Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Rūḥ-ı ‘ālemdür muṣavver nūr-ı çeşm-i ins ü cān
Ḥażret-i sulṭān-ı ‘ālem Aḥmed-i ḫān ibn-i ḫān
Rūḥ-ı rūḫullāhuñ ol nuṭḳ ile cānıdur hemīn
Kim virür her demde niçe mürdeye rūḥ-ı revān
Rūḥ-ı pāk-i Muṣṭafānuñ pertevidür rūşen ol
Ṣūretā ḫalḳa Ḥasan sīretde Aḥmeddür hemān
Rūḥ-ı ‘ālemdür ne yüzden ḥaḳ budur kim gizleseñ
Mesned-i ḫalḳ-ı cihāndur melce’-i emn ü emān
Rūḥ-ı ‘ālemdür didümse vechi rūşen gün gibi
Şems-i ‘ālem-tābdur zıll-i Ḫudādur ḫod ‘ıyān
Rūḥ-ı ‘ālemdür muṣavver bu ḳad ü reftār ile
Serv-i bāġ-ı salṭanatdur gül-bün-i gül-zār-ı cān
Rūḥ-ı ‘ālemdür muṣavver kendüsi ser-tā-ḳadem
Gerd-i rāhından fer umar dīde-i kerrūbiyān
Rūḥ-ı ‘ālemdür muṣavver nūr-ı şems andandur bedīd
Gün gibi bu āşkārādur degül hergiz nihān
Rūḥ-ı ‘ālemdür muṣavver nūr-ı muṭlaḳdur tamām
K’aftāb-ı ṭal‘atındandur münevver neyyirān
Rūḥ-ı ‘ālemdür muṣavver nūr-ı çeşm-i mihr ü māh
Kim çerāġ andan yaḳarlar hep Münīrī ḫāverān
Rūḥ-ı ‘ālemdür muṣavver nūr-ı çeşm-i kāyināt
Şol ki pürdür ṣīt-i ‘adliyle zemīn [ü] āsmān
Ḥażret-i şāh-ı cihān u Ḫüsrev-i ṣāḥib-ḳırān
Ḥażret-i ṣāḥib-ḳırān u ḥāṣıl-ı devr-i zamān
Ḥażret-i sulṭān-ı dehr ü mehdī-yi āḫir zamān
Ḥażret-i sulṭān-ı Ḥaydar-heybet ü gītī-sitān
Ḥażret-i sulṭān-ı ‘ālem pādşāh-ı kām-rān
Ḥażret-i sulṭān-ı ‘ālem şehr-i yār-ı Ḳahramān
Ḥażret-i sulṭān-ı ‘ālem Aḥmed-i şīr-i jiyān
Ḥażret-i sulṭān-ı ‘ālem Aḥmed-i şāh-ı cihān

In English

1. The soul of the world has taken form and become the light of the eye of men and jinn: His Highness the sultan of the world, Ahmed, khan son of a khan. ("Muṣavver" means given form, shaped. "İns ü cān" in its dictionary sense means men and jinn; the word "cān" also calls to mind the meaning "soul, life".)

2. Through his speech he is the very life of the soul of the Spirit of God, that is, Jesus; at every moment he gives a flowing soul to many a dead man. (Jesus is believed to have raised the dead by his word and breath; the prince's word likewise gives life to dead hearts.)

3. He is the bright radiance of the pure soul of Mustafa; in appearance he is Hasan to the people, and in character he is Ahmed himself. ("Ḥasan" in its dictionary sense means beautiful and is also the name of Hasan, the Prophet's grandson; "Aḥmed" is both one of the Prophet's names and the prince's name. The line says that the prince's face is beautiful and his character like the Prophet's.)

4. From whatever side one looks, he is the soul of the world; even if you hide it, this is the truth: he is the support of the people of the world, the refuge of safety and quarter.

5. If I have said "He is the soul of the world", the reason is as clear as day: he is the sun that lights the world, the shadow of God; this is plain to see in any case. ("Vech" means both reason and face; the phrase "vechi rūşen" can be understood in two ways, "its reason is clear" and "his face is bright".)

6. With this stature and this gait he is the soul of the world given form; he is the cypress of the garden of sovereignty, the rose bush of the rose garden of the soul.

7. He himself, from head to foot, is the soul of the world given form; the eyes of the Cherubim hope for lustre from the dust of his path. ("Kerrūbiyān" in its dictionary sense are the great angels closest to God.)

8. He is the soul of the world given form; the light of the sun has appeared from him; this is as plain as day and never hidden.

9. He is the soul of the world given form, a complete and absolute light; for the sun and moon have been lit by the sun of his face. ("Neyyirān" in its dictionary sense means the two luminaries, that is, the sun and the moon.)

10. He is the soul of the world given form, the light of the eye of the sun and moon; O Münîrî, the lands of the east always light their lamps from him. ("Ḫāverān" in its dictionary sense means the east, the lands where the sun rises.)

11. He is the soul of the world given form, the light of the eye of creation; such that earth and heaven are full of the fame of his justice. (The conjunction "ü" (and) in the line is Ersoy's emendation, made on grounds of metre and sense.)

