Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün

(Sin) Ser-be-ser ṭutdı cihân rûyını ey ḫân salṭanat
Devletüñ devrinde ḫoş buldı bu devrân salṭanat
(Lâm) Lem-yezel rûz-ı ezelde saña ḳısmet eylemiş
Kim ola her vechile emrüñe fermân salṭanat
(Ṭı) Ṭañ mı ṭoldursa cihân rûyını nâm u şöhretüñ
Dergeh-i ‘âlüñde bulmuşdur her insân salṭanat
(Elif) Ey şeh-i ‘âlî senüñ fevḳüñde şevket görmedi
Nice devrân gerçi kim sürdi Süleymân salṭanat
(Nûn) Nice Ḫıżr ile Sikender süre yüzin ḳapuña
K'işigüñde bulınur çeşme-i ḥayvân salṭanat
(Be) Bulmaz idi ẕerrece rif‘at cihân ḫusrevleri
Bunlara ger itmeseñ ey şâh iḥsân salṭanat
(Elif) Eyler ise n'ola cân naḳdini yoluña îs̱âr
Buldı çün vaṣluñ gibi sermâye ey ḫân salṭanat
(Ye) Yanalı ḥüsnüñ çerâġı nûra ġarḳ oldı cihân
Ẓulmeti ḳaṭ‘ eyledi vü oldı nûrân salṭanat
(Ze) Zâyil itmesün senüñ Ḥaḳ sâyeñi tâ ḥaşre dek
Üstümüzden ey hümâ-fer Āl-i ‘Os̱mân salṭanat
(Ye) Yâ İlâhî müstedâm eyle vücûdın tâ ebed
Ṣad-hezârân ‘ömr ile vir aña Sübḥân salṭanat
(Dâl) Dur cihân taḫtında durduḳça zemîn ü âsumân
Sür ṣafâ vü ẕevḳ ile ‘âlemde her ân salṭanat
(Elif) Ey sa‘âdet âfitâbı ḥüsnüñ iẓhâr olmadın
Mâ-teḳaddemden saña olmışdı ḥayrân salṭanat
(Dâl) Dâyim olsun devletüñ devrânı tâ yevmü'l-ḳıyâm
Ṭop ola saña sa‘âdet daḫi çevgân salṭanat
(Elif) İreli ḫulḳuñ nesîmi ‘âlem içre ser-te-ser
Eyledi ḫalḳ-ı cihânı cümle şâdân salṭanat
(Mîm) Müstedâm ol sâye-i rif‘atde şâhâ ḥaşre dek
Nitekim dillerde şerḥ olına destân salṭanat
(Elif) Oldı ‘adlüñ destine çün ḫâtem-i devlet nigîn
Ḫoş-dem oldı ḫalḳ-ı ‘âlem buldı çendân salṭanat
(Lâm) Luṭfuñuñ deryâsı ḳatında nedür baḥr-i muḥîṭ
Kim anuñ bir ḳaṭresinden buldı ‘ummân salṭanat
(Lâm) Lem‘a-i cûduñ żiyâsı virdi enver ‘âleme
Mîve-i luṭfuñla buldı bâġ u bostân salṭanat
(He) Her ki oldı âsitânuñ bendesi biñ cân ile
Şübhesüz buldı cihân dârında âsân salṭanat
(‘Ayn) ‘Aynı ne gördi cihânuñ ne ḫod oldı istimâ‘
Kimde vardur sendeki ṭavr ile erkân salṭanat
(Mîm) Mihrî-i üftâdeñe şâhâ n'ola raḥm eyleseñ
Şâyed olaydı aña bir kerre mihmân salṭanat
(Re) Rehberüñ olsun Ḫudâ ey menba‘-ı kân-ı kerem
‘Ālem içre görme ġam gör ṣad-hezârân salṭanat
(He) Her günüñ ṣad-sâl olsun her demüñ ‘îd-i sa‘îd
Dâyim olsun ḫusrevâ ḳapuñda dîvân salṭanat

In English

1. O ruler, sovereignty has covered the face of the world from end to end; in the era of your state, sovereignty has found this age pleasant.

2. The eternal God, on the day of pre-eternity, allotted it to you that sovereignty should submit to your command in every respect.

3. Is it surprising that your name and fame fill the face of the world? At your exalted gate every person has found sovereignty, that is, abundance and standing.

4. O exalted sultan, although the Prophet Solomon held sovereignty through many ages, sovereignty never saw a splendour greater than yours.

5. Let Khidr and Alexander rub their faces on your threshold many times over; for at your doorstep are found both the spring of the water of life and sovereignty. (According to the legend, Khidr and Alexander searched for the water of life that grants immortality; Khidr found it and Alexander did not. The poet places what they sought at the sultan's threshold.)

