Selim I (Selim the Grim, Yavuz Sultan Selim) is among the Ottoman sultans remembered above all for his wars; the names Çaldıran, Marj Dabiq and Ridaniya all fit within his reign of eight years. The same ruler wrote poetry under the pen name "Selîmî" and composed it almost entirely in Persian. As Benedek Péri observes, many Ottoman sultans wrote poetry, but Selim I was the only one who wrote almost exclusively in Persian. His divan is therefore counted among the most interesting documents of the relationship between the Ottoman court and Persian literature. Whether he also wrote poetry in Turkish has been debated since the sixteenth century, and the question has gained a new dimension in recent years with poems recovered from manuscript anthologies.

Selim's tie to Amasya begins with his birth. According to his entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, he was born in Amasya, where his father Bayezid (later Bayezid II) was serving as sanjak governor, in 872 (1467-68) according to one account and, more probably, in 875 (1470); Hüseyin Hüsameddin likewise records among the events of 875 in his Amasya Tarihi that "Yavuz Sultân Selim was born this year." His winter of 1514-15 in Amasya, on the return from Çaldıran, brought him back into contact with the city's poets and scholars. One of the known manuscripts of his divan is preserved in Amasya to this day, in the Beyazıt Provincial Public Library. The details of his life are told in his biography in the Princes section of our site; the emphasis here is on his poetry and his poems.

His Life and the Amasya Years

His mother was Ayşe Hatun, daughter of Alâüddevle Bozkurt Bey of the Dulkadir dynasty. In his entry in TEİS, Ahmet Tanyıldız gives the year of birth as 871-72 (1467) and notes that there are also sources giving 1468 and 1470; the year of birth is therefore disputed among the sources, while the place of birth is Amasya in all of them. The sources state that he received a good education at an early age and that his father appointed a private tutor for him. Probably at about the age of ten he was summoned to Istanbul with his brothers by his grandfather Mehmed II (the Conqueror) and circumcised (885/1480). After the ceremony he returned to his father and stayed on in Amasya for some time; whether he was with Bayezid II when the latter went to Istanbul in 1481 to take the throne is not known. Hüsameddin, describing the Amasya years of Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed), writes that the princes residing in Amasya, Selim, Şehinşah, Âlemşah and Korkut, were each sent to a great sanjak; the TDV, for its part, writes that his first known post was Trabzon and that, according to some archival documents, he was appointed there in 892 (1487). The roughly twenty-four years in Trabzon were the years in which he made his name as a frontier governor against the Safavids and also occupied himself with poetry.

After the struggle for the throne he waged against his father and his brothers, Selim ascended the throne in 918 (1512). Hüsameddin relates that immediately after the accession Mustafa Paşa, son of the former grand vizier Dâvud Paşa and attached to Selim's service from childhood, was sent to Amasya as beylerbey. Returning from the Battle of Çaldıran (1514) and from Tabriz, the sultan arrived in Amasya with his army, according to Hüsameddin, on 6 Şevval 920, and was welcomed with festivities that lasted for days. He spent the winter there. During these months in Amasya the Janissaries pressed to return to Istanbul; they plundered the houses of Pîrî Mehmed Paşa, of the sultan's tutor Halîmî Çelebi and, according to Hüsameddin's record, of Tâcîzâde Câfer Çelebi of Amasya. The TDV dates this event to 22 February 1515, Hüsameddin to 28 Muharrem 921. The sultan had the grand vizier Dukakinzâde Ahmed Paşa, whom he held responsible, executed; Hüsameddin adds that Ahmed Paşa was buried at the Tomb of Kemal Paşa near Aşağı Pirler. Envoys sent by Shah Ismail to sue for peace also came to Amasya that winter, and Selim rejected the peace. On 5 Rebîülevvel 921 (19 April 1515) the army marched out of Amasya against Kemah.

This winter is a moment when Selim's literary circle and Amasya met. Hüsameddin writes that Nişânîzâde Basîrî Mehmed Çelebi, who had been a boon companion of Prince Ahmed, presented a victory qasida to Sultan Selim on his arrival in Amasya in 920 and was received with favour; it should also be noted that Basîrî's connection with Amasya is not mentioned in the other sources. Tâcîzâde Câfer Çelebi, named among the poets Selim esteemed, came from Amasya's best-known family of poets. After the Egyptian campaign, in 1520, while preparing for a new campaign, Selim fell ill and died near Çorlu on 8 Şevval 926 (21 September 1520).

