Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fâ‘ilün

(Sin) Sen şâh olalı ‘âleme ey ḫân-ı salṭanat
Oldı cihânda gün gibi a‘yân salṭanat
(Lâm) Leyl ü nehâr ‘aşḳ ile s̱âbit-ḳadem ṭurup
İtdi ḳapuñda kendüyi der-bân salṭanat
(Ṭı) Ṭolsa cihâna şöhretüñ âvâzı ṭañ mıdur
Ey şâh-ı ‘âlî sendedür erkân-ı salṭanat
(Elif) Ey ḫusrev-i zamâne cihân begleri ḳamu
Ḳanda bulurdı itmeseñ iḥsân salṭanat
(Nûn) Nice zebûnuñ olmaya bu gerdiş-i felek
Bildi ki oldı emrüñe fermân salṭanat
(Elif) Andan berü ki gördi yüzüñ âfitâbını
Cân ile oldı ḥüsnüñe ḥayrân salṭanat
(Ḥâ) Ḥayy-ı ebed ezelde saña ḳısmet eylemiş
İzüñ tozına yüz süre her ân salṭanat
(Mîm) Ma‘lûm olalı ‘âleme nâmuñ eḥâdis̱i
Ḫalḳ-ı cihânı eyledi ḫandân salṭanat
(Dâl) Dâr-ı cihânda şevketüñi ẕerre görmedi
‘Ālemde gerçi sürdi Süleymân salṭanat
(Elif) Ayruḳ kimesne beñzeyemez ḳadr-i câhuña
Ḫatm oldı sende ‘âdet-i erkân-ı salṭanat
(Dâl) Dâyim devâm-ı rif‘at ile devlet atına
Şâhâ süvâr ol ṭola meydân-ı salṭanat
(Elif) Ol sen hemîşe sâye-i rif‘atde müstedâm
Dillerde tâ ki şerḥ ola destân-ı salṭanat
(Mîm) Meydân içinde çalmaġa ṭopın sa‘âdetüñ
Ṣundı elüñe ‘aşḳ ile çevgân-ı salṭanat
(Elif) Olduḳça ‘îd ü ṣavm u ṣalât u berât u ḳadr
Olsun ḳapuñda ey şeh-i devrân salṭanat
(Lâm) Luṭfuñ seḥâbı ḳaṭrelerinden bulup durur
Şâhâ cihânda lücce-i ‘ummân salṭanat
(He) Her kim dil ile bendesi oldı işigüñüñ
Bulsa gerek cihânda ol âsân salṭanat
(‘Ayn) ‘Aynına gösterür mi göre bir daḫi felek
Ger senden özgede göre çendân salṭanat
(Mîm) Mihrî'ye işigüñde yeter ḫâk olduġı
Ger bulmaġ ise besdür i sulṭân salṭanat
(Re) Rehber Ḫıżır olup saña virsün İlâhî Ḥaḳ
Biñ ‘ömr ile cihânda hezârân salṭanat
(He) Her günlerüñi ‘îd ide Ḥaḳ her giceñ berât
Ḳapuñda dâyim eyleye dîvân salṭanat

In English

1. O khan of sovereignty, since you became shah of the world, sovereignty has appeared in the world as plain as the sun.

2. Standing firm in love day and night, sovereignty has made itself a doorkeeper at your gate.

3. Is it surprising if the sound of your fame fills the world? O exalted shah, the pillars of sovereignty (everything that holds it up) are in you.

4. O ruler of the age, had you not bestowed it, where would all the lords of the world have found sovereignty?

5. How should this turning heaven not be subdued before you? It saw that sovereignty obeys your command.

6. Since it saw the sun of your face, sovereignty has been struck with wonder at your beauty with all its soul.

7. The Eternally Living God allotted this to you in pre-eternity: that sovereignty should at every moment rub its face on the dust of your footprint.

8. Since the tidings of your name became known to the world, sovereignty has gladdened and made laugh all the people of the world.

9. Although Solomon held sovereignty in the world, sovereignty in this house of the world never saw even an atom of your splendour (even the sovereignty of the Prophet Solomon is nothing beside yours).

10. No one else can resemble your standing and rank; the customs, rules and usages of sovereignty have ended in you and reached perfection.

11. O sovereign, with lasting eminence mount the horse of fortune at all times, so that the field of sovereignty may be filled to overflowing.

12. May you be ever lasting in the shadow of eminence, so that the epic of sovereignty may be told on people's tongues.

13. Sovereignty, in love, put the polo stick (the long stick with which the ball is struck in the game of polo) in your hand so that you might drive the ball of felicity across the field.

