Original Persian Text

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

Mihr-i burc-ı devletest ü kevkeb-i baḫt-ı sa‘īd
Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ nūr-ı Muḥammed ḥażret-i ḫān Bāyezīd
Mihr-i ‘ālem-tāb-ı rūyeş nūr-ı çeşm-i ‘ālemest
Z’ān buved ber-merdüm-i her dīde ‘aḳs-i ū bedīd
Mihr ez-gerd-i reheş sīr-āb key bāşed ‘aceb
Gerçi şod müstaġrekeş mī-gūyed hel min mezīd
Mihr-i burc-ı salṭanat şāh-ı selāṭīn-i cihān
K’āftāb ez-bīm-i ḳadr-i ū zi-gerdūn mī-cehīd
Mihr-i burc-ı āsmān-ı şer‘ k’ey dil tīġ-i ū
Sedd-i İslāmest k’ez vey cāy-ı ḫoy ḫūn mī-çekīd
Mihr-i burc-ı devletest ü Ḫüsrev-i ṣāḥib-ḳırān
Āteş-i fitne zi-āb-ı tīġ-i ū şod nā-bedīd
Mihr-i burc-ı devletest ü zīnet-i tāc u nigīn
Nev‘-i insān-rā koned iḥsāneş ez- cins-i ‘abīd
Mihr-i burc-ı devletest ü kevkeb-i çarḫ-ı celāl
K’ez ṭulū‘-ı māh-ı ruḫsāreş buved her rūz ‘īd
Mihr-i burc-ı devletest ü kevkeb-i burc-ı şeref
Luṭf-ı Ḥayy-ı lā-yemūt u ẓıll-i Ḥannān u Ḥamīd
Mihr-i burc-ı devletest ü kevkeb-i baḫt-ı bülend
Mihr-i ū ber-rūy-ı meh dāġ-ı ġulāmī mī-keşīd
Mihr-i burc-ı devletest ü kevkeb-i baḫt-ı cihān
Ez-ḳudūmeş ḫil‘at-i devlet be-‘ālem şod cedīd
Ẓıll-i devlet-baḫş-ı ū ger ber-ser-i mā mī-füted
K’ez gül-i ter būy u v’ez meh rūşenī ne’bved ba‘īd
Ẓıll-i memdūdeş Münīrī tā ebed memdūd bād
Ber-ser-i dünyā vü dīn k’ez sāyeeş devlet resīd
Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ sulṭān-ı ‘ālem Ḫüsrev-i gītī-penāh
Nīst cüz vaṣf-ı cemīleş der-cihān güft ü şenīd
Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ sulṭān-ı heft iḳlīm ü şāh-ı ins ü cān
Şerbet-i tīġeş be-derd-i düşmenāneş şod müfīd
Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ nūr-ı dü çeşm-i devlet ü iḳbāl ü baḫt
Ḳāmet-i gerdūn zi-bār-ı himmet ü feyżeş ḫamīd
Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ nūr-ı çerāġ u dīde-i dünyā vü dīn
Ez-ḥavādis̱ milket-i dünyā be-devr-i ū rehīd
Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ nūr-ı Muḥammed Ḫüsrev-i ‘Īsī-nefes
Hemçü Aḥmed der-miyān-ı pādşāhān şod ferīd
Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ nūr-ı Muḥammed pādşāh-ı Ḥıżr-ı vaḳt
Yūsuf-ı s̱ānīst der-ḥüsn-i ḥasen ‘ömreş mezīd
Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ nūr-ı Muḥammed ḥażret-i gītī-penāh
Tīġ-i ser-tīzeş der-i ḥükm ü sitem-rā şod kelīd
Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ nūr-ı Muḥammed ḥażret-i ẕāt-ı şerīf
Bāġ-ı ‘ālem-rā nesīm ez-bād-pāy-ı ū vezīd
Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ nūr-ı Muḥammed ḥażret-i ḫān ibn-i ḫān
Pādşāh-ı bī-zevāl ū-rā zi-ṣun‘eş āferīd
Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ nūr-ı Muḥammed ḥażret-i ḫān-ı şehān
Būd ḫāḳān-ı şehenşāhān ki Ḥaḳ ū-rā güzīd

In English

1. The sun of the tower of fortune, the star of happy destiny, the shadow of God and the light of Muhammad is his majesty Khan Bayezid. ("Devlet" here means, in the dictionary sense, both felicity and fortune and also sovereignty; Ersoy reads it as "the tower of felicity".)

2. His sun-like, world-illuminating face is the light of the eye of the world; that is why his reflection appears in the pupil of every eye. ("Merdüm" in the dictionary sense means both the pupil of the eye and a human being; the phrase "every merdüm" also suggests "every person".)

