Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Couplets 3132-3136

Hemân tâvûs-ı sidre ya‘nî Cibrîl
Bu âyetle yitişdi nitekim yil
وَاِذْ يَمْكُرُ بِكَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لِيُثْبِتُوكَ اَوْ يَقْتُلُوكَ اَوْ يُخْرِجُوكَ وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللّٰهُ
Nuzûlinde sebeb sordı Cenâbı
Didi sözde dökerek dürr-i nâbı
Ki senüñ kasduña cem‘ olup a‘dâ
Bed-endîş ile itdiler köti râ
Hudâ-yı bî-niyâz eyle buyurdı
Ki bu gice koyup gidüp bu yurdı
Medîneye kılasın sen de hicret
Ki görile ne-ise soñra ‘ibret

Couplets 3148-3152

İyitdi yâ Ebâ Bekr Ahmede di
Şeb-i hicret bu gicedür var imdi
K’ola ashâb ile ensâra vâsıl
Olur min ba‘d neyse fikri hâsıl
Diyüp böyle bunı görünmez oldı
Velî bilmez ki kanca gitdi n’oldı
Gelüp didi cenâbına nişânın
Beyân itdükde bir bir neyse şânın
Tebessümle didi İblîsdür ol
Ki ya‘nî gösterür lu‘b ile ol yol

Couplets 3157-3172

Getürdüp Murtazâya emr-i Berrî
‘Ayân idüp serâser bildi sırrı
Buyurdı sen benüm yirümde yatup
Bürüngil bürdümi küffâr olup tob
Gelürlerse yime gam hâfıza’llâh
Gidüp ol dün kim olıcak sehergâh
Harîmüm üzre nâzırsın mu‘ayyen
Emânet ne ki var vir issine sen
Nebîler muktedâsı Tañrı hâsı
‘Alî-yi Murtazâyı k’itdi vâsî
Görüp kaydın ‘işâ vaktini gözler
Yüzin gören zihî devletlü gözler
Hemân Cibrîl ü Mîkâ‘ile hâli
Cenâb-ı ‘izzetüñ oldı su‘âli
Ki siz iki karındaşı vücûda
Getürdüm lâyık olduñuz sücûda
Biriñüz ‘ömri uzun biri kûteh
Konuldu oluñuz bu sırdan âgeh
Olan kûtâha kankıñuz ki kâyil
K’ola öñ vasl-ı rûhâniye kâbil
Dileyen kimdürür bes ‘ömrüñ azın
Taleb her birisi kıldı dırâzın
Nidâ dergâh-ı Hakdan irdi ol dem
Ki görüñüz ‘Alî-yi bî-gam ü hemm
Diyüp ben bendeñ olsun saña kurbân
Fidâ itdi Habîbüm yolına cân
Benem hod kandasa her şahsa nâcî
İkiñüz dahı oluñ aña bekçi
İnüñ bu gice bekleñ subha dek tâ
K’irişmeye şer u şûr aña aslâ
Hitâb-ı Hak bu k’oldı ‘izzet ile
Revân indiler işbu ayet ile
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَشْرِي نَفْسَهُ ابْتِغَاءَ مَرْضَاتِ اللّٰهِ وَاللّٰهُ رَؤُفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ

Couplets 3182-3190

Didi bir ‘abde iki üştür ile
Sagılur niçe koyun al bile
Çıkup sahrâda otur bizi gözet
Ki bu gicedür irdi vakt-i hicret
Adı ‘Âmir-idi kendüsi ‘âlim
Bu vech ile anuñla itdi bir im
Bilegce aluban ‘Abdullâhı hem
Getür kim rehber olup gide bâ-hem
Başından çok geçürüp eyü yavuz
‘Atîka oldı bu yolda kulavuz
Getürmemişdi ammâ dâhı îmân
Komışdı vaktine fermân-ı Sübhân
Kızı Esmâya (Esmâya) didi sen dahı gel
Yimekler bişürüp ‘Âmirle al gel
İyitdi oglına olmakla hâmuş
Kureyşüñ her sözine sen de tut gûş
Bize ‘Âmirle itgil varın i‘lâm
Velî tuymasun anı hâs eger ‘âm

