kitap indi maruf ilgine
Zebur Davud’adır İncil İsa’ya
Kur’an Muhammed’e Tevrat Musa’ya
Zindemizin yoksa mime bir bakalım
Yüz kitab otuzun okudu Adem
On İbrahim’de on Halil’de müdam
Ellisini Şit’e buyurdu Hüdam
Buna cevap versen kadı bakalım
Altı bin altı yüz farzı kelamı
Yedi bin iki yüz sünnet alemi
Dört bin sekiz yüz seksen sekiz yılın selamı
Bin seksen fitili söyle bakalım
Mezhep dörttür kitap dörttür kıble beş
Din Muhammed dini iman oldu eş
Bilmeyenin yolu olur boran kış
Yedi turdan haber ver de bakalım
Cuma namazının yücedir tahtı
Bayram namazına ederler cahtı
Cuma’da bin iki yüz yetmiş altı
Doksan bin ayeti say da bakalım
Zevveş düzevveş dü iyeye dedim
Halimi kendime nikâh eyledim
İkrarım imanım Hakk’a bağladım
Elesdüden haber ver de bakalım
Cehennem tabirleri narca nar ise
Cennet tabirleri nurca nur ise
Bundan özge soracağın var ise
Ben Kul Hüseyin’im sor da bakalım

In English

1. Thirty thousand laws, thirty thousand duties; tell me the twelve thousand questions, let us see. While Gabriel was imam I received grace; how was Bilal while he was in Abyssinia, tell me, let us see.

2. Let us count the duties of ablution as four: the hands, the face, the head and the feet. Let tayammum be counted as two strikes and one intention; give me the ablution made with earth, let us see.

3. I prayed the morning prayer, it came to four; whoever saw the angel at its greeting became a true man. Before the body came the soul filled the dome; what else is food for you, let us see.

4. I prayed the noon prayer, it came to ten; I prayed the afternoon prayer as eight, it was the last. The eighth paradise became a sign; dede, may God not leave us deprived, let us see.

5. I prayed the evening prayer, it came to five; the religion of Muhammad and faith became companions. I prayed the night prayer as thirteen, it became a prayer; a call from God comes to you, let us see.

6. Declare the duties of a single day to be seventeen; to its twenty customs I added three thoughts. I came having prayed six hundred tarawih; dede, for what more have we come, let us see.

7. I said fasting, and I fasted in the world; I said prayer, and I prayed in this inn. At the great court one good deed of yours becomes a thousand; give the alms due on your goods, let us see.

8. My witness is "there is no god but God"; my worship is "Muhammad is the messenger of God". The qibla of Adam is that Beloved of God; let us count here the thousand and one and the four thousand names, let us see.

9. The duties of prayer are twelve at the head; six within and six without. Without is the world, within is the hereafter, how fine; sleep in the servant is food for the soul, let us see.

10. What is within me is this: the opening takbir, standing with recitation, the head's confirmation, the soul's prostration (part of the quatrain is unintelligible in the source); let us look at the measure of the tashahhud.

11. When you sit, recite the tahiyyat; in it the letter be of the Basmala is read. The road of faith has six articles, "I believe in God"; let us look at what I have set my hope upon.

12. They said the duties of the full ablution are three; they said whoever does not know them labours in vain. They said the Shah came down to prayer, it is fine; wash your whole body, let us see.

13. Jesus, Moses, Abraham the Friend of God, my soul; thirty-two names wrote my being. The rulings of the law are in eight with Abraham; now give the forty horsemen, let us see.

14. A hundred and four books came down; the Psalms to David, the Gospel to Jesus, the Qur'an to Muhammad, the Torah to Moses. If it is not among our living, let us look at the mim.

15. Of the hundred books Adam read thirty; ten remained ever with Abraham, ten with the Friend of God. Fifty my God ordained for Seth; if you can answer this, kadı, let us see.

16. Six thousand six hundred words of duty, seven thousand two hundred worlds of custom, the greeting of four thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight years; tell me the thousand and eighty wicks, let us see.

17. The schools of law are four, the books are four, the qiblas five; the religion of Muhammad and faith became companions. The road of one who does not know becomes blizzard and winter; give news of the seven Sinais, let us see.

18. The throne of the Friday prayer is lofty; all strive for the festival prayer. On Friday one thousand two hundred and seventy-six; count the ninety thousand verses, let us see.

19. I said "Zevveş düzevveş dü iyeye" (the line, of Arabic origin, has become unintelligible); I wedded my state to myself. I bound my pledge and my faith to God; give news of Elest, let us see.

20. If the descriptions of hell are fire upon fire, if the descriptions of paradise are light upon light, if you have anything else to ask, I am Kul Hüseyin, ask, let us see.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This nefes of twenty quatrains is handed down in oral tradition to show that Kul Hüseyin also commanded the sciences of the religious law. Işık adds a detailed note: the gaps of knowledge in it may stem from oral transmission; yet its quatrains that do not fit the koşma form, and its arrangement aimed at teaching the law, also raise the possibility that the deyiş is not Kul Hüseyin's. Despite all this the text is handed down as his. The metre is the eleven-syllable syllabic measure, but the rhyme pattern breaks down in places, and some lines, as Işık notes, do not fit the syllable count because they contain numbers. The last lines of the quatrains end with the redif "bakalım" (let us see). In the first line of the nineteenth quatrain an expression thought to be Arabic has become unintelligible; according to Işık it may be either a line that has lost its meaning or an Alevi secret concealed in words. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last stanza as "Ben Kul Hüseyin'im". The text was collected from three informants, among them Erdoğan Koç and Halil Sezgin.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Işık relates two stories about the deyiş. According to one, the kadı of Gümüş, on his way to inspect Keçiköy, met the village shepherd Kul Hüseyin on the road and received on the spot answers in verse to the questions he put to him; saying "if the shepherd of this village is so wise, what must its inhabitants be like", he gave up the inspection. According to the other, one of Kul Hüseyin's elders was arrested on the grounds that he was a Kızılbaş and knew nothing of religion; the young Hüseyin went before the kadı and said, "ask me the questions you would ask my elder", answered the questions in verse, and the kadı, astonished, released the prisoner.

The content of the deyiş agrees with these stories: the duties of ablution, tayammum and the full ablution, the cycles of the five daily prayers, fasting, alms, the profession of faith, the schools of law, the books and the prophets are listed in question-and-answer form. Some of the numbers, however, do not match the known rulings of jurisprudence; Işık too notes gaps in the content. The deyiş should therefore be read not as a text of jurisprudence but as an answer to the charge of "knowing nothing of religion" directed at the Alevi community and as a narrative exalting its own saint; this assessment is ours.

Bibliography

Online sources