3. When, one wonders, will the sun ever have its fill of the dust of his path? Even when sunk in that dust it still says, "Is there yet more?" ("Hel min mezīd" is the "Is there yet more?" spoken by hell in verse 30 of the sura Qaf; the sun's insatiable longing for this dust is expressed through these words.)

4. He is the sun of the tower of sovereignty, the shah of the sultans of the world; the sun, fearing the loftiness of his rank, is fleeing from the sky.

5. He is the sun in the tower of the sky of the sacred law; O heart, his sword is the rampart of Islam, and from the enemies who fear it blood drips instead of sweat. (Ersoy ties the first line to the sword as well and reads it as "his sword is the sun of the sky of the faith".)

6. He is the sun of the tower of fortune and a sovereign lord of the auspicious conjunction; the fire of sedition was quenched by the water of his sword. ("Ṣāḥib-ḳırān" in the dictionary sense is a great ruler at whose birth the fortunate planets stood in conjunction. The "water" of a sword is the sheen of its steel; water and fire are set against each other.)

7. He is the sun of the tower of fortune, the ornament of crown and seal; his bounty makes the human race his servants. (Ersoy understands the couplet as "he, as a servant, bestows favours upon mankind". The Persian word order also allows the reading "his bounty turns the human kind into the kind of servants"; the couplet can be read in two ways.)

8. He is the sun of the tower of fortune and the star of the sky of majesty; with the rising of his moon-like cheek every day becomes a festival. (There is a reference to the festival beginning with the sighting of the new moon.)

9. He is the sun of the tower of fortune, the star of the tower of honour; he is the grace of the Ever-Living God who never dies, and the shadow of the Most Compassionate and the Praiseworthy. (Ḥayy, Ḥannān and Ḥamīd are among the names of God.)

10. He is the sun of the tower of fortune and the star of lofty destiny; his sun has branded the face of the moon with the mark of slavery. ("Mihr" in the dictionary sense means both sun and love; Ersoy reads it here as "his love". The spots on the face of the moon are likened to the brand set on slaves.)

11. He is the sun of the tower of fortune and the star of the world's destiny; with his coming the robe of fortune was renewed in the world. ("Ḫil‘at" in the dictionary sense is the robe of honour that a ruler bestows as a favour.)

12. If his fortune-bestowing shadow falls upon our heads, it is not far-fetched that the fresh rose should never lack its scent nor the moon its light. ("Ne-bved ba‘īd" in the dictionary sense means "it is not far, it is no wonder"; Ersoy explains it as "it never fails".)

13. O Münîrî, may his far-stretching shadow stretch on to eternity, for fortune has come to the head of the world and of the faith from his shadow. ("Ẓıll-i memdūd" is the "extended shade" of the Qur'anic description of paradise (al-Waqi'a 30); there is wordplay between "memdūd" and "memdūd bād" (may it stretch).)

14. He is the shadow of God, the sultan of the world, the ruler who is the refuge of the earth; in the world nothing is spoken or heard but his fair qualities.

15. He is the shadow of God, the sultan of the seven climes, the shah of men and jinn; the sherbet of his sword became the cure for his enemies' pain. (The sherbet of the sword is death; curing the enemies' pain is understood as releasing them from their troubles by killing them.)

16. He is the shadow of God, the light of the two eyes of fortune, prosperity and destiny; the stature of the heavens is bent beneath the weight of his resolve and bounty. (The curved appearance of the vault of the sky is likened to a back bowed under a load.)

17. He is the shadow of God, the light of the lamp and of the eye of the world and of the faith; in his reign the realm of the world was delivered from calamities.

18. He is the shadow of God, the light of Muhammad, a sovereign with the breath of Jesus; just as Ahmad is unique among the prophets, so he became unique among kings. (Ahmad is one of the names of the Prophet Muhammad. Ersoy also explains the couplet through this comparison.)

19. He is the shadow of God, the light of Muhammad, the king who is the Khidr of the age; he is a second Joseph in beauty; may his life be increased. (Khidr is associated with immortality and Joseph with beauty. "Ḥüsn" and "ḥasen" come from the same root.)

20. He is the shadow of God, the light of Muhammad, the majesty who is the refuge of the world; his sharp-edged sword became the key to the door of rule and of oppression. (The line says this word for word, and Ersoy too writes "the key of oppression". What is meant may be that the sword is the key that opens the door of rule and locks the door of oppression; the couplet can be read in two ways.)

21. He is the shadow of God, the light of Muhammad, the majesty of noble person; the dawn breeze blew into the garden of the world from the steps of his wind-footed one. ("Bād-pāy" in the dictionary sense means "wind-footed" and is often used for a swift horse; Ersoy understands it as the sovereign's own nimble feet.)

22. He is the shadow of God, the light of Muhammad, the majesty who is a khan, son of a khan; the King without decline, that is God, created him by His own art.