Couplets 3193-3198

‘İşâdan soñra Cibrîl oldı hâzır
İyitdi yolları bagladı kâfir
Velî vakt oldı bâb-ı Havhadan çık
‘Aduv re‘yi esâsın hak ile yık
Dinilmez-ise ol bî-dînlere kaç
Yakından bir avuç hak anlara saç
İder Hak gözlerin baglayu gâfil
Velî bu âyeti evvel okıgıl
وَجَعَلْنَا مِنْ بَيْنِ اَيْدِيهِمْ سَدًّا وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ سَدًّا فَاَغْشَيْنَاهُمْ فَهُمْ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ
Hemân-dem idüp Allâha tevekkül
Yüridi göre kâfir gözine kül
Oluban devlet ü ikbâl hem-reh
O derden taşra çün kim çıkdı ol meh

Couplets 3227-3230

Yitişdi dâmen-i kûh-ı Hirâya
‘Urûc ider güneş san istivâya
Giderken görmemekçün çeşm-i haffâş
Mübârek ayagını yardı bir taş
Revân oldı dûn içinde akar kan
Gözüm kan dök göñül cân vir ciger yan
Hirâ tagı anuñçün acıyup hep
Peyâpey ditredi tutmışdı san teb

Couplets 3232-3235

Egerçi sâkin oldı kûh ammâ
Döker kan çeşmi Sıddîkuñ nice mâ
Ciger kanı pür itmişken gözini
Öpüp ayagına sürdi yüzini
Didi kâş olsa başum iki pâre
Mübârek pâyuña irince yara
Çeküp yırtup ridâsın eyledi çâk
Sarup muhkem öperek kıldı hem pâk

Couplets 3245-3251

Cenâbı kulle-i kûh-ı Hirâya
Hele çıkdı güneş san k’istivâya
Karar anda da itmeyüben aslâ
Yürüdi nitekim mâh-ı şeb-ârâ
Olundı kûh-ı Sevre ‘azm andan
Halâs oldı cirâhat gerçi kandan
Velî pây-ı mübârekdeki yara
Döyüş virmez ki ol kûha da vara
‘Atîki çignine götürdü derhâl
Uçar sankim Hudâ virdi per ü bâl
Olup ten bir revân iki meselde
Sabâ-veş seyr ider fark-ı cebelde
Kemerler geçdi gerçi kıldan ince
Yitişdi kûh-ı Sevre ha diyince

In English

3132. At once the peacock of the Sidra, that is Gabriel, arrived swift as the wind with this verse. The edition then gives the Arabic verse (the opening of Anfâl 8:30), meaning: "Remember how the unbelievers plotted against you, to bind you, to kill you or to drive you out; they plotted, and God plotted too."

3133. The Prophet asked the reason for its revelation; Gabriel answered, pouring pure pearls into his words:

3134. Your enemies have gathered with intent against you and, with evil purpose, have taken a wicked decision.

3135. God, Who has need of nothing, has commanded: tonight leave this homeland and go,

3136. and you too emigrate to Medina, so that later whatever lesson lies in it may be seen.

3148. (Satan) said: O Abû Bakr, tell Ahmad that the night of the emigration is tonight; go now,

3149. so that he may join the Companions and the Ansar; thereafter whatever he intends will come to pass.

3150. Having said this he vanished; Abû Bakr could not tell where he had gone or what had become of him.

3151. Abû Bakr came and described the man's marks to the Prophet, telling one by one how he had looked.

3152. The Prophet smiled and said: That is Iblis, who shows the road by trickery.

3157. He had Murtazâ (Ali) summoned and made God's command plain to him; Ali learned the whole secret.

3158. He said: Lie down in my place and wrap yourself in my cloak; the unbelievers will gather and come.

3159. If they come, do not fear: God is the protector; when dawn comes, that night too will pass.

3160. You are certainly the guardian over my household; whatever trusts are with me, return them to their owners.

3161. When the leader of the prophets, God's chosen servant, had made Ali Murtazâ his executor,

3162. and made his arrangements, he watches for the hour of the night prayer; how fortunate are the eyes that see his face. (The rhyme word gözler means first "watches", then "eyes".)