His Works

Selîmî's only known work is his Persian divan. It was first printed in Istanbul in 1306 (1889) by Hüseyin Hüsnî. Péri shows that this edition rested on a single manuscript, the copy now in the Süleymaniye Library under Fatih 3830, and that it is full of misreadings; at one point Hüsnî took an ink blot in the manuscript for the dot of a letter and misread the word gar, meaning "if." Two years later Şeyh Vasfî published 166 couplets selected from the divan together with Turkish translations under the title Bârika (1308/1891). In 1313 (1896) Manastırlı Dâniş Ahmed Efendi wrote a commentary on the whole divan, based on the Istanbul edition, entitled Destâvîz-i Dâniş, and presented it to Abdülhamid II; this commentary was edited in 2016 at Istanbul University in two master's theses by Beyza Terzi and Seda Aydın.

The first critical edition was prepared by the German Iranist Paul Horn and printed in Berlin at the state press in 1904. Horn had used seven manuscripts, four from European libraries and three from Turkey. The book was printed in a nasta'liq type imitating sixteenth-century manuscripts, with every page decorated, and a copy embellished with real gilding and bound in full leather was presented by the German Emperor Wilhelm II to Selim's descendant Abdülhamid II. According to TEİS, 500 copies were printed in Berlin. According to Péri, Horn's edition contains three qasidas, a tercî-bend, a tahmîs and 300 ghazals. Seda Aydın, comparing the two editions, writes that the Istanbul edition contains 2 münâcâts, 2 na'ts and 102 ghazals, and the Berlin edition 2 tevhîds, 2 na'ts, 2 qasidas, 303 ghazals and 8 single hemistichs; the figures vary from source to source. No online copy of this edition could be found in the course of this work. Ali Nihad Tarlan translated the divan into Turkish in 1946 on the basis of Horn's edition; he states that in doubtful places he consulted a manuscript in the Millet Library. In 2019 İbrahim Kaya published a critique comparing this translation with the printed text.

Benedek Péri, who has worked on a new critical edition of the divan, reports in an article published in 2020 that, in addition to Horn's edition, he used 24 manuscripts, 21 of which Horn had not seen. Nineteen of the manuscripts are in Turkey, four in Tehran and one in Jerusalem. By Péri's count these copies contain more than two hundred and thirty poems not found in Horn's edition, and the new edition was to consist of the tevhîd, the münâcât, two na'ts, 9 qasidas and about 534 ghazals. Péri also divides the copies into two main groups. The first group comprises the earliest manuscripts, beginning with the Istanbul University Rare Works FY 1330 copy, which is held to have been prepared for Selim himself, and reflects the first redaction of the divan. The second group shows an enlarged redaction formed in the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent by collecting scattered poems; the Jerusalem copy, written in Istanbul in 961 (1554) by the calligrapher Muzaffer Ali, is a dated example of this second redaction. Péri's new edition could not be consulted.

The first of the manuscripts is the copy in the Amasya Beyazıt Provincial Public Library. According to Péri's description it consists of 66 unnumbered folios, the divan runs from 1b to 44b, there are on average 13 lines to the page, and it is written in nasta'liq. It is undated; a note dated 1086 (1675) on folio 46a shows that it was copied before that date. The waqf seal on the first flyleaf belongs to Seyyid Abdüllatif İmam. Péri suggests that this may be Abdüllatif Amâsî (d. 1721), who served as imam of the Bayezid Mosque, came from an old Amasya family and was known as the owner of a library, and that the manuscript may have been copied in Amasya. The copy contains the tevhîd, a tahmîs on a ghazal by Emîr Şâhî and 162 ghazals, some of which are found only here; because of lost folios the text has gaps. Péri gives the shelf number of this manuscript as 586 in one of his 2020 articles and as 486 in a footnote of another article published the same year. That this copy is preserved in the city where Selim was born is a small but valuable trace of the divan's readership in Amasya.

Selim's Turkish poems are a separate matter. Sehî Bey and Latîfî state that the Turkish poems attributed to him are inventions of the common people. This view long remained widespread. The anthology of sultans' poetry by Mustafa İsen, Ali Fuat Bilkan and T. I. Durmuş contains 1 Turkish ghazal, 2 murabba's and 2 single couplets attributed to Selîmî. In 2019 M. Fatih Köksal published 28 Turkish poems that he had identified in manuscript anthologies and miscellanies, demonstrating by scholarly methods that they belong to Selîmî. In his TDV entry Feridun Emecen also notes that some of his Turkish poems are recorded in a document in the Topkapı Palace Museum Archive. It is also known that the couplet "Biz bülbül-i muhrik-dem-i gülzâr-ı firâkuz," attributed to Selim II, is listed among Yavuz's poems in some sources.

