Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Var fesâd ġāyet ḳatî bu beldede
Sürḫ(i)-serlik böyle yoḳ bir yerde de
Ṭa‘n eder görse seni seccâdede
Cümleten düşmândır ehl-i mescide
Var ṣalât ehli içinde bî-edeb
İbn Süfyân’â eder la‘net çü kelb
Tâ Muḥarremde ṭutup mâtem be-heb
Ehl-i sünnet-len mu‘ârıż rûz u şeb
Bażı nâḳıṣdan bu ifsâdât yaḳīn
Eyledi bu beldeyi ber-bâd hemîn
Hep bu ḥâl üzre mürîd-i ṭâlibîn
Erşada’llâhu ‘aleyhim ecma‘în
Var bu ân müfsid ḥased ehl-i fesâd
Za‘fiyetden setr olupdur izdihâd
Yoḳ muṣâḥib ehl-i Ḥaḳḳ’a ‘itimâd
Hep yemek içmek cidâl dünyâ murâd
Üstüne farżdır umûr-ı ḫânesi
Biñ yalan çârşû bâzâr ser-mâyesi
Bir ta‘ayyüş bulsa ger beytiyyesi
Ol zamân dervîş olur bu ḥîlesi
Râżı olmazsa kişi faḳriyyete
Vâṣıl olmaz muṭlaḳā faḫriyyete
Bil nedir lâzım gözüm ‘abdiyyete
Teslîm olmaḳ ṭoġrı vaḥdâniyyete

In English

1. In this town there is a very hard mischief; nowhere else is there such “red-head” (kızılbaş) way.

2. If he sees you on the prayer rug he reproaches you; he is the enemy of all the people of the mosque.

3. Among the people of prayer there are ill-mannered ones; like dogs they curse Ibn Süfyân (Muâviye).

4. Keeping mourning in vain even in Muharrem, they quarrel night and day with the people of the Sunna.

5. These corruptions surely come from some deficient ones; they have laid this town waste entirely.

6. Disciples and seekers are all in this state; may God guide them all aright.

7. At this time there are mischief-makers, envious corrupters; through weakness their numbers have stayed hidden.

8. There is no trust in companionship with the people of God; it is all eating and drinking, quarrels, worldly desire.

9. The affairs of his household weigh on him as a duty; his capital in the market and bazaar is a thousand lies.

10. If he finds a way to provide for his household, then he becomes a dervish; this is his trick.

11. If a man is not content with poverty, he can never reach the pride of poverty.

12. My dear, know what is needed for servanthood: surrender to the true oneness.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Amasya Section

No other section has a city in its heading: “Bu bâb Amâsya'da şeyḫ ve dervişânıñ sürḫ-serlikleriyle fesâdâtları beyânındadır”, on the “red-head” ways and the mischief of the sheikhs and dervishes in Amasya. It covers couplets 499-511 of the edition. Read together with the section on the reason for writing, which says that the book was written for Amasya, it shows that this local situation was one of the reasons the work was composed.

The poet's complaints are gathered in four couplets: in this town the sürh-ser way is more widespread than anywhere else; there is a circle that reproaches anyone seen on a prayer rug, is hostile to the people of the mosque, curses Ibn Süfyân, that is, Muâviye, and keeps mourning in Muharrem while quarrelling with the people of the Sunna. This picture matches what Hüsameddin wrote about Süleyman Efendi: Hüsameddin records that Mîr Hamza Nigârî began an attitude of “reviling and cursing” towards the Companions in Amasya, and that Süleyman Efendi won the hearts of the people by opposing it. Nigârî's name does not appear in the poem; whether the word “sürh-ser” covers both Kızılbaş-Alevi circles and members of the order who adopted this attitude cannot be determined with certainty from the text. The fifth couplet turns the criticism inward to the orders by saying that the mischief comes from “ba‘żı nâḳıṣ”, some deficient sheikhs.

The second half of the section describes those who tie their livelihood to dervishhood: the man who tells a thousand lies in the market for his household and becomes a dervish once he has found a living. The last word goes to the man who is not content with poverty: he cannot reach the pride of poverty. For today's reader these couplets are a testimony, written by one party, to the tension between sects and orders in Amasya at the end of the nineteenth century.

Bibliography

Online sources