3163. At that moment the Lord of glory put this question to Gabriel and Michael:

3164. I brought you two brothers into being, and you became worthy of reverence.

3165. The life of one of you has been set long and the other's short; be informed of this secret.

3166. Which of you consents to the short one, so as to be first worthy of spiritual union.

3167. Who, then, wishes for the lesser span; each of them asked for the long.

3168. At that moment a call came from God's court: Behold Ali, free of sorrow and care,

3169. who, saying "Let me, your servant, be your sacrifice", has offered his life on the road of My Beloved.

3170. It is I who save every soul wherever it may be; you two also become his guards.

3171. Go down tonight and keep watch till morning, so that no evil or tumult reaches him at all.

3172. When God's address had come thus in glory, they descended at once with this verse. The edition then gives the Arabic verse (Baqara 2:207), meaning: "Among men is he who gives up his own self seeking God's good pleasure; and God is most kind to His servants."

3182. (Abû Bakr) said to a servant: Take two camels and some milch sheep along with you,

3183. go out and wait in the open country, and watch for us; for tonight the hour of emigration has come.

3184. His name was Âmir, and he was a knowing man; in this way Abû Bakr agreed on a sign (im) with him.

3185. Bring Abdullah along too, so that he may be our guide and go with us.

3186. This man had been through much good and ill; on this road he became the guide of Atîk (Abû Bakr).

3187. But he had not yet come to faith; God's decree had left that to its appointed time.

3188. He said to his daughter Asmâ: You come too; cook food and bring it with Âmir. (In the edition the word "Esmâya" is printed a second time in brackets.)

3189. He told his son: Keep silent and lend an ear to every word of the Quraysh,

3190. and let us know all of it through Âmir; but let neither the great nor the common sense it.

3193. After the night prayer Gabriel appeared and said: The unbelievers have blocked the roads.

3194. But the time has come: go out by the Havha gate, and with the truth (hak) overturn the enemy's plan from its foundation.

3195. If there is no reasoning with those faithless men, take a handful of earth (hâk) from close by and scatter it over them. (The word printed hak here means earth and puns on the hak, "truth", of the previous couplet; how the word kaç fits into the first line is unclear.)

3196. God will bind their eyes and make them heedless; but first recite this verse. The edition then gives the Arabic verse (Yâsîn 36:9), meaning: "We have set a barrier before them and a barrier behind them, and covered them over, so that they cannot see."

3197. At once, putting his trust in God, he walked out, with ash cast in the unbelievers' eyes.

3198. When that moon stepped out of the door, fortune and prosperity became his companions on the road.

3227. He reached the skirts of Mount Hira, as though the sun were climbing to its zenith.

3228. As he went, unable to see in the dark, like the eye of a bat, a stone split his blessed foot.

3229. In the night the blood ran flowing; weep blood, my eye; give up your life, my heart; burn, my liver.

3230. Mount Hira, feeling the pain of it, trembled again and again as if seized by a fever.

3232. The mountain grew still, but the eye of Sıddîk (Abû Bakr) poured blood like water.

3233. With his eyes full of the blood of his heart, he kissed the Prophet's foot and laid his face upon it.

3234. He said: Would that my head had been split in two rather than a wound should touch your blessed foot.

3235. He pulled at his mantle and tore it, bound the wound tightly, and kissing it, made it clean.

3245. The Prophet climbed to the summit of Mount Hira, like the sun risen to its zenith.

3246. Nor did he halt there, but walked on like the moon that adorns the night.

3247. From there they set out for Mount Sevr; though the wound had stopped bleeding,

3248. the wound on the blessed foot gave him no strength (döyüş) to reach that mountain.

3249. At once Atîk (Abû Bakr) took him on his shoulders and flew, as if God had given him wings.

3250. Becoming, as the saying goes, one body with two souls, he moved like the morning breeze over the crest of the mountain.

3251. He crossed passes finer than a hair and reached Mount Sevr in the time it takes to say "ha".

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

These couplets come from the hicretnâme (hijra narrative) in the third volume of Münîrî's seven-volume verse Siyer-i Nebî. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, with 32,475 couplets the work is the longest known verse biography of the Prophet in Turkish literature, and its only copy is in the Topkapı Palace Museum Library (Koğuşlar, nos. 994-995). The hicretnâme is 1,101 couplets long. In an article published in 2018 Reyhan Çorak gave couplets selected from this section under their numbers in her doctoral thesis of 2010. As Çorak states, the text is not given in full scholarly transliteration, and couplets not taken into the article are marked with a dotted line. This post is the second part of the couplets in the article and contains 56 couplets from 3132-3251. The first part ends with the council at Dâru'n-Nedve.