His Literary Personality

The sixteenth-century biographers of poets praise Selim both as sultan and as poet. Sehî Bey states in Heşt Bihişt that his poems were composed "'âşıkâne vü merdâne," that is, in the manner of a lover and of a brave man, and he delivers a striking verdict: had Selim not been absorbed in the ambition of rule and in affairs of state, and had he turned wholly to poetry with an untroubled mind, the world-famous poems of Amir Khusrau of Delhi would not have been worthy of being read beside his. In the same place Sehî addresses the question of Turkish poetry in firm terms: "Egerçi 'avâmü'n-nâs anlara Türkî eş'âr isnâd iderler ammâ anlar aslâ Türkî şi'r dimemişlerdür. Küllî eş'ârı anlaruñ Pârsîdür." That is, although the common people attribute Turkish poems to him, he never composed poetry in Turkish; all his poems are in Persian. Sehî also presents the ghazal in which Selim lists his conquests as a poem "şecâ'atine ve bahâdurlığına münâsib," befitting his courage and valour.

Latîfî's assessment is more detailed. In his view Selim was the only one among the poets of Rum to compile a Persian divan, abandoning Turkish poetry for that manner. Most of the time he would study and emulate the divan of Navâ'î. The learned men of Persia held his poetry equal to the verse of Shâhî and called him "the Khusrau of Rum." Latîfî also writes that Selim set aside the customs of royalty and mixed freely with the learned men of the age. He relates the story that, on the fame of one of his opening couplets, a Persian holy man came to the lands of Rum to visit him. On the Turkish poems he is more measured: Selim was able to write verse in all three languages, but his Turkish poems are very few, and most of the Turkish poems recited among the people under his name are false attributions. Latîfî even quotes one of these disputed poems: "Ben yatam lâyık mı karşumda ol ayakda tura / Serv-kaddüm diñ ben öldükde namazum kılmasun." The couplet is the voice of a lover who objects to the thought that his beloved will stand at his funeral prayer; Latîfî says that he will name its real author in the appropriate place in his book.

The link Latîfî draws with Shâhî is supported by Péri's manuscript research. In the collection Süleymaniye Library Esad Efendi 3422, the divan of Emîr Şâhî is written in the margins of Selim's divan; in another miscellany in Tehran, Shâhî's divan comes immediately before Selim's. Péri establishes that a large part of Selim's poems are replies to classics of Persian poetry, that is, imitation poems (nazîre). Among the poets he took as models are Sa'dî, Amir Khusrau, Salmân-i Sâvajî, Kamâl-i Khujandî, Kâtibî, Jâmî, Navâ'î and Hâfiz. According to Péri's study of four replies written to Hâfiz, Selim, instead of answering a famous poem directly, draws on the entire network of imitations that had grown around that poem over time. He reworks elements taken from Kâtibî, Navâ'î, Jâmî and Shâhî and builds his own ghazal from them. Péri does not regard the results as mere copies but as imitation poems with a character of their own. Wine and intoxication, by contrast, are a rare subject in Selim's ghazals.

Péri holds that Selim chose Persian deliberately. In his view this poetry formed part of the propaganda war between the Ottomans and the Safavids and aimed to place Selim within the Timurid ideal of a sovereign who was both a valiant warrior and a learned, cultivated ruler. The intended audience was the educated circles who read Persian. Seda Aydın draws attention to the same contrast: Selim, ruler of a Turkish-speaking country, wrote a divan in Persian, while Shah Ismail, ruler of a Persian-speaking country, wrote one in Turkish. In her article examining the vocabulary of the ghazals in the divan, Aydın shows that Selîmî keeps the lover's position of classical poetry but also carries his identity as sultan into his verse. In the 102 ghazals of the Istanbul edition the word "cihan" (world) occurs 22 times, and "mülk" and "mülûk" (realm, kings) 12 times. "Tîġ" (sword) is used 14 times and "tîr" (arrow) 5 times. Emblems of sovereignty such as the throne, the crown, the banner, the tent and the coinage also appear frequently. According to Aydın, even if it were not known that the poems belonged to a sultan, their vocabulary would show that their author was a member of the ruling class, a soldier, a pasha or a vizier. In the poems that Süleyman the Magnificent wrote under the pen name Muhibbî, by contrast, one hears the voice of an ordinary poet rather than of a sultan.