6. O shah, had you not bestowed sovereignty on these rulers of the world, they would not have found even an atom of eminence.

7. Is it surprising if the soul scatters its own being like coin on your path? For, O ruler, sovereignty found the greatest capital in attaining you. (The couplet can be read in two ways: what is lavished may be the poet's own soul, or it may be sovereignty itself.)

8. Since the lamp of your beauty was lit, the world has been drowned in light; sovereignty cut off the darkness and became luminous.

9. O sovereignty of the House of Osman, bringer of fortune like the huma bird, may God never take your shadow from above us until the Day of Resurrection. (The huma is a legendary bird believed to make king whoever's head its shadow falls upon.)

10. O my God, make his existence endure for ever; O Lord, far above every imperfection, grant him sovereignty together with hundreds of thousands of lives.

11. As long as earth and heaven stand, may you stand on the throne of the world; let sovereignty reign in the world at every moment in joy and delight.

12. O sun of felicity, even before your beauty appeared, sovereignty had been in awe of you from long before.

13. May the era of your state last until the Day of Resurrection; may good fortune be the ball for you and sovereignty the polo stick. (The çevgen is the long-handled stick used in the game of polo played on horseback. As the ball goes before the stick, the poet wishes that both good fortune and sovereignty be in the sultan's hand.)

14. The breeze of your good nature spread over the whole world long ago; thus sovereignty has gladdened all the people of the world.

15. O sultan, may you endure in the shadow of your eminence until the Day of Resurrection, so that your sovereignty is told as an epic on people's tongues.

16. Since the ring of state was set as a seal stone on the hand of your justice, the people of the world have found peace and sovereignty has found such abundance. (The ring, a symbol of rule, also recalls the sealed ring of the Prophet Solomon.)

17. What is the ocean that encircles the world beside the sea of your grace? The ocean found its sovereignty from a single drop of that sea.

18. The gleam of your generosity gave the brightest light to the world; gardens and orchards attained sovereignty through the fruit of your grace.

19. Whoever became a servant of your gate with a thousand souls has, without doubt, found sovereignty easily in the abode of this world.

20. The eye of the world has neither seen nor its ear heard it: in whom is there sovereignty with such bearing and dignity as you have?

21. O sultan, what harm if you showed mercy to your fallen Mihrî; if only sovereignty might be her guest once.

22. O source of the mine of generosity, may God be your guide; may you see no sorrow in the world, and see sovereignty hundreds of thousands of times over.

23. O ruler, may each of your days be a hundred years and each moment a blessed festival; may the divan and sovereignty always continue at your gate.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The second poem of the divan is a kaside of twenty-three couplets presented to Bayezid II. Its heading in the edition is "Ḳaṣîde-i Sulṭân Bâyezîd Edâmallâhu ‘Ömrehû", that is, "Kaside of Sultan Bayezid, may God make his life last". The metre is the aruz pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün"; by Mehmet Arslan's count this is the metre Mihrî uses most, and more than a third of the poems in the divan are written in it. The redif is the word "salṭanat" repeated at the end of every couplet, and the rhyme is built on the "-ân" sound directly before it: ḫân, devrân, fermân, insân, Süleymân, ḥayvân, iḥsân, ‘Os̱mân, and so on. In the opening couplet both lines end in this way; in the following couplets only the second lines rhyme.

The most striking feature of the poem is a play with letters. In the edition the name of an Arabic letter is placed in parentheses at the head of each couplet: Sin, Lâm, Ṭı, Elif, Nûn; Be, Elif, Ye, Ze, Ye, Dâl; Elif, Dâl, Elif, Mîm, Elif, Lâm, Lâm, He; ‘Ayn, Mîm, Re, He. These are the first letters of the couplets as written in Ottoman script, and read from top to bottom they give the phrase "Sulṭân Bâyezîd edâmallâhu ‘ömrehû". The phrase in the heading and the phrase produced by the openings of the couplets are letter for letter the same, and the twenty-three couplets correspond to the twenty-three letters of the phrase. In divan literature, writing a name or phrase with the initial letters of couplets is called tevşîh, and a poem written in this way is a muvaşşah. In the same edition the heading of ghazal 79 reads "Muvaşşaḥ Be-İsm-i Süleymân"; Mihrî tried this game in more than one poem. The game also fixed the length of the kaside: the number of couplets equals the number of letters in the name of the patron and the prayer made for him.

