Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilün
Yāre aġyār olamam ʿāşıḳa olmam vāşī
Faḳaṭ ey ehl-i tevellā geçinen bektāşī!
İki ṣaġlam göz ile bir baḳalım şu gidişe
Gerçi baḳmış aña yek çeşm ile ḫayli şaşı
Murtażāyı ḥüseyini ne içün sevmede biz
Şüphesiz ḳurbet-i peyġamber-i ḥaḳdan nāşī
Ḳurbı maḥbūb olanıñ kendi eḥab olmalıdır
Göremem sizde nebīye o ḳadar şāpāşı
Seven Allāh u Resūlü gözedir emr ile nehy
Olur elṭāfına rācī ġażabından ḫāşī
Red idüp ẓāhir-i şerʿī didiñiz bāṭını var
Göz çıḳarmaḳ buña dinmez mi yaparken ḳāşı
Görürüm ḳopyasını sizde ḥüsn-i ṣabbāḥıñ
Size bu rengi geçen üste naṣıl bir kāşī
Taḳye dindi külehe taḳye ṣaḳınmaḳ dimedir
Ḳullanır setr-i mezāhibde ʿacem ḳallāşı
Gerçek insān iseñiz setr-i hüviyyet ne içün
Başḳa māhiyyet içündür o havāş ü ġāşī
Evliyā kisvesi renginde cilālandıraraḳ
Ṣatdıñız ṣāf dil etrāke çürük aḳmāşı
Yaşayor bābek-i ḫurrem o külāh altında
Āl u evlād sözi dāne-i dām-ı lāşī
Hind ü Çin'e gidemezsiñ ki mecūsī göresiñ
Naẓar it āyineye mūma egerken bāşı
Cem dinen şāh, mecūsī idi bir dīnsiz idi
Yaḳışırdı aña āyīn-i cem andan nāşī
Müslümān öyle ḳızılbaşlıġı eyler mi ḳabūl
Ḳadın erkek olalar birbiriniñ oynaşı
Ḥükm ider ām-ı ḫabīŝ ortada yoḳ żābiṭ-i dīn
Babası duḫterini oġlı da ḳız ḳardaşı
Diḳḳat ister ki ḳıl üzre yürimekdir islām
Sarḫoşuñ pāyı ne ḥākim mi dumanlı başı
"Kāfirī der naẓarem revnaḳ-ı diger dāred"
Diye ḫalṭ itmiş idi baʿż-ı ʿAcem evbaşı
Ḫargele cemʿi midir nüktesi ʿayne'l-cemʿiñ
Nitekim tābiʿ o ḳānūn-ı devāb u māşī
Tercümānlar oḳunur tekyede ḳurʾān yerine
Bir söze beñzese bārī süḫan-ı ḫaşḫāşi
Secde-gāhımdır ʿAlī ḳıble-gehimdir Aḥmed
Diye küfr itmededir ṭāʾife-i bektāşī
Hep ʿAlī ibni Ebī ṭālibe Allāh dirler
Ẓāhirīdir diye peyġambere miḥrāb tāşı
ʿUlemā oldıġı yerden ḳaçaraḳ avlarlar
Ẓulmet-i cehlde pervāz ḳılan ḫuffāşı
Rafż u el-ḥād u tenāsüḫle ḥulūl-ı ervāh
Biri Hind turşısıdır digeri īrān āşı
Bu naṣıl ṭurfe ṭarīḳat bu ne berbād gidiş
Buraya silkme o süprüntü ṭolıferrāşi
Bu ḫurāfāta tenezzülden ider istiḥyā
Her kimiñ ʿaḳlına yār olsa birazcıḳ başı
Rūḥdan ḫalʿ ider īmānı bu ḳıṭāʿ-ı ṭarīḳ
Bunlara nisbeten ehven görürüm nebbāşı
Ḥaḳḳı ibṭāl idemez dīni fesāda viremez
Her kim Allāh u peyamberden olursa ḫāşī
Yoḳ imiş bizde lüzūmı ḳadar evvel ʿulemā
Ehline ḥürmetimiz oldı ʿAcemde fāşī
Yüridi Rūm'a nice ʿilm ü şeyḫ ü kātib
Gördiler milletimizden kerem ü şābāşı
Gerçi itdi nicesi devlet ü dīne ḫidmet
İçlerinde var idi baʿżı cihān ḳallāşı
Ḳurdılar çarḫ-ı fesād anı ṭarīḳat diyerek
Ṣaldılar her ṭarafa ṣīt-i kerāmet-pāşı
Oldı bi'l-cümle vilāyāt, vilāyet delisi
Taḳiyelendi nice cuhhāl ʿaḳılsız başı
Geçdi yekser naẓarımdan o "Velāyetnāme"
Naḳl-i ʿan-Niḳola menḳıbe-i Bektāşī
Acırım āh-ı mübārek vaṭan u milletime
Ṣalıvirmişler aña mār-ı helāhil-pāşı
ʿUlemā lāzım imiş anlar içün eyvallāh
Bize lāzım mı idi bir de ḥacı Bektāşī
ʿUlemā añlamamış diḳḳat idüp meslegini
Çıḳdı bāzāra nihāyet ne ise iḳmāşı
Fikr-i insān eŝerinden olunur istidlāl
Bildirir naḳş yedi mertebe-i naḳḳāşı
ʿĀlim-i ʿārif imiş pīr-i süḫan Molla Celāl
Yādigār itdi bize meŝnevi-i dür-pāşı
Anıñ efrād-ı ṭarīḳında da var ḫayli bozuḳ
Görürüm sikkesi altında nice ʿayyāşı
Vardır anlarda daḫı şāʿibe-i sırr-ı ʿacem