A literary circle had also formed around Selim. Emecen writes that Zenbilli Ali Efendi, Kemalpaşazâde, Idris of Bitlis and his tutor Halîmî Çelebi were foremost in his conversation gatherings, and that he esteemed poets such as Tâcîzâde Câfer Çelebi, Âhî Benli Hasan and Revânî. Aydın names Kemalpaşazâde, Sücûdî, Fehmî, Revânî, Halîmî, Tâli'î, Güvâhî and Nihâlî among the poets he took with him on campaign. The chronicles recounting his campaigns were for the first time given a name of their own, and so the genre of the "Selimnâme" was born. The TDV also records that he knew Persian very well, was acquainted with Arabic and with the Tatar dialect, and himself composed the Arabic verses on the windows of the pavilion he had built on the island of Rawda in the middle of the Nile in Cairo.

Selected Poems

The Persian poems below are reproduced exactly in the Latin-script transliteration in which they were published; the original text in Arabic script is found in Horn's edition and in the manuscripts. Each example is followed by its published Turkish translation, rendered here into English; for the couplets that Péri translated only into English, the meaning follows his translation. Because the transliteration systems differ from source to source, the spellings are not uniform.

Persian Ghazal: Leşker ez-taḫt-ı Sitānbūl sūy-ı Îrān tāḫtem

Leşker ez-taḫt-ı Sitānbūl sūy-ı Îrān tāḫtem
Sürḫ-i ser-rā ġarḳa-i ḫūn-ı melāmet sāḫtem
Şüd ġulām-ı himmetem ez-cān u dil vālî-i Mıṣr
Tā livā-yı ḫusrevî ez-nüh felek efrāḫtem
Kerdem ez-ehl-i ʿIrāḳ în müjde āheng-i Ḥicāz
Çeng-i nuṣret-rā çü der-bezm-i ṭarab binvāḫtem
Māverāʾü'n-nehr ez-tîġem şüde ġarḳ-āb-ı ḫūn
Çeşm-i düşman-rā çü küḥl-i Iṣfahānî sāḫtem
Āb-ı Āmu ez-ser-i her mū revān şüd ḫaṣm-rā
Şüd ʿaraḳ-rîz ez-teb-i ġam çün naẓar endāḫtem
Şāh-ı Hind ez-leşker-i ferzāneem şüd pîl-māt
Ber-besāṭ-ı mülk çün şaṭranc-ı devlet bāḫtem
Ey Selîmî şüd be-nāmem sikke-i mülk-i cihān
Tā çü zer der-pūte-i mihr ü vefā bigdāḫtem

In Mustafa İsen's translation the meaning is as follows: With my army I set out from the throne of Istanbul on campaign towards Iran and drowned the Qizilbash in the blood of reproach. The governor of Egypt became, heart and soul, the slave of my resolve and ambition; I raised the banner of sovereignty above the nine heavens. No sooner had I begun to play the harp of victory in the assembly of triumph than this good news spread from the land of Iraq to the Hijaz; Iraq and Hijaz are here also the names of two musical modes. Transoxiana was drowned in blood by my sword; I deprived the enemy's eye of the kohl of Isfahan. When I merely glanced at the enemy he was bathed in the sweat of the fever of grief, and an Oxus river flowed from every hair on him. When I began to play the chess of state upon the board of the realm, the Shah of India became a defeated elephant before my army of wisdom. O Selîmî, after I had melted like gold in the crucible of love and faithfulness, my name was struck on the coinage of the realm of the world.

Sehî Bey gives this ghazal in Heşt Bihişt as the poem befitting Selim's valour; the transliteration and İsen translation in TEİS rest on the text in Sehî's Ayasofya 3544 manuscript (fol. 18a). The transliteration above, by contrast, is taken from Seda Aydın's article and is ghazal 82 of the Istanbul edition. There are differences between the two readings. TEİS reads the third couplet "Kerd ez-milk-i Irâk... der-bezm-i zafer." Aydın reads "Kerdem ez-ehl-i ʿIrāḳ... der-bezm-i ṭarab" and translates: "I made this good news into the Hijaz mode for the people of Iraq; I played the harp of victory in the assembly of joy." Aydın's translation of the sixth couplet runs: "Because I played the chess of state on the field of the realm, the Shah of India was defeated by my wise army and became elephant-mated." In the ghazal geography is laid out like a map of victory: Istanbul, Iran, Egypt, Iraq, the Hijaz, Transoxiana, Isfahan, the Oxus and India. Iran, Egypt and the Hijaz were real objectives of Selim's campaigns; the couplets on Transoxiana and India, however, voice a claim to world dominion reaching beyond these campaigns. In the chess image of the sixth couplet the Shah of India is checkmated like the elephant piece in chess.

