Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün Mefâ‘ilün Fe‘ilün

Yazdı cân levḥasında bismillâh
Ḳudret-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Gösterür ṭoġrı yol bi-ḥamdillâh
Himmet-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Dü-cihâna ṭolı durur lâ-şek
Şöhret-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Ehl-i ‘aşḳ dillerin müşerref ider
Ṣoḥbet-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
İrgürür ḫaste dillere ṣıḥḥat
Şerbet-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
İledür Ḥaḳḳ'a seni bir demde
Ḳurbet-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Urulur tâ olunca yevm-i ḳıyâm
Nevbet-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Ṭaġıdur leşkerini iblîsüñ
Nuṣret-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Ẓulmetini dilüñ münevver ider
Ṭal‘at-ı lâ ilâhe illallâh
Yed-i ḳudretle seng-i ḫâra virür
Ḥumret-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Virdi miftâḥ-ı ġaybı cân u dile
Ḳuvvet-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Ḳalbüñi ġıll u ġışdan eyler pâk
Ṭâ‘at-ı lâ ilâhe illallâh
Gösterür ehl-i ‘aşḳa esrârı
Ḥikmet-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Her dem endâma lerzeler düşürür
Heybet-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Ṭoyurur ḫalḳı ḫân-ı raḥmetle
Ni‘met-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Cân demâġın ṭolu mükerrer ider
Leẕẕet-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Ehl-i tevḥîde tâc-ı devletdür
Kisvet-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Mihrî mücrimleri ṭamuda ḳomaz
Şefḳat-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
Gice gündüz dilüñde ẕikr eyle
‘Ādet-i lâ ilâhe illallâh
İledür bî-gümân behişte seni
Midḥat-i lâ ilâhe illallâh

In English

1. The power of the words "There is no god but God" wrote the basmala on the tablet of the soul. (The human soul is likened to a tablet on which writing is set down, and the first thing written on it is the basmala.)

2. Praise be to God: the spiritual aid of the words "There is no god but God" shows a person the straight path.

3. The renown of the words "There is no god but God" has, without doubt, filled both this world and the next.

4. The company of the words "There is no god but God" brings honour to the hearts of the people of love. (Love here means love of God.)

5. The sherbet of the words "There is no god but God" brings healing to sick hearts.

6. The nearness granted by the words "There is no god but God" carries you to the Truth in a single moment.

7. The nevbet of the words "There is no god but God" will be sounded until the Day of Resurrection. (The nevbet is the drum and military band played at fixed hours as a sign of sovereignty; the declaration of divine unity is imagined as a ruler whose reign lasts until the end of time.)

8. The victory brought by the words "There is no god but God" scatters the army of Satan.

9. The radiant face of the words "There is no god but God" lights up the darkness of your heart.

10. The redness of the words "There is no god but God" gives colour to the hard rock by the hand of divine power. (In divan poetry, red stones such as the ruby are thought to take their colour in the heart of the rock through a divine influence; the poet ascribes this redness too to the power of divine unity.)

11. The strength of the words "There is no god but God" gave soul and heart the key to the unseen, that is, to what is hidden from human beings.

12. The worship and obedience that the words "There is no god but God" require cleanse your heart of rancour and deceit.

13. The wisdom of the words "There is no god but God" shows the secrets to the people of love.

14. The awe-inspiring majesty of the words "There is no god but God" makes every limb of a person tremble at every moment.

15. The bounty of the words "There is no god but God" feeds the people from the table of mercy.

16. The savour of the words "There is no god but God" fills the palate of the soul again and again.

17. The garment of the words "There is no god but God" is a crown of fortune for those who believe in the oneness of God.

18. O Mihrî, the compassion of the words "There is no god but God" does not leave sinners in hell. (The couplet can be read in two ways: the name Mihrî may be the poet addressing herself, or it may mean "sinners like Mihrî".)

19. Make it your habit to repeat the words "There is no god but God" with your tongue day and night.

20. Praising the words "There is no god but God" will, without doubt, bring you to paradise.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The divan of Mihrî Hatun opens with this twenty-couplet poem, which stands first among the kasides in Mehmet Arslan's critical edition. Its subject is tevhid, the affirmation of the oneness of God. In the divan tradition poets generally began their collections with a tevhid and a munacat (prayer), followed by a na't (praise of the Prophet); Mihrî follows this order and devotes the first words of her divan to the basmala and to the declaration of divine unity. Describing the Maştakova edition, Gönül Ayan likewise records that the divan begins with a twenty-couplet tevhid with the redif "Lâ ilâhe illallâh", so that the placement of this poem at the head of the divan is attested by all the known manuscripts. There is no record of for whom it was written, and none would be expected for a tevhid.

The metre is the aruz pattern "Fe‘ilâtün Mefâ‘ilün Fe‘ilün". This short pattern of three feet is rarely used in Mihrî's divan; by Arslan's count only five poems are written in it. The brevity of the lines, joined to the long redif that fills the second line of every couplet, gives the poem the feel of a zikr, the devotional recitation of God's name. The redif is the phrase "-(i) lâ ilâhe illallâh", and the rhyme is built on the "-et/-at" sound that ends the words attached to this phrase by a genitive construction: ḳudret, himmet, şöhret, ṣoḥbet, şerbet, ḳurbet, nevbet, nuṣret, and so on. In the opening couplet the rhyme works differently: both lines end with the words "bismillâh" and "illallâh", and the first line of the second couplet closes with "bi-ḥamdillâh". The poem thus opens with the basmala and continues with praise, circling around the name of God.