Birikilir o dıraḫta daḫı urmış āşı
Bedeviyye ile saʿdiyye rifāʿiyye bile
ʿArabī pīri ḳoyup oldı ʿacem yoldāşı
Kerbelā fāciʿası vaḳʿa-i ḫabek ṣiffīn
Dökdirir ḥaşre ḳadar ümmete ḳanlı yāşı
Bu cerāyıḥ bu ḳarāyıḥ bu ṭıḳanmaz raḫne
Beñzer ol ḳalʿaya kim düşmede her dem ṭaşı
In English
1. I cannot be a rival to the beloved, nor will I be an informer to the lover; but you, O Bektashi, who pass for one of the lovers of the Prophet's House!
2. Let us look at this course with two sound eyes; though many a squinter has looked at it with one eye.
3. Why do we love Murtazâ ('Alî) and Hüseyin? Without doubt because of their nearness to the Prophet of truth.
4. The one whose nearness is beloved must himself be more beloved; I do not see in you that much acclaim for the Prophet.
5. Whoever loves God and the Messenger heeds command and prohibition; he hopes for His favours and fears His wrath.
6. Rejecting the outward of the Sharia, you said "it has an inner meaning"; is this not called putting out the eye while making the eyebrow?
7. I see in you a copy of Hasan-i Sabbâh; what kind of tile-master was it who passed this colour on to you!
8. The cap was called "takye"; "takiyye" means wariness (concealment); the Persian swindler uses it to hide sects.
9. If you are true men, why conceal your identity? That is for another nature (the second line is not entirely clear).
10. Polishing it in the colour of the saints' garb, you sold rotten cloth to the pure-hearted Turks.
11. Under that cap lives Bâbak the Khurramite; the talk of "the Prophet's family and descendants" is the bait of an empty trap.
12. You cannot go to India and China to see a fire-worshipper; look in the mirror while bowing your head to the candle.
13. The shah called Cem was a Magian, a man without religion; the "âyîn-i cem" suited him for that reason.
14. Would a Muslim accept such Kızılbash ways, that woman and man become each other's paramours?
15. There is no guardian of religion about, a vile common rule prevails: the father his daughter, the son his sister...
16. It needs care, for Islam is walking on a hair; is the drunkard's foot steady, or his smoky head?
17. Some Persian rabble had mixed (faith and unbelief) saying (in Persian) "In my eye unbelief has another splendour."
18. Is the wit of "'ayn al-jam'" (the station of union) to gather a herd of donkeys? Just as it is subject to the law of beasts and walkers (the couplet is not entirely clear).
19. In the lodge, translations are read in place of the Qur'an; if only the hashish-eater's talk resembled speech!
20. Saying "'Alî is my place of prostration, Ahmad my qibla", the Bektashi sect falls into unbelief.
21. All of them call 'Alî ibn Abî Tâlib God; of the Prophet they say "he is outward" (the second half is not entirely clear).
22. Fleeing from where the scholars are, they hunt the bat that flies in the darkness of ignorance.
23. Rejection, heresy, transmigration and the incarnation of spirits: the one is Indian pickle, the other Iranian stew.
24. What a strange path is this, what a ruinous course! Do not shake that broom full of sweepings out here (the line is not entirely clear).
