Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilün

Ḳudsi terk eyleyüp eṣnām-ı püristān mesīḥ
Ṭaşını ṭopraġını öpmeli zenbīliniñ
Ṭaşı ṭopraġı degil öpmeli şerʿ-i pāki
Çünkü ʿulviyyet añındır ne ʿAlī ne Velīniñ

In English

1. The people of the Messiah, who left Jerusalem and worship idols, ought to kiss the stones and soil of Zenbilli.

2. No, not the stones and soil; they ought to kiss the pure sacred law; for the glory is its own, neither Ali's nor any saint's.

Literary and Historical Commentary

These four lines should be read together with the divan's kıta "İbret-i Mestûre". There the piety of the Shaykh al-Islam Zenbilli Ali Efendi was praised and compared with a churchman who stirred up the Crusaders; here it is said that the Christians ought to kiss the soil of Zenbilli's grave. These words seem to point to some stance or fatwa of Zenbilli Ali Efendi concerning the Christians, to a good they owed this Shaykh al-Islam; the poem does not tell the event, and it could not be verified from a source here either.

The second couplet at once corrects its own proposal. What should be kissed is not stone and soil but the pure sacred law; for the glory belongs to it, "neither Ali's nor any saint's". A play on words can also be sensed in this wording: Zenbilli's name is Ali, and the word "velî" means both a saint and a protector. The poet ties the good not to a person but to the law on which he relied. Considered together with the divan's quatrains criticizing tomb and grave visiting, the idea that respect should be shown to the principle rather than kissing stone and soil forms a consistent line.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 120 (poem no. 154; manuscript fol. ). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources