Münîrî, Muamma 13: The Name Seyfî

Muamma 13 (name riddle) — Āftāb-ı ḥüsnüñe dil müşterīdür cān ile

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 07 October 2026 • 3 min reading

Münîrî's thirteenth muamma is built of sun, moon, zodiac sign and Müşteri, the heart being both buyer and planet; the edition gives its solution as "Seyfî".

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Āftāb-ı ḥüsnüñe dil müşterīdür cān ile
Göreli burc-ı şerefde sen meh-i tābān ile

In English

1. Ever since it saw you in the sign of exaltation together with the shining moon, the heart has been a buyer, with its very soul, of the sun of your beauty (ready to give its life to obtain it). ("Müşterī" means both buyer and the planet Jupiter.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The thirteenth muamma (name riddle) of the edition is a single couplet in the metre "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün"; "cān" and "tābān" form the rhyme, and "ile" (with) is the refrain word (redif). The muammas stand in the same order in VT and VY (VT 179b-180b, VY 151a-152b); since Ü breaks off after the 11th muamma, this couplet is absent from that manuscript.

The edition's heading gives the solution as "Seyfī"; Ersoy cites the name in his introduction as "Seyfi". Whose name it is is not stated.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is built in the language of the heavens: sun (āftāb), moon (meh), zodiac sign and Müşteri. The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives the word "müşteri" two separate entries: one who buys, a buyer, and the planet Jupiter; the second entry also notes that Müşteri was known as the star of felicity and plenty. The heart is a buyer ready to give its life for the sun of the beloved's beauty; the same word also sets a planet in the middle of the sky. This double entendre (tevriye) is the most marked wordplay of the couplet.

"Burc-ı şeref" means the sign of height and honour; the Kubbealtı gives "burç" the meanings of a fortress tower and of each of the twelve constellations of the zodiac. The beloved is seen in this sign together with the shining moon. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi notes that in muammas the twelve signs and the seven planets point to particular letters; we cannot, however, show how the celestial words of the couplet yield the letters of the name Seyfī. Ersoy does not explain the solution either.