The classical sections of the kaside appear here in a compressed order. There is no nesib opening with a description of spring or a festival; the poem begins directly with the eulogy. Up to the nineteenth couplet the sultan's power, justice, generosity and beauty are praised, with prayer couplets interspersed (couplets 9, 10, 11, 13 and 15). In place of a fahriye (the poet's self-praise), the twenty-first couplet is a wish in which the poet describes her own condition; the last two couplets are the customary prayer section of kasides.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The main theme of the kaside is sovereignty, and the redif draws this word into a new meaning in every couplet. In some couplets sovereignty is personified: it finds the sultan's age pleasant (1), is in awe of him (12), cuts off the darkness (8), gladdens the people of the world (14). In others it is like a gift the sultan distributes to others: at his gate every person finds sovereignty (3), the rulers of the world receive it from him (6), everyone who becomes his servant attains it easily (19). Thus the same word is treated both as rulership itself and as the abundance and standing that it brings. This personification (teşhis) gives the poem movement and keeps the repeated redif from becoming tedious.

The images of the eulogy come from the familiar sources of praise for rulers in divan poetry. In the fourth couplet the sultan is compared with the Prophet Solomon, regarded as the embodiment of rulership, and is placed above him; the "ḫâtem-i devlet" of the sixteenth couplet completes this comparison by recalling Solomon's ring of dominion. The fifth couplet mentions the search of Khidr and Alexander for the water of life (an allusion, telmih); it says that the water of immortality Alexander could not find is at the sultan's threshold. In the ninth couplet the bird of fortune, the huma, in the thirteenth the ball and the polo stick, in the seventeenth the sea, the drop and the ocean, and in the eighteenth the garden, the orchard and the fruit, each form a congruence of images (tenasüp) among themselves. The seventeenth couplet is also a fine example of hyperbole (mübalağa): even the ocean that encircles the world has its existence from a single drop of the sultan's sea of grace.

Sound play is also marked. The phrase "devletüñ devrinde … devrân" in the first couplet uses words of the same root one after another, an example of iştikak (derivation). In the eighth and twelfth couplets the sultan's beauty is likened to a lamp and to the "sa‘âdet âfitâbı", the sun of felicity; the contrast of light and darkness (tezat, antithesis) strengthens the radiant mood of the eulogy. In the twenty-first couplet the poet calls herself "Mihrî-i üftâde", the fallen Mihrî, and wishes that sovereignty might be her guest just once. In divan poetry couplets of this kind politely convey that the poet expects favour from her patron; Mihrî states her wish through the figure of a visit, in a humble manner.

Historical Context

The kaside is found in only one of the four manuscripts, the M copy in the Ankara National Library (folio 24b). Arslan notes that this copy contains three kasides, six ghazals, one murabba and one mesnevi that are absent from the other copies, and this kaside is among them. The couplets state plainly that Bayezid is on the throne: the sultan is seated on the "throne of the world" and is named as the master of the sovereignty of the House of Osman. It follows that the poem was written after his accession in 1481, in the years when Bayezid reigned in Istanbul. In her article on the poets under Bayezid's patronage, Türkan Alvan says that Mihrî Hatun received the sultan's favours through kasides she wrote after the accession as well, and cites the third couplet of this kaside as an example.

The bond between Mihrî and Bayezid reaches back to the Amasya years. Bayezid was in Amasya as a prince from 1455 to 1481, and Mihrî entered the literary circle around him in those years. He did not lose interest after becoming sultan. According to entries in a gratuity register (in‘âmât defteri) of Bayezid's time, Mihrî received gifts for her poems on 26 January 1505, 12 February 1510, 10 January 1511 and 16 March 1512, and on 29 August 1508 she was given 3,000 akçe for the divan she had sent. Some of the entries were explicitly for a kaside. According to Nusret Gedik's study based on archival documents, Bayezid asked poets to present a kaside at each Nevruz and festival and rewarded these kasides with gifts. The last couplet of this kaside wishes that every moment of the sultan be an "‘îd-i sa‘îd", a blessed festival; but the poem does not say on what occasion it was presented, and which entry in the register corresponds to it is not known.

There are only two Bayezid kasides in the divan: this poem and the third kaside that follows directly, which bears the same heading. The Ayasofya copy, which carries Bayezid's seal at the end and is thought to be the copy sent to the sultan, has a single kaside for Bayezid; this muvaşşah kaside is not in that copy. The sources do not say why the kaside is found only in the M copy or when it was written.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları, Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576, 2018, Kaside 2, pp. 19-21; introduction pp. 3-14; Ghazal 79 ("Muvaşşaḥ Be-İsm-i Süleymân"). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Türkan Alvan, "Cevherî'nin Sultan II. Bayezid'e Sunduğu Methiyeler", Cumhuriyet İlahiyat Dergisi 26/1 (June 2022), pp. 213-234, doi:10.18505/cuid.1075326.
  • Nusret Gedik, "Arşiv Belgelerine Göre Türkçe Yazılmış II. Bayezid Medhiyeleri", Türk Kültürü İncelemeleri Dergisi 48 (2022), pp. 153-224.

Books

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

Online sources