Persian Ghazal: Ger leşker-i ʿadū büved ez-Ḳāf tā be-Ḳāf

Ger leşker-i ʿadū büved ez-Ḳāf tā be-Ḳāf
B'illāh ki hîç rūy nemî tābem ez-maṣāf
Çün āfitāb ẓulmet-i küfr ez-cihān berem
Gāhî ki ṣubḥ-ı tîġ birūn ārem ez-ġılāf
Ger naʿra ber-keşed zi-ciger şîr-i ner be-ceng
Dūzem dileş be-sūzen-i peykān-ı cān-şikāf
Ger rū-be-rū şeved be-geh-i rezm müddeʿî
Dāned ki nîst daʿvā-i merdān zi-rūy-ı lāf
Der-pîş-i tîġ ü tîr ʿadū pāydār nîst
Kār-ı zirihgerān neküned her ḥaṣîr-bāf
Dāred ḥasūd kîn Selîmî vü gerne hest
Mā-rā be-mis̱l-i āyine-i tîġ sîne-ṣāf

In Seda Aydın's translation: Even if the enemy's army stretched from Qaf to Qaf, I swear by God that I would not turn my face from battle. When I draw the morning of my sword from its sheath, like the sun I remove the darkness of unbelief from the world. If the male lion roars in battle, I stitch up his heart with the needle of my soul-splitting arrowhead. If a pretender meets us face to face in the hour of battle, he learns that the claim of manhood is not made with words. The enemy does not stand firm before sword and arrow; not every mat-weaver can do the work of armourers. Although our heart is as pure as the mirror of a sword, the envious enemy bears a grudge against Selîm.

Latîfî included the opening couplet of this ghazal in his biography of poets as one of Selim's "şecâ'at-şi'âr" poems, those marked by courage, a couplet describing his state and bearing witness to the truth of his words. In Rıdvan Canım's edition the opening couplet is translated: "Even if the enemy's army stretched from Qaf to Qaf, by God I would not turn my face from that battle." Aydın notes that she left out of her article the fifth couplet of the ghazal, which contains no description of battle; for this reason six couplets are given here. Mount Qaf is the legendary mountain encircling the two ends of the world, and the phrase "from Qaf to Qaf" means the whole world. In the second couplet the sword's emergence from its sheath is likened to the breaking of dawn, and the enemy's unbelief to the darkness the sun dispels. The image of "a heart as pure as the mirror of a sword" in the last couplet brings polished steel and inner purity together in a single word.

Couplets: The Realm of the World and the Realm of Love

Ber-mā egerçi mülk-i cihān ʿarże dāştend
Cüz derd-i ʿaşḳ-ı yār neşüd dil-pezîr-i mā
Kişver-i dehr giriftîm be-himmet āsān
Gerçi düşvār nümāyed be-tü āsāni-i mā
Ey Selîmî be-cüz ez-ʿaşḳ ḥimāyet meṭaleb
Tā bigîrîm cihān tîġ-i zebān mā-rā bes
Çün Selîmî dil-i men behr-i şehinşāhî-i ʿaşḳ
Pādişāhî-i cihān-rā be-belā kerd ʿavaż
Şeh-i memālik-i derdem belā penāh-ı menest
Ġamem ki bî-ḥadd ü pāyān büved sipāh-ı men-est

In Seda Aydın's translations: Although they offered us the realm of the world, our heart accepted nothing but love for the beloved. Although what is easy for us seems hard to you, we easily brought the realm of time under our will. O Selîmî, seek no protection other than love; to conquer the world the sword of the tongue is enough for us. Like Selîmî, my heart too exchanged the sovereignty of the world for being the sovereign of love. I am the king of the lands of pain; affliction is my refuge; my grief, which has no bound and no end, is my army.

