Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün

Ol ki vasfında dinilmiş sâhib-i sıdk u safâ
Fahr-ı ashâb-ı Hüdâ, hem-nâm-ı Fahr-ı Enbiyâ
Ol Ebûbekr-kerem, Fâruk-hak, Osmân-hayâ
Ol Alî-sîret, velâyet ehli Sultan Mustafâ

In English

1. He of whom it is said in his praise "possessor of sincerity and purity of heart", the pride of those on God's path, the namesake of the Pride of the Prophets... ("Fahr-ı Enbiyâ", the pride of the prophets, is the Prophet Muhammad; Mustafa is one of his names. Prince Mustafa is therefore his "namesake".)

2. ...he who has the generosity of Ebûbekir, the justice of Ömer, the modesty of Osman and the character of Ali, that man of sainthood, Sultan Mustafa. (Each of the four caliphs is remembered for a known virtue: Ebûbekir for generosity and loyalty, Ömer, called "Fârûk", for distinguishing right from wrong, Osman for modesty, and Ali for his character and sainthood. The poet gathers all these virtues in the prince.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a piece of four lines written in the metre "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). The metre is not stated in the source; it has been deduced from the scansion of the lines. All four lines rhyme on the sound "-â" in the words safâ, Enbiyâ, hayâ and Mustafâ. İsmail Güleç calls this quatrain a "rübâ‘î". The rubai, however, has its own particular metres, whereas this quatrain is written in the remel; it can therefore also be regarded as a kıt‘a with all four lines rhyming, or a quatrain of praise. Güleç's designation has been kept here.

The quatrain stands in the dîbâce, the preface, of Sürûrî's book on rhetoric, the Bahrü'l-maârif. The text was quoted in Güleç's article on Sürûrî from folios 1b-2a of the work. Güleç's transcription is given here as it stands. Before the quatrain Sürûrî praises the prince in prose as "the young prince of good fortune and full understanding, worthy of crown and throne, a man of merit, gatherer of the sciences and of learning, the choicest of the line of sultans, the mainstay of the dynasty of khans"; after the quatrain he relates how the prince called him to his "threshold of felicity", into his service.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole art of the quatrain is built on Prince Mustafa's name. Mustafa is one of the names of the Prophet Muhammad. The poet sets this name at the centre of a chain of allusions (telmih): the prince is first named as "the namesake of the pride of the prophets", and then thought of together with the Prophet's four companions, the four caliphs. For each of the four caliphs a known virtue is chosen and ascribed to the prince: the generosity of Ebûbekir, the discernment of right of Ömer called "Fârûk", the modesty of Osman and the character of Ali. The prince who bears the Prophet's name thus also gathers in himself the virtues of the four great companions around him. This is a familiar allusion in divan literature to the four caliphs known as the "çâr-yâr", the four friends.

The word "sıdk" in the first line is also part of this design: Ebûbekir's epithet is "Sıddîk", and "sıdk" (truthfulness, loyalty) recalls it. The phrase "velâyet ehli" (man of sainthood) in the last line is connected with the notion of velayet associated with Ali, and ends the quatrain with a kind of spiritual praise. That the prince's name comes at the end of the quatrain, as the last rhyme word, is also a deliberate choice: after all the attributes have been listed, the name is spoken in the most emphatic place. The congruence of images (tenasüp) set up among the Prophet, the four caliphs and the prince gives the gravity expected of the praise section of a book's preface.

Historical Context

Sürûrî was called to be tutor to Şehzade Mustafa (Prince Mustafa) in 955 (1548). Mustafa had been sanjak governor (sanjak-bey) of Amasya since 1541, and Sürûrî's years as tutor were spent at the court in Amasya. The Bahrü'l-maârif is a book on aruz, rhyme, the art of poetry and literary terms, and is regarded as the first comprehensive book of rhetoric in Turkish literature. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Sürûrî completed this work in Amasya at Prince Mustafa's side on 11 Safer 956 (11 March 1549); the autograph manuscript of the work is today in the Manisa Provincial Public Library. Güleç too counts the Bahrü'l-maârif among the works Sürûrî wrote for the prince.

The quatrain is therefore the only piece of verse by Sürûrî known for certain to have been written in Amasya, in the prince's service, at a datable time. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar writes that Sürûrî was "hem muallimi hem de mahrem-i esrârı", both the prince's teacher and the keeper of his secrets; Güleç likewise describes him as the prince's confidant, his closest and most influential man. The praise in the quatrain reflects the devotion of a teacher to his pupil as much as the official language of a book presented to a prince regarded as heir to the throne. Four years later, in Şevval 960 (October 1553), the prince praised as "worthy of crown and throne" was killed in his father's camp.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources