Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün
Āṣaf-ı ẕī-şān ‘Ali Paşa-yı ‘ālī-menzilet
Dāver-i devr-i zamān-ı ḳıble-i ehl-i recā
İsminüñ esrār-ı pāki münderic ẕātında hep
Sırr-ı Ḥaḳdur aña bu ism-i sa‘ādet iḥtivā
Fikr-i pāk ü ṭab‘-ı mi‘mārīsine ṣad-āferīn
Her işi maḥż-ı iṣābetdür bu sözde yoḳ riyā
Bāreka‘llah himmetiyle bu ḳaża-yı köhnede
Oldı yoḳdan sāḥa-pīrā böyle bir cennet-serā
Nev-be-nev-i ḳasr-ı dil-ārā ki olmış her biri
Mevzi‘inde başḳa ḥüsn-i ṭarḥ ile revnaḳ-fezā
Cümleden bu ḳaṣr-ı vālā kim naẓīrin görmemiş
Bunca yıldur seyr iderken ‘ālemi bād-ı ṣabā
Ḥüsn-i ṭarḥ-ı zīr ü bālāsına nisbetle anuñ
Cennet altında ya üstünde dimek olur sezā
Ṭāḳ-ı eyvānı niṭāḳ-ı āsumāna ṭa‘na-zen
Şemse-i tāvānı meh-tāb-ı ‘aṭā-baḫş-ı żiyā
Seyyimā (?) germ-ābe-i maṭbū‘ vālā ṭarḥı kim
Bu nümāyişle aña dinse sezādur sīmiyā
Ḳubbesi sūz-efgen-i ḫamām nüh-ṭāḳ-ı felek
Ṣuffesi āteş-zen-i germ-ābe-i ‘ibret-nümā
Rūşenī-i Ḫalvetī hem-ḥāl-i şeyḫ-i Ḫalvetī
Ṣafvet-i emvāc-ı ferş-i ṣuffesi ṣūfī ḳabā
Ḥaḳ Te‘ālā nice yıllar Ṣāḥibin ide mekīn
Sāyesin bu merzbūma maḥż-ı luṭf ide Ḫudā
İki tārīḫ-i dil-ārāya muvāfıḳ düşdi kim
Her biri bir mıṣra‘-ı ber-ceste-i ḥüsn-i edā
Zīb ü fer virdi feraḥ-ābāda ḥālā bu ḥarem
Ḳaldı çün cennet feraḥ-ābādı ḥaḳḳā bu binā
In English
1. The glorious Âsaf (of a vizier), Ali Pasha of lofty rank; ruler of the age and the time, the qibla of those who hope.
2. The pure secrets of his name are all contained in his essence; that he bears this name of felicity (Ali) is a secret of God.
3. A hundred bravos to his pure thought and his architect's talent; his every work is a perfect hit, and there is no flattery in these words.
4. God bless it, through his zeal there has arisen from nothing in this old district such a paradise palace adorning the square.
5. Ever new heart-adorning pavilions, each of which, in its own place, adds splendour with a different beauty of design.
6. Above all this lofty pavilion, whose like the morning breeze has not seen in all its years of roaming the world.
7. Considering the beauty of the design of its lower and upper parts, it would be fitting to ask, "Is paradise below it or above it?"
8. The arch of its hall mocks the girdle of the sky; the sunburst ornament of its ceiling is a moonlight that bestows light.
9. Above all its pleasing bathhouse of lofty design, which, with this appearance, it would be fitting to call magic (sîmiyâ). (The edition reads the first word of the line with a question mark.)
10. The dome of its bath sets the nine-arched sky on fire; its platform kindles the heat of a hot room that is a wonder to behold.
11. (The bath's) private chamber is a Rûşenî in the same state as a Halveti sheikh; the purity of the waves of its platform's floor is a Sufi's robe. (A couplet that cannot be solved with certainty; the rendering is tentative.)
12. May God Most High keep its owner settled here for many years; may God, out of pure grace, not remove his shadow from this land.
13. Two heart-adorning chronograms fell fittingly, each a well-turned line of fine expression:
14. "This sanctuary has now given ornament and splendour to Ferahâbâd." "This building has truly remained like the paradise of Ferahâbâd."
Literary and Historical Commentary
This chronogram (tarih) names the place that the previous poem only hinted at: according to its heading, the poem was written for the Ferahâbâd Palace that Maktûlzâde Ali Pasha had built in Ruha, that is, Urfa. It thus becomes clear that the "place where Abraham was born", reached by the vizier's feet in the previous chronogram, is Urfa. This time Sâhib praises Ali Pasha as a builder; in the third couplet his "ṭab‘-ı mi‘mārī", his talent for architecture, is named, and in the fourth couplet the palace is said to have been created from nothing in this "old district". The palace is not a single building; it consists of pavilions, each set up in its own place with a separate design.
The liveliest part of the poem is the description of the bathhouse. The dome is hot enough to burn the nine heavens, and the platform glows with fire-throwing heat. The eleventh couplet lays the language of the bathhouse over the language of the Sufi orders: the hottest and most enclosed part of a bathhouse is called the "halvet", while "Ḫalvetī" is the name of a Sufi order; "Rūşenī" means "bright" and is also the name of Dede Ömer Rûşenî, founder of the Rûşeniyye, a branch of the Halvetiyye. Topal cites this couplet among those in which Sâhib refers to the Sufi orders and their dress, and gives this information about Rûşenî. In the second line of the couplet the wavy marble pattern of the platform's floor appears to be likened to the robe worn by Sufis.
In the twelfth couplet the word "Ṣāḥib" is once again two-sided: the prayer is made for Ali Pasha, the "owner" of the palace, but the same word is the poet's pen name (mahlas). In the thirteenth couplet the poet says he has found two separate chronograms, and each line of the last couplet becomes a chronogram. In our own calculation with the usual spelling, the second line gives 1133 (1720-1721), and the first line, depending on the spelling, gives a number around 1132 or 1133; Topal has not calculated these values, and the results cannot be considered certain without seeing the spelling of the manuscript. These years fall a few years after the date of 1130 given for the vizier's arrival. Like most of the preceding chronograms, this poem is not found in the Istanbul University manuscripts; Topal gives the text from the Ali Emîrî manuscript. Its metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün".
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. 70-71, tarih 4 "Tārīḫ-i Serāy-ı Feraḥ-ābād Der-Ruha vü Sitāyiş-i Maḳtūl-zāde ‘Ali Paşa" (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 8b); also p. 23 (couplet 11). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014
Online sources