12. His Highness the king of the world and the sovereign born under a fortunate conjunction; His Highness, lord of the conjunction and the fruit of the turning of time. ("Ṣāḥib-ḳırān" in its dictionary sense means a ruler of great fortune born at the moment two auspicious planets meet; "ḥāṣıl-ı devr-i zamān" is the yield of time's revolution, that is, the fruit of the age.)

13. His Highness the sultan of the age and the Mahdi of the end of time; His Highness the sultan with the awe of Haydar, conqueror of the world. (Haydar is the epithet of Ali. "Gītī-sitān" means conqueror of the world.)

14. His Highness the sultan of the world, the padishah who attains his desires; His Highness the sultan of the world, the sovereign of Kahraman. ("Kām-rān" means one who attains his desires, fortunate. "Şehr-i yār" is the word "şehriyār", sovereign, written apart. The "Ḳahramān" at the end of the line is written in the edition with a capital letter, as a proper name; what this word, which also means "hero", refers to here cannot be determined with certainty from the text.)

15. His Highness the sultan of the world, Ahmed the raging lion; His Highness the sultan of the world, Ahmed the king of the world. ("Şīr-i jiyān" in its dictionary sense is a furious, ravening lion.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a Turkish kaside (qasida) of fifteen couplets and is numbered Kaside 27 in the edition. The kaside is a verse form in which every couplet carries the same rhyme, usually written in praise of a ruler. The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on the sound "-ān" (cān, revān, hemān, emān, ‘ıyān, nihān, neyyirān, āsmān, cihān …). Ersoy counts this kaside too among the examples of the rhyme type Münîrî uses most, in which a long vowel precedes the rhyme letter. After the opening couplet (matla), couplets 12-15 also rhyme in both lines. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 55a) and Vienna (VY 169a) manuscripts. The heading in the edition, "Ḳaṣīde-i müşeccer der-medḥ-i Sulṭān Aḥmed ṭāle beḳāhü", means "Tree-shaped kaside in praise of Sultan Ahmed, may his life be long". In the heading of the Vienna manuscript the patron is called "şeh-zāde-i cüvān-baḫt", the prince of youthful fortune.

Müşeccer means in its dictionary sense "with trees, tree-shaped"; in poems of this kind the lines are laid out on the page like the trunk and branches of a tree. According to Ersoy there are two such kasides in the divan: this poem, which is in Turkish, and the Persian Kaside 15. Ersoy notes that these two kasides are among the first examples of a type of which Turkish literature has very few, and that they show there was a search concerning form in poetry at the time. The edition notes the place of each couplet in the tree: couplet 1 is the trunk; couplets 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 form the five branches on the right, couplets 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 the first five branches on the left; couplets 12-15 are the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth branches on the left. The tree thus has five branches on its right side and nine on its left. How this arrangement is drawn in the manuscripts is not described separately in the edition.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The tree layout is reflected in the wording of the poem as well. The first line of the opening couplet, which forms the trunk, begins with the words "Rūḥ-ı ‘ālemdür muṣavver"; all of the first eleven couplets open with "Rūḥ-ı", and couplets 6-11 repeat the phrase word for word. The branches growing from the trunk thus carry on the words of the trunk. The phrase "Ḥażret-i sulṭān-ı ‘ālem" in the second line of the opening couplet is likewise echoed in couplets 12-15, the last four branches on the left side, by the word "Ḥażret-i" at the head of every line. This repetition is an example, spread over the whole poem, of the figure called tekrir (repetition), and makes the tree's opening out from trunk to branches felt in the words as well.

The central idea of the poem is that the prince is "the soul of the world given form". The poet supports this claim on each branch with a different reason: he is the life of Jesus (2), the radiance of the Prophet's soul (3), the refuge of the people (4), the shadow of God (5), the source of the light of the sun and moon (8-10). The image of light runs from beginning to end and reaches its height in couplet 10, which carries the pen name, where the lands of the east light their lamps from him; the pen name (mahlas) "Münīrī" itself comes from a root meaning in its dictionary sense "illuminating, shining". In couplet 3 the play on names is marked: "Ḥasan" is both "beautiful" and the name of Hasan, "Aḥmed" the name of both the Prophet and the prince; the line says that the prince is beautiful in appearance and like the Prophet in character. The word "vech" in couplet 5 is likewise a double entendre (tevriye), meaning both reason and face. The last four couplets turn into a string of titles: lord of the conjunction, Mahdi of the end of time, with the awe of Haydar, conqueror of the world, raging lion. In couplet 15 both lines begin "Ḥażret-i sulṭān-ı ‘ālem Aḥmed", and the poem closes on the prince's name.

Historical Context

The recipient of the kaside is clear from the heading and from the name in couplets 1 and 15: the patron is Prince Ahmed, son of Bayezid II. The phrase "Aḥmed-i ḫān ibn-i ḫān", Ahmed, khan son of a khan, in couplet 1 stresses that he is a ruler's son. According to Ersoy, seven of the kasides in the divan were written for Prince Ahmed; in the edition Kasides 22-28 carry headings in his name. Prince Ahmed was governor of the Amasya province between 1481 and 1511, and Münîrî served for a time as his chancellor (nişancı). The prayer "ṭāle beḳāhü" (may his life be long) in the heading shows that the poem was written during the prince's lifetime; beyond this, the sources give no information on the year or occasion of the kaside's composition.

Bibliography

Online sources