23. He is the shadow of God, the light of Muhammad, the majesty who is khan of shahs; he was the khakan of the kings of kings whom God chose.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a Persian kaside (qasida) of twenty-three couplets and is numbered Kaside 15 in the edition. The kaside is a long verse form built of couplets that keep the same rhyme, usually written to praise a ruler. The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The kaside has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the sound "-īd" (sa‘īd, Bāyezīd, bedīd, mezīd, cehīd, ‘īd, Ḥamīd, keşīd, cedīd, güzīd). Ersoy gives this kaside as an example of kafiye-i müreddefe, rhyme in which a long vowel stands before the final rhyming letter. The word "mezīd" serves twice as the rhyme, in couplets 3 and 19. The kaside is found in the Vatican (VT 28a) and Vienna (VY 168b) manuscripts. The heading in the edition, "Müşeccer der-medḥ-i Sulṭānü'l-İslām Sulṭān Bāyezīd Ḫān ḫalledallāhü milkehu", means "A tree-shaped poem in praise of the sultan of Islam, Sultan Bayezid Khan; may God make his dominion everlasting". The heading of the Vienna manuscript is printed in the edition with missing letters; it can be read as bearing the title "sulṭānü'l-berr ve ḫāḳānü'l-baḥr" (sultan of the land and khakan of the sea). Whom it was written for is clear from the heading and from the words "ḥażret-i ḫān Bāyezīd" in couplet 1; the sources give no information on when it was presented.

What sets this kaside apart from the others is that it is müşeccer, that is, written in the shape of a tree. According to Ersoy this is one of the two tree-shaped kasides in the divan, the other being the Turkish Kaside 27. Ersoy counts these two poems among the first examples of a genre that has few instances in the literature, and says they show the search for form in the poetry of the period. The edition notes beside each couplet its place in the tree. Couplet 1 is the trunk; couplet 2 is the first branch on the right, couplet 3 the first branch on the left, and the couplets, set alternately to the right and left, reach the eleventh right branch in couplet 22 and the eleventh left branch in couplet 23. Each side of the tree has eleven branches.

The text shows that this arrangement is also built in words. The first line of the trunk couplet begins "Mihr-i burc-ı devletest"; couplets 2-11 all open with the word "Mihr", and most of them with the formula "Mihr-i burc-ı devletest ü …". The second line of the trunk begins "Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ nūr-ı Muḥammed"; couplets 12-23 open with the word "Ẓıll", couplets 14-23 with "Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ", and couplets 18-23 with "Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ nūr-ı Muḥammed". In this way the words of the two lines of the trunk sprout again and again in the branches. This pattern of repetition is not described separately in Ersoy's notes; it is an observation drawn from the text itself. The pen name (mahlas) appears in couplet 13 as "Münīrī"; the kaside ends, without a separate prayer section, with the couplet that says the sovereign was chosen by God.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The central image of the kaside is the sun and the shadow. In the first half the ruler is the sun of the towers of sovereignty, sacred law and honour; the sun cannot have its fill of the dust of his path (3), flees from the sky in fear of his rank (4), and the moon bears on its face the brand of his slavery (10). In the second half the same ruler is the shadow of God; fortune comes to whoever his shadow falls upon (12-13). Using sun and shadow side by side creates a contrast, yet both meet in the same person: "Ẓıll-i Ḥaḳ", the shadow of God on earth, is an established title for rulers in the Islamic world. In couplet 10 the word "mihr" can be read as both sun and love; in couplet 2 "merdüm" means both the pupil of the eye and a human being. In couplet 13 there is wordplay between "ẓıll-i memdūd" (the extended shade) and "memdūd bād" (may it stretch).

The kaside also contains phrases taken from the Qur'an. The "hel min mezīd" (Is there yet more?) of couplet 3 is the cry of hell in the sura Qaf; the poet uses it to express the sun's insatiable longing for the dust of the ruler's path. The "ẓıll-i memdūd" of couplet 13 recalls the description of paradise in the sura al-Waqi'a. In the final couplets the ruler is compared with prophets and holy figures: he has the breath of Jesus, he is the Khidr of the age, a second Joseph in beauty (18-19); just as the Prophet Muhammad is unique among the prophets, so is he among kings (18). The praise of the sword is short but sharp: the water of the sword quenches the fire of sedition (6), and its sherbet becomes the cure for the enemies' pain (15). This "cure" in couplet 15 is a bitter irony, meaning release from pain through death.

In this kaside written in Persian, the "In English" section rests on the original couplets and on Ersoy's renderings in the apparatus. The places where the reading departs from Ersoy or where a couplet can be understood in two ways (couplets 5, 7, 20 and 21) are marked separately in the translation. According to Ersoy, the influence of Zahîr-i Fâryâbî and Selmân-ı Sâvecî can be seen in Münîrî's Persian kasides; no nazire (response poem) relationship is reported for this kaside in particular.

Bibliography

Online sources