The names of the Twelve Imams pass through this deyiş one after another, stanza by stanza: beginning with Hasan and Hüseyin, it moves through Zeynel, Bakır, Cafer, Musa and Rıza to Taki, Naki and Askerî, and finally arrives at the Mahdi. In the Alevi tradition poems of this kind are called düvaz-ı imam or düvazdeh imam, and the Repertükül record gives the genre in the same way. The words carry the pen name Hatâyî. The tune was taken in Merzifon from Âşık Erdal Denk and is recorded as his own. The piece is not in the TRT repertoire; it entered the Repertükül archive under no. 2096.

Catalogue Data

  • Archive no.: Repertükül archive 2096 (not a TRT number)
  • Region: Amasya, Merzifon
  • Genre: düvaz-ı imam (deyiş)
  • Source person: none listed separately; the notation was taken from the composer, who is also the performer
  • Collected and notated by: Erkan Demirtaş, Berkay Gençer
  • Date of collection: not given; the collection was made within the EU-funded CultureCIVIC Culture and Arts Support Programme
  • Modal scale: not stated in the record; closing note E (Mi)
  • Rhythm: 7/8
  • Range: D to G, four notes
  • Words: Shah Hatâyî (spelled "Şah Hatayi" in the record)
  • Music: Âşık Erdal Denk
  • Source link: as the piece is not in the TRT repertoire, its details and lyrics can be followed in the Repertükül archive record.

Lyrics

The text is given as it appears in the record; words written in capitals have been put into lower case, and run-together spellings such as "birgün" have been separated. As the author lived centuries ago, all five quatrains can be quoted.

Muhammed Ali'yi candan sevenler
Yorulup yollarda kalmaz inşallah
İmam-ı Hasan'ın yüzün görenler
Hüseyin'den mahrum olmaz inşallah
İmam-ı Zeynel'den bir dolu içen
İmam-ı Bakır'dan kaynayup coşan
Sıdk ile İmam Cafer'e koşan
Bundan özge yola sapmaz inşallah
İmam-ı Musa'dan gelen erenler
Can baş feda edüb cemler görenler
İmam-ı Rıza'ya zehir verenler
Divanda şefaat bulmaz inşallah
Bir gün olur okuturlar defteri
Şah oğlunun elindedir teberi
Uyanırsa Takiy Naki Askeri
Açılan gülümüz solmaz inşallah
Hatayi der bu iş bir gün biter a
Özünü katagör ulu katara
Mehd'i şevki bu cihanı tutar a
Şah oğluna sitem olmaz inşallah

Every quatrain closes like a prayer on the refrain "inşallah", God willing. Those who love Muhammad and Ali with all their heart will not tire and be left on the road; those who have seen Hasan's face will not be deprived of Hüseyin. The second quatrain says that whoever drinks the "dolu", the cup offered in the cem, from Zeynel, wells up from Bakır and runs to Cafer in sincerity will not stray onto another path. The third holds a curse: those who poisoned Imam Rıza will find no intercession at the court of the Last Judgement.

The fourth quatrain looks to the day of reckoning: the ledgers will be read out, and the teber, the dervish's axe, will be in the hand of the "Shah's son". If Taki, Naki and Askerî "awaken", the rose that has opened will not fade. In the last quatrain the poet says this affair will end one day and urges the listener to join the great caravan, the "ulu katar". The words written "Mehd'i şevki" can be understood as the zeal of the Mahdi, pointing to the expectation that the twelfth imam will hold the world. Because the spelling in the record is corrupt, this reading is not certain.

Story

No published account of how the deyiş came to be written was found. Hatâyî is the pen name Shah Ismail (1487-1524), founder of the Safavid state, used in his Turkish poems. According to the article in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, many Qizilbash, Alevi and Bektashi poets of later centuries also wrote under the same name, which has caused confusion over the authorship of poems in the manuscript anthologies. It is therefore hard to attribute the text directly to Shah Ismail; what can be said is that the version sung in Merzifon today is sung under the name Hatâyî.

Musical Features

The record leaves the name of the scale blank and does not give the final note either; the piece closes on E. The rhythm is the seven-beat asymmetric 7/8, and the melody stays within a narrow range of only four notes between D and G, which lets the long text be heard syllable by syllable. A note beneath the score guides performance: the introductory section is played only before the first stanza and is skipped in the stanzas that follow.

Performers and Recordings

The version that Âşık Erdal Denk, who made the tune, sang for the collectors is the only known performance of the deyiş. The same series also contains "Merzifon Yollarında", for which he wrote both words and music. No published information was found on the deyiş passing to other performers or onto records.

A general article on Amasya's deyiş and folk songs: The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources