Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün
Āṣaf-ı pür-himem ‘Ali Paşa
Maẓhar-ı luṭf-ı Kird-gār-ı raḥīm
O vezīr-i sütūde-rā ki Ḫudā
Ẕātın itmiş vücūhla tekrīm
O müşīr-i bülend-mertebe kim
Mis̱li nā-yābdur naẓīri ‘adīm
O cihān dāver-i güzīn ki itdi
Ḫalḳı āzād pençe-i ġam u bīm
Ol ki vaṣf-ı niẓām-ı ‘ālem ile
Şānı şāyāndur olmaġa ta‘ẓīm
Aña oldı vezāret irs̱-i peder
Ya‘ni oldur kerīm İbn-i Kerīm
Budur ümmīd kim vücūdı ola
Bu kühen mülke māye-i na‘īm
Ḥamduli’llah ki cānib-i Ḥaḳḳdan
Oldı teşrīfi ḫalḳa luṭf-ı ‘aẓīm
Ya‘ni oldı ḳudūm-ı pāki
Masḳaṭ-ı re’s-i pāk-i İbrāhīm
Feyż-i bāb-ı ṣafā-yı berd ü selām
Muntafī-sāz-ı sūz-ı nār-ı ḥamīm
Maraż-ı bī-devā-yı derd ü ġama
Ḳadem-i feyż-baḫşı oldı ḥakīm
Nice şād olmasun ḫavāṭır kim
Olam şiken esīr-i renc-i elīm
Şükr kim şimdi menzil-i ġamda
Kārvān-ı meserret oldı muḳīm
Ḳıldı gerdūn telāfī-i māfat
Terk-i cevr eyledi sipihr-i le‘īm
Geldi ümmīd açıldı oldı bahār
Memleket buldı ḥüsn-i bāġ-ı na‘īm
‘Iṭırnāk eyledi cihānı ṣabā
Rūzgār itdi dehre neşr-i şemīm
Ola Mevlā mu‘īni her işde
İde ‘ömrin füzūn Ḫudā-yı ḳadīm
Ṣāḥib-i bende-sāl-i teşrīfin
İdicek kilk-i fikr ile terḳīm
Ḥāvī olmaġla nām-ı behbūdın
İsm-i vālā-ter-i ‘aliyy-i ‘aẓīm
Düşdi tārīh sāline evfaḳ
İsm-i ẕāt-ı Ḫudā-yı ‘aliyy ‘azīm
In English
1. Ali Pasha, an Âsaf (a vizier) full of zeal, has been granted the grace of the merciful Creator.
2. He is that vizier worthy of praise whose essence God has honoured in every way.
3. He is that marshal of lofty rank whose like is not to be found, whose equal does not exist.
4. He is that chosen ruler of the world who freed the people from the claws of grief and fear.
5. He is the one whose glory, praised for setting the world in order, deserves to be honoured.
6. The vizierate came to him as an inheritance from his father; that is, he is the generous son of a generous man.
7. The hope is this: that his being may be the leaven of plenty for this ancient land.
8. Praise be to God that his coming, from God's side, has been a great grace for the people.
9. That is, his pure feet have reached the place where pure Abraham was born.
10. The bounty of the door of the delight of "coolness and safety" has put out the burning of the scorching fire.
11. His bounty-giving foot has become the physician for the incurable disease of pain and grief.
12. How should hearts not rejoice, for (now) the captive of painful affliction is broken free. (The reading of the second line is uncertain; the meaning is conjectural.)
13. Thanks be that now the caravan of joy has halted at the station of grief.
14. The sky has made good what was lost; the base heaven has given up its cruelty.
15. Hope has come, has opened, has become spring; the land has found the beauty of the garden of bliss.
16. The morning breeze has made the world fragrant; the wind has spread sweet scent over the age.
17. May the Lord be his helper in every task; may eternal God lengthen his life.
18. When the servant Sâhib was about to write down with the pen of thought the year of his arrival,
19. Because it contains his auspicious name, the lofty name "‘aliyy-i ‘aẓīm",
20. "‘Aliyy ‘Aẓīm", the name of God's essence, fell as the chronogram most fitting to its year.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The key to the chronogram (tarih) lies in the last two couplets. "Al-‘Aliyy" and "al-‘Aẓīm", among the names of God, are two attributes named together in the Qur'an, meaning "the Most High, the Great"; Sâhib chooses them as the chronogram line because the word "‘Aliyy" contains "Ali", the name of the vizier being praised. The nineteenth couplet says this plainly: the chronogram phrase was chosen because it contains the vizier's "auspicious name". When the letters of the phrase "‘aliyy ‘aẓīm" are added up by the abjad (ebced) reckoning, the number 1130 (1717-1718) is obtained. Topal does not give this value; the calculation is ours and depends on the manuscript's spelling.
In the heading the vizier is called "Maḳtūl-zāde", that is, "son of a man who was killed"; the sixth couplet also says that the vizierate came to him as an inheritance from his father. The edition does not explain who the father was, and we could not reach this person in a source we could verify. The occasion of the poem is hidden in the ninth couplet: the vizier's feet have reached "the place where the blessed head of Abraham fell", that is, the place where the prophet Abraham was born. The phrase appears to mean Urfa (Ruhâ), which tradition regards as Abraham's birthplace, and the chronogram seems to have been written for the vizier's arrival there as governor; the name of the city does not appear in this poem, but the chronogram that follows it in the divan was written for the Ferahâbâd Palace that the same vizier had built in Ruha (Urfa).
The tenth couplet continues the same association with Abraham. In the Qur'an the fire lit to burn Abraham is told "be coolness and safety" (berden ve selâmen); Sâhib ties this phrase to the bounty that comes from the vizier's door and says that the scorching fire burning the people has been put out by him. Abraham's city is thus once again saved from fire by the vizier's coming. The couplets that follow the arrival speak in the language of the seasons: the caravan of joy halts at the station of grief, hope opens and turns to spring, the morning breeze drowns the world in fragrance. According to Topal, the first line of the ninth couplet does not scan. The metre is the "fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün" pattern also used in the Sinjar chronogram; the only witness of the text is the Ali Emîrî manuscript.
Bibliography
- Meral Topal, Pîrî-zâde Mehmed Sâhib Hayatı, Edebî Kişiliği, Eserleri ve Divanı'nın Tenkitli Metni, MA thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2004, pp. 67-69, tarih 3 "Tārīḫ Der-Vaṣf-ı Vezīr-i Mükerrem ‘Ali Paşa Maḳtūl-zāde" (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 7b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014
Online sources