Although it is listed under the kaside, the poem is of the length of a ghazal and is built around a single thought; it lacks the usual sections of a kaside, such as the eulogy, the praised patron or the prayer. Every couplet repeats the same pattern: the first line describes an effect of the declaration of divine unity, and the second line names that effect in a genitive phrase. The pen name appears not in the last couplet, where one would expect it, but in the eighteenth.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole meaning of the poem unfolds through the attributes laid upon the declaration of divine unity. Mihrî sometimes thinks of this formula as a physician, offering a sherbet that heals sick hearts (couplet 5). Sometimes she sees it as a ruler: a sultan whose nevbet is sounded until the Day of Resurrection, who scatters the army of Satan and places a crown of fortune on believers (couplets 7, 8 and 17). At other times it is like a host who feeds the people from the table of mercy and fills the palate of the soul with savour (couplets 15 and 16). These comparisons are never stated outright but remain within the genitive phrases; attaching words such as nevbet, nusret, kisvet and ni‘met to the declaration of unity creates a metaphor of itself. The associations with sovereignty are especially striking: nevbet, leşker, nusret and tâc-ı devlet come from the same field and form a clear example of tenasüp, the congruence of images.

A similar congruence is built around writing in the first couplet. "To write", "tablet" and "bismillâh" together recall the calligrapher's panel; the soul is likened to this tablet and the basmala to its first line. Emrah Bilgin, discussing the tradition of placing the basmala at the head of divans in his work on the besmelename genre, cites this couplet as an example and notes that it is also the opening couplet of the divan. The trio "ḫaste", "ṣıḥḥat" and "şerbet" in the fifth couplet, the sound repetition "ġıll u ġış" in the twelfth, and the trembling that awe sends through the limbs in the fourteenth show how skilfully the poet varies her images within a single pattern.

The tenth couplet rests on a familiar belief of divan poetry: the stone in the heart of the rock reddens through a divine influence and becomes a precious gem. Mihrî names this redness (ḥumret) as a colour given by "yed-i ḳudret", the hand of God's power, and so says that even the hardest substance is open to the influence of divine unity. In the ninth couplet the contrast of darkness and light (tezat, antithesis), and in the eleventh the image of the key to the unseen, lend the poem a Sufi depth; divine unity is thought of as a force that both lights the heart and opens the door to hidden knowledge.

The pen name in the eighteenth couplet brings the poet's own voice into the poem. The line "Mihrî mücrimleri ṭamuda ḳomaz" can be read as the hope of a poet addressing herself, or as Mihrî counting herself among sinners. Either way, the couplet anticipates the voice of confession and plea for pardon in the Tażarru‘-nâme, which is thought to have been written late in her life. Sabiha Gemici, examining the content of the divan, writes that in this first tevhid Mihrî praises the blessings of the Truth and expresses her faith in the protection of God, the creator of all things. The last two couplets turn to a tone of counsel: making zikr a habit day and night and praising the declaration of unity are presented as the road to paradise.

Historical Context

The poem is found in all four manuscripts. According to Arslan's description of the manuscripts, the Fatih Millet (F), Ayasofya (S) and Istanbul University (Ü) copies open the divan with this couplet. The first leaf of the Ankara National Library (M) copy is torn off, and the tevhid begins there with the ninth couplet, the line "Ẓulmetini dilüñ münevver ider"; the first eight couplets were on the lost leaf. The differences between copies are small; the most notable is in the eighteenth couplet, where the F and S copies have "ṭamuda" and the M and Ü copies have the Persian "dûzaḫda" (in hell), with the same meaning. The heading of the F and S copies is "Dîvân-ı Mihrî Duhter-i Mevlânâ Belâyî", that is, the divan of Mihrî, daughter of Mevlânâ Belâyî; this heading stands directly above this tevhid. The S copy, which bears the seal of Bayezid II at its end, is very probably the divan that Mihrî sent to the sultan in 1508; if so, this tevhid was also on the first page of the divan that reached the sultan's hands.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları, Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576, 2018, Kaside 1, pp. 18-19; introduction and manuscript descriptions pp. 11-14. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Sabiha Gemici, Mihrî Hatun Divanı: Karşılaştırmalı Metin, Cümle Yapısı ve Cümle Türleri, doctoral thesis, Uludağ University, Balıkesir 1990, section "Divanın Tetkiki".
  • Emrah Bilgin, "Türk İslâm Edebiyatında Besmelenâme Türü ve Besmele İçerikli Metinlerin Tasnifine Dair Bir Deneme", Trabzon İlahiyat Dergisi 7/2 (Autumn 2020), pp. 87-117.

Books

  • Gönül Ayan, "Mihri Hatun ve Şiirleri", Erdem V/13 (1989), pp. 23-30.
  • İsmail E. Erünsal, "Mihrî Hatun", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 30, Istanbul 2020, pp. 37-38. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr

Online sources