Original Persian Text

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

Secde-gāh-ı ḳudsīyānest īn muṣallā-yı şerīf
Gerçi bünyādeş şod ez-behr-i namāz-ı ehl-i ‘īd
Āḫir īn mıṣra‘ ber-īn tārīḫ mī-gerded Münīr
Her geh efzūn bād bādā ‘ömr-i sulṭān Bāyezīd

In English

1. Though the foundation of this noble place of prayer was laid for the prayer of the festival congregation, it is the place of prostration of the holy beings (the kudsîs).

2. O Münîr, in the end this line becomes its date: "May the life of Sultan Bayezid ever increase, so may it be."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

These two couplets are the Persian chronogram (tarih) given at the end of the edition under the heading "Tārīḫ-i Muṣallā-yı [Şeh Bāyezīd]"; the words in square brackets in the heading are Ersoy's emendation. The poem is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 181b) and is the last poem of that manuscript; describing the manuscript, Ersoy gives the chronogram couplet as its last couplet. The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün", the rhyme words "‘īd" and "Bāyezīd".

The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi notes that chronogram poems were mostly arranged as a kıta, a poem whose first couplet does not rhyme in both lines; here too the lines of the first couplet do not rhyme ("şerīf", "‘īd"). Ersoy gives the meanings of the couplets in his apparatus; our translation rests on the same interpretation.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "musallâ" as an open place where prayers are performed or that is set aside for prayer, a namazgâh. The first couplet states two sides of the structure together: its foundation was laid for the congregation that would perform the festival prayer, yet the place is also the prostration ground of holy beings.

The second couplet follows the familiar pattern of the art of the chronogram. According to the TDV, poets usually name the word "tarih" together with their own pen name in the line before the chronogram line; Münîrî does exactly this with "Āḫir īn mıṣra‘ ber-īn tārīḫ mī-gerded Münīr". As the Kubbealtı explains, in the abjad (ebced) reckoning the year is obtained by adding up the numerical values of the letters. The chronogram line takes the form of a prayer for the long life of the builder; the line "Câmiʿun zîde ʿömrü men ʿamerehû" (may the life of the one who built this mosque be long), which the TDV cites as the first example of a verse chronogram, is a prayer of the same kind.

The edition writes "Sene 889" (year 889) beneath the kıta. When we reckoned the letters of the line in abjad, using the spelling we infer from the present transliteration, we obtained 883; the difference may depend on how the words are spelled in the manuscript or on our guess at the spelling, and the edition does not show the calculation. We therefore do not regard the reckoning of the date as verified.

Historical Context

Ersoy writes in his introduction that this Persian kıta records the building of a musalla (open-air place of prayer) by Bayezid II in the year 889 of the Hijra (1484). In the poem Bayezid is called "sulṭān" (sultan). Where the musalla stood is stated neither in the heading nor in the poem, and we have found no information on this in the sources. The kıta is one of the two dated poems in the divan; the other is Kaside 29, written for his children who died in 887 (1482-83).

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