14. O sovereign of the age, as long as the festival, fasting, prayer, the night of Berat and the night of Qadr exist, may sovereignty be at your gate.

15. O sovereign, from the drops of the cloud of your grace, the depth of the ocean in the world finds sovereignty (even the ocean owes its greatness to the drops that fall from your grace). The couplet can also be read as "sovereignty reaches the depth of the ocean through the drops of the cloud of your grace".

16. Whoever has become a servant of your threshold with his heart should find sovereignty in the world with ease.

17. If the heavens saw so much sovereignty in anyone but you, would they show it to their eye again, would they bear to see it? (The heavens would not consent to see such greatness in anyone but you.) The couplet can be read in two ways: "Would the heavens again show their eye the sight of so much sovereignty in anyone but you?" or "If the heavens were to see so much sovereignty in anyone but you, would they see it again?"; in both readings the meaning is that this greatness belongs to you alone.

18. O sultan, for Mihrî it is enough to be dust at your threshold; as for the sovereignty she seeks, that is more than enough for her.

19. May God make Khidr your guide and give you in the world thousands of sovereignties with a thousand lifetimes.

20. May God make each of your days a festival and each of your nights a night of Berat; may sovereignty always hold its divan at your gate.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This poem is a kaside of twenty couplets and is the seventh kaside of the divan in Arslan's edition. Its metre is the same as that of the previous kaside: "Mef'ûlü Fâ'ilâtü Mefâ'îlü Fâ'ilün" of the muzari bahr. The redif is the word "salṭanat" repeated at the end of each couplet, and the rhyme is built on the sound "-ân" (ḫân, a'yân, der-bân, erkân, iḥsân, fermân, ḥayrân, Süleymân, meydân, destân, çevgân, 'ummân). Mihrî gives no long introduction here; she begins the praise from the first couplet, after the fourteenth couplet mixes praise with prayers, states her pen name in the eighteenth, and ends the last two couplets with prayer.

The kaside is found only in the Ankara National Library (M) copy. Arslan notes that only this copy preserves three kasides, six ghazals, a murabba and a mesnevi that are absent from the other copies; this poem is one of those three kasides. Its heading in the edition is "Ḳas̱îde-i Sulṭân Aḥmed".

The Kaside as a Muvaşşah

What sets the poem apart from the other kasides is that it is a muvaşşah. A muvaşşah is a poem in which the letters placed at the beginning, middle or end of the couplets or lines, read one beneath another, form a name or a meaningful phrase; it corresponds to the acrostic of Western literature. In the edition the letter with which each couplet begins is written in parentheses at its head. Read in order, these letters give in Arabic script the following: Sin, Lâm, Ṭı, Elif, Nûn "Sulṭân"; Elif, Ḥâ, Mîm, Dâl "Aḥmed"; Elif, Dâl, Elif, Mîm, Elif, Lâm, He "edâme'llâh"; 'Ayn, Mîm, Re, He "'ömrehû". Taken whole, one reads "Sulṭân Aḥmed edâme'llâhu 'ömrehû", that is, the prayer "May God make Sultan Ahmed's life last". Of the two lâms in the spelling of the word "Allah", a couplet has been given to only one.

There are places where this game also shows within the poem. The seventeenth couplet, which begins with the letter "'Ayn", opens with the word "'aynına" (to its eye); the name of the letter and the meaning of the word coincide here. The eighteenth couplet begins with the pen name, "Mihrî"; the poet's name thus supplies the second letter of the word "'ömrehû" in the prayer, the mîm.

The muvaşşah appears once more in Mihrî's divan with an explicit heading: the heading of the seventy-ninth ghazal is "Muvaşşaḥ Be-İsm-i Süleymân". In Mustafa Özkat's wide survey of muvaşşahs in Turkish literature, Mihrî Hatun is mentioned with three poems among the poets who gave more than one example of this genre. The same study records that Serâyî, a poet of the time of Bayezid II, also wrote fourteen poems in this manner; Mihrî is one of the poets who used this skill in the palace circle of the same period.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Because every couplet of the kaside is tied to the redif "salṭanat", sovereignty behaves almost like a person in the poem. Sovereignty is a doorkeeper waiting day and night at the prince's gate (couplet 2), a lover who is struck with wonder at his beauty on seeing his face (6), a servant who rubs its face on the dust of his footprint (7), a herald of good news who gladdens the people of the world (8), and a helper who hands him the polo stick (13). Giving sovereignty human behaviour is an example of what is called teşhis (personification) in divan poetry, sustained through the whole kaside.