25. Anyone whose reason has even a little head beside it is ashamed to stoop to these superstitions.
26. These highwaymen strip faith from the soul; beside them I find the grave robber milder.
27. Whoever fears God and the Prophet cannot annul the truth, cannot hand religion over to corruption.
28. Formerly we did not have enough scholars; our respect for the worthy became known in Persia.
29. Many a scholar, sheikh and scribe marched to Rûm; they met generosity and acclaim from our nation.
30. It is true that many of them served state and religion; (but) among them were some swindlers of the world.
31. Calling it a Sufi order, they set up a wheel of corruption; they spread on every side a fame that scattered miracles.
32. All the provinces became mad for sainthood; many ignorant, witless heads put on the "takye".
33. That "Velâyetnâme" passed wholly before my eyes: a Bektashi legend carried over from Nicholas.
34. Ah, I pity my blessed homeland and nation; they have let loose upon it the snake that scatters poison.
35. Scholars were needed for them, very well; did we need a Hacı Bektaşî as well?
36. The scholars did not look carefully and understand his way; in the end whatever goods he had came to market.
37. A man's thought is inferred from his work; the design shows the rank of the designer.
38. The master of speech, Molla Celâl (Rûmî), was a learned gnostic; he left us as a keepsake the pearl-scattering Masnavî.
39. Among the members of his order too there are many corrupt ones; under his felt cap I see many a drunkard.
40. In them too there is the taint of the Persian secret; that tree too has been grafted.
41. The Badawiyya, the Sa'diyya, even the Rifâ'iyya left their Arab master and became companions of the Persians.
42. The tragedy of Karbala, the event of (the Camel?) and Siffîn make the community shed bloody tears until the Resurrection (the second word is not entirely clear).
43. These wounds, these innovations, this breach that cannot be stopped, resemble that fortress whose stones fall every moment (the couplet is not entirely clear).
Literary and Historical Commentary
The harshest and most controversial text in the divan bears the title "Tezyîf-i züyûf", the refutation of counterfeits. In this kaside Cûdî addresses the Bektashis, who take love of the Prophet's House as an identity, and criticizes them from the standpoint of a Sunni madrasa scholar. The first couplets tie the matter to a logic of love: 'Alî and Hüseyin are loved for their nearness to the Prophet; so the Prophet himself should be loved more and his commands and prohibitions heeded. To leave the outward of the Sharia and turn only to the inner is, for the poet, "putting out the eye while making the eyebrow".
The language of polemic
Most of the kaside lists the well-known charges of the Ottoman Sunni polemical tradition: a kinship is built with historical names such as Hasan-i Sabbâh and Bâbak the Khurramite, a play on words is made between "takke", cap, and "takiyye", dissimulation, and the "âyîn-i cem", the Alevi ritual gathering, is joined with the shah Cem of Iranian legend. The charge of immoral relations in the fourteenth and fifteenth couplets is a slander that circulated for centuries about Alevi and Kızılbash communities and has no historical basis; the text of the poem is translated here as a historical document and shows nothing about the truth of these charges. The other accusations, that 'Alî is deified, that the Sharia is abandoned altogether, or that the community is heir to Bâbak and Hasan-i Sabbâh, come from the same polemical stock; they record a prejudice directed at the Bektashis, not their own beliefs and customs. The allusions to the use of candles and lamps in the cem ritual are part of the same prejudiced language.
A historical concern
From the twenty-eighth couplet on, the kaside turns to a historical narrative. According to the poet, many scholars, sheikhs and scribes came to Anatolia from Iran, and most served state and religion, but ill-intentioned men mingled among them. The thirty-third couplet names the Velâyetnâme, which tells the legends of Hacı Bektaş Velî, and says that one legend was carried over "from Nicholas"; this is the echo in poetry of a claim drawing a likeness between Bektashi legends and the stories of Christian saints. The poet sets Rûmî and the Masnavî apart, but says he sees corruption in the Mevlevî order as well as in the Badawiyya, the Sa'diyya and the Rifâ'iyya. The kaside ends with the bloody tears that Karbala and Siffîn made the community shed and with the image of a fortress whose stones keep falling.
The kaside is given here as a document of the late Ottoman debates on Sufism and the orders: it shows how harsh a language a Sunni provincial scholar could use, and it does not confirm the charges it makes. It comes from the same vein as the divan's criticisms of the lodge and the sheikh, but here criticism turns into an attack on a whole community. No equivalent was invented for the few words whose reading is unsettled in the transcription; the translation marks these places in brackets.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 39-42 (poem no. 194; manuscript fol. 51b-52a-52b-53a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
Online sources