The metre is "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün" and the form is the mesnevi (rhymed-couplet poem). This section too rests on punning rhymes: in 3162 gözler means first "watches", then "eyes"; in 3194-3195 hak, "truth", and hâk, "earth", are spelled the same way in the article. Three Arabic verses of the Qur'an are set into the narrative: Anfâl 8:30, brought by Gabriel; Baqara 2:207, revealed for Ali; and Yâsîn 36:9, recited by the Prophet as he leaves the house. Çorak identifies the verses in her footnotes. In the article the Yâsîn verse was printed with its letters in reverse order through a typesetting error; the original text here gives the verse in its correct order. The repetition of the word "Esmâya" in brackets in 3188 is left as it stands in the article.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The section consists of three scenes. In the first, Gabriel, whom the poet calls "the peacock of the Sidra", reports the idolaters' decision and brings the command to emigrate. In 3148-3152 Satan appears once more: he tells Abû Bakr that the night of the emigration has come and vanishes, and the Prophet says with a smile that this was Iblis, showing the way by trickery. Thus in Münîrî's narrative Satan remains on stage both as the council's adviser and as a witness of events.

The second scene is Ali lying down in the Prophet's bed. The Prophet tells him to wrap himself in his cloak and to return the trusts to their owners. Münîrî then tells a story: God asks Gabriel and Michael which of them will accept a short life, and both ask for the long one; God then shows them Ali, who does not shrink from giving his life for the Prophet, and orders them to guard him that night (3163-3172). At the end of the story the two angels descend with the 207th verse of the sura Baqara. Çorak's summary also states that Gabriel and Michael were charged with guarding Ali through the night. The couplets on Abû Bakr's preparations (3182-3190), by contrast, are written in plain, informative language: the camels, the milch sheep, the guide, the daughter who will bring food and the son who will listen to Mecca are named one by one.

The third scene is the journey. With the verse taught by Gabriel and a handful of earth the Prophet breaks through the siege; here the poet uses the idiom "ash in the unbeliever's eye" (3197). When a stone splits the Prophet's foot on Mount Hira the language changes and a lyrical voice begins. In 3229 the poet leaves the narrative and addresses his own eye, heart and liver. The mountain trembling as if in a fever, Abû Bakr's tears of blood, his tearing of his mantle to bind the wound, and his flight with the Prophet on his shoulders as if he had wings join the marvellous with the moving. The poet ties the phrase "one body, two souls" in 3250 to a well-known saying. Images of sun and moon (3227, 3245-3246) describe the Prophet's progress in the language of the sky.

Historical Context

According to the TDV article "Hicret", the Prophet learned of the assassination plot through Gabriel, found a guide together with Abû Bakr, left Ali in his house charged with returning the trusts to their owners, and went with Abû Bakr to Mount Thawr (Sevr) southwest of Mecca, where they hid in a cave. The guide, Abdullah b. Uraykıt, was an idolater but a trustworthy man. The Abdullah who is named as guide in Münîrî's couplets 3185-3187 and said not yet to have believed corresponds to this guide. The TDV also relates that Abû Bakr's son Abdullah came to the cave every night with news from Mecca; in Münîrî the task of listening is given to the son, and Âmir carries the news. In Çorak's historical summary Âmir b. Fuhayra is also among those who joined the journey.

Some links of the narrative are missing from these summaries or appear in another form. According to Çorak's summary, in Münîrî the Prophet and Abû Bakr first head for Mount Hira and pass on from there to Thawr; the TDV article speaks of Thawr directly. The angels' story of the span of life, the trembling of the mountain and Abû Bakr's carrying the Prophet on his shoulders belong to the layer of narrative that Çorak calls legendary, expanded with marvellous events. Çorak says that such stories were used to keep the Prophet from being seen as an ordinary person in the minds of the people and to make the events memorable.

Bibliography

Academic studies

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