At times the measure of praise rises to comparison with prophets and legendary heroes. In the ninth couplet the sovereignty of the Prophet Solomon is cited as an example that does not reach even an atom of the prince's splendour. This allusion shows how far the hyperbole of the praise goes. The mention of Khidr as a guide in the nineteenth couplet is tied to the wish for a long life. In the thirteenth couplet the words field, ball and polo stick are used together. Çevgân is a game in which a ball is driven with a long stick on horseback, and in divan poetry it often appears as a symbol of rulership and success; bringing words from the same field together is a clear example of tenasüp.

The fourteenth and twentieth couplets rest on the religious calendar. In the sequence "'îd ü ṣavm u ṣalât u berât u ḳadr" the festival, fasting, prayer, and the nights of Berat and Qadr are mentioned; the last couplet wishes that each of the prince's days be a festival and each night a night of Berat. These mentions suggest an occasion of a festival or Ramadan, but there is no statement in the poem that settles it. In the eighteenth couplet the poet presents herself as a piece of dust at the prince's threshold and says that this takes the place of sovereignty for her.

Resemblance to the Bayezid Kaside

The second kaside in Mihrî's divan, again found only in the Ankara copy and bearing in the edition the heading "Ḳaṣîde-i Sulṭân Bâyezîd Edâmallâhu 'Ömrehû", is a kaside written for Bayezid II. When the two poems are set side by side, the closeness between them is at once noticeable. The redif of both is "salṭanat", both are muvaşşahs, and in the second the couplet initials read the prayer "Sulṭân Bâyezîd edâme'llâhu 'ömrehû". The Bayezid kaside is longer (twenty-three couplets) and is written in another metre, the pattern "Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilün" of the ramal bahr; there are separate couplets for both lâms of the word "Allah".

The resemblance in content continues in places almost word for word. The line "Lem-yezel rûz-ı ezelde saña ḳısmet eylemiş" in the second couplet of the Bayezid kaside takes the form "Ḥayy-ı ebed ezelde saña ḳısmet eylemiş" in the seventh couplet of the Ahmed kaside. The line "Nice devrân gerçi kim sürdi Süleymân salṭanat" of the Bayezid kaside appears here as "'Ālemde gerçi sürdi Süleymân salṭanat". Both poems share the image of the ball and polo stick, the wish that the shadow be lasting and the epic of sovereignty be told on people's tongues, the ocean's taking its share from the drops of grace, the finding of sovereignty with ease by the one who becomes a servant of the threshold, the joining of the letter "'Ayn" with the word "eye", the prayer couplet that begins with "Rehber", and a last couplet that ends with a divan being held at the gate. This closeness shows that Mihrî worked the same pattern twice, for father and son, in different metres. Which was written first is not known.

Historical Context

Both the heading in the edition and the muvaşşah of the couplet initials show beyond doubt that the kaside was presented to Prince Ahmed. In the poem he is addressed as "şâh", "ḫusrev-i zamâne" and "sulṭân". Prince Ahmed was in Amasya as sanjak governor between 1481 and 1512. Mehmet Arslan says that of the seventeen kasides in the divan ten were presented to Prince Ahmed, and that nearly all of them are in the nature of festival greetings for Ramadan or Sacrifice. There is no record of when this kaside was written.

Sehî Bey writes that Mihrî gave Prince Ahmed many kasides and ghazals. According to the gratuity register (in'âmât defteri) published by İsmail E. Erünsal, Bayezid II also made gifts to Mihrî in 1505, 1510, 1511 and 1512 in return for her poems, and in 1508 sent 3,000 akçe for her divan. That the same pattern was applied both to the sultan father and to the prince son in Amasya shows that Mihrî offered praise of the same kind to both patrons.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, Kaside 7, pp. 30-31; Kaside 2, pp. 19-21; introduction, pp. 4-7, 11-15. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Mustafa Özkat, "Muvaşşah / Tevşîh ve Türk Edebiyatındaki Yansımaları", Türk Kültürü İncelemeleri Dergisi, 55 (Spring 2026), pp. 162-220.

Official sources

  • Sehî Beg, Heşt Bihişt, eds. Hasan İpekten and Günay Kut, T.C. Ministry of Culture and Tourism e-book, entry on Mihrî, pp. 159-160.

Books

Online sources