Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Cihân hasm olsa Hak’dan nusret iste
Erenlerden du’â vü himmet iste
Çalup dîn aşkına da’vâya şemşîr
Anuben çâryârı hidmet iste
Eger leb-teşne isen ey bed-endîş
Bu deşt çeşmesinden şerbet iste
Geçenden geç demir taşdan sakınma
Demiri mahv idenden kudret iste
Çevirme yüz muhâlifden Muhammed
Adûyı arsadan sür vüs’at iste

In English

1. Even if the whole world should be your enemy, ask God for help and victory; ask the saints (the friends of God) for prayer and spiritual support.

2. For love of the faith, wield the sword for your cause; ask to serve, remembering the four companions (the caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali).

3. O you of ill thoughts (or of troubled mind), if your lips are parched with thirst, ask for sherbet from the spring of this desert.

4. Give up what passes away; do not shrink from iron and stone (from weapons and obstacles); ask for strength from the One who destroys iron (God, who is able to do all things). The first words of the line are obscure and can also be understood as "pass through the passes".

5. O Muhammed, do not turn your face from the adversary (do not flee the enemy); drive the foe from the field and ask for breadth (ease, a wide realm).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets; the ghazal is the verse form in which the two lines of the first couplet rhyme with each other and the second lines of the other couplets carry on that rhyme. The redif (refrain word) is "iste" ("ask for"), repeated at the end of every couplet; the rhyme is the "-et" sound in the words "nusret, himmet, hidmet, şerbet, kudret, vüs'at". The source does not give the metre; the lines fit the "mefâîlün mefâîlün feûlün" pattern of the hezec metre of aruz (quantitative metre), an identification that is ours. In the last couplet the poet's name, "Muhammed", appears instead of a pen name (mahlas). To whom and on what occasion it was written is not known.

The text is given in the form found in the entry on Mehmed I written by Ömer Savran in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü; the entry quotes it from Coşkun Ak's book Şair Padişahlar (2001). This citation does not say from which manuscript anthology (mecmua) the ghazal comes. Since the anthologies of poets (tezkire) of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries give Mehmed I no entry and quote no poem of his, the attribution rests on a late record and should not be considered certain. The same entry states plainly that Mehmed I is said to have written poetry, but that there is no information that he composed any work.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal does not touch the theme of love at all; from beginning to end it is a poem of counsel and holy war. Every couplet ends in a command, and the redif "iste" gives the poem a voice between prayer and order: victory from God, prayer from the saints, service in remembrance of the four caliphs, sherbet from the spring in the desert, strength from the One who destroys iron, and breadth on the field after driving out the enemy. In the first couplet "cihân" and "hasm" (the whole world and the enemy) are set against "Hak" (God) and "erenler" (the saints); the idea that help comes from a spiritual source rather than from material power runs through the whole ghazal.

In the second couplet "şemşîr" (sword) stands beside "dîn aşkı" (love of the faith), and the mention of the "çâryâr" (the four friends of the Prophet, the first four caliphs) gives a Sunni emphasis. In the third couplet there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "leb-teşne" (thirsty-lipped), "çeşme" (spring) and "şerbet"; a spring in the middle of the desert is shown to the one who thirsts. The word "bed-endîş" is usually used for a person of ill intent, and here it is not clear to whom the address is directed. In the fourth couplet the word "demir" (iron) is repeated in both lines (tekrir): in the first it is the weapon and obstacle not to be feared, in the second it is reduced to nothing before the power that can destroy iron. The final couplet is built in the language of battle with the idioms "yüz çevirmek" (to turn one's face away) and "arsadan sürmek" (to drive from the field); since "vüs'at" means both breadth and ease, the couplet carries together the wish to drive out the enemy, widen the realm and reach relief.

Historical Context

After the Battle of Ankara Mehmed I withdrew to Amasya, held his ground there against Kara Devletşah and the local beys, and then entered an eleven-year struggle for the throne with his brothers İsa, Süleyman and Musa. That a ghazal asking God for help at a moment when the world has turned hostile, and urging the reader not to turn from the enemy but to drive him from the field, should be quoted in his name fits this life. But the fit does not show that the poem is really his; the ghazal may also have been attributed to such a ruler at a later date. The state of the sources on him as a poet and the poets he patronised are discussed in Mehmed I (Muhammed): Poet and Works, and his life in Çelebi Mehmed: Amasya'dan Edirne'ye Osmanlı'nın İkinci Kurucusu.

Bibliography

Online sources