These couplets show the device Selîmî uses most often. The sultan who conquers countries in the real world sets the sovereignty of love above the sovereignty of the world in his poetry. The image of "the king of the lands of pain," who makes grief his army and affliction his refuge, has the lover-hero of classical poetry speak in the language of a ruler. The union of the identities of sultan and poet that Aydın emphasizes is seen most clearly in these couplets. The couplets come, in order, from ghazals 6, 7, 54, 61 and 31 of the Istanbul edition.

Couplets: Sword, Battlefield and Throne

Rūz-ı meydān ez-zebān-ı tîġ bāşed baḥs̱-ı ʿaşḳ
Kār-ı ṭıflānest kerden ber-ser-i her kār baḥs̱
Berāy-ı taḫt-ı cihān-ı fenā çi fikr künem
Me-rā ki baḫt büved taḫt u fetḥ u nuṣret u tāc
Selîm ḫaṣm-ı dilet ez-çi dāned în ḥālet
Ki ez-ẓuhūr-ı İlāhîst fetḥ-i leşker-i mā

In Aydın's translations: On the day of battle the argument of love is made in the tongue of the sword; to quarrel at the start of every affair is the business of children. Why should I worry over the throne of this transient world; throne, crown, conquest and victory are my fortune. O Selîm, the conquest of our army is a gift of God; how should the enemy of your heart know this state.

In the first couplet the debate of war and of love meet in a single word: "zebân-ı tîġ," the tongue of the sword, is both the sharp edge of the blade and the last word spoken on the battlefield. In the third couplet the idea that conquest comes from God carries into the poem the discourse of holy war and legitimacy that accompanied Selim's campaigns. The couplets come from ghazals 35, 37 and 2 of the Istanbul edition.

A Reply to Hâfiz's First Ghazal: Nahang-āsā dar āb-i dīda mardān-i balā-parvar

Nahang-āsā dar āb-i dīda mardān-i balā-parvar
Nihāda rū ba-sūy-i qulzum-i ʿašq-at zi sāḥil-hā
Ṣavāb-i haj kunad ḥāṣil faqīh ammā na-mī-dānad
Ki dar bī-ḥāṣilī dārand ʿuššāq-i tu ḥāṣil-hā
Sabuk-rūḥī ki ṭauf-i kūy-i jānān kard mardāna
Bi-vādī-yi saʿādat bī-qadam ṭay karda manzil-hā

The meaning, following Benedek Péri's English translation, is: In their tears miserable men, like crocodiles, turned their faces towards the ocean of your love from the shores. A jurist harvests the fruit of reward for completing a pilgrimage, but he does not know that these fruits are useless in the eyes of your lovers. A light-hearted one who bravely circumambulated the street of his beloved travelled through all the stations in the valley of bliss without taking a single step.

These couplets come from a reply to the famous first ghazal of the divan of Hâfiz, which opens and closes with Arabic lines. According to Péri the ghazal is found in almost all the manuscripts known to contain Selim's poems. In the Istanbul University FY 1330 copy prepared for Selim it is the first poem of the ghazal section, and it also appears in Horn's edition. In the Amasya copy it is on folio 3a. Péri shows that Selim does not quote directly from Hâfiz's poem, but takes the image of the crocodile from Kâtibî's reply, the contrast between fruitful and fruitless from Navâ'î's, and the idea of circumambulation and stations from Jâmî's, and reworks them. That the ghazal has only five couplets is also unusual in his poetry; most of Selim's ghazals have seven or nine couplets.

Persian Ghazal: Bi-rāh-i ġam guzar nabvad bi-ḫud har bī-sar u pā-rā

Bi-rāh-i ġam guzar nabvad bi-ḫud har bī-sar u pā-rā
Dalīl-i ʿašq dar kūy-i malāmat mī-kašad mā-rā
Bi-sarmastān či mī-gūyī ḥadīs-i dīnī ay zāhid
Dar ān manzil ki bāšad ḥāl qadrī nīst dunyā-rā
Ma-yafgan kār bā fardā bi-daur āvar qadaḥ sāqī
Ki farqī nīst pīš-i bāda-nūš imrūz u fardā-rā

The meaning, following Péri's English translation, is: Not every miserable person can walk the road of affliction on his own; a sign of love draws us to the street of scorn. Ascetic, why are you trying to talk about religious tradition to the intoxicated ones; in a house where ecstasy rules, people do not care for this-worldly matters. Do not worry about tomorrow; sâqî, pass the cup around, because for someone who drinks wine the difference between today and tomorrow does not exist.

According to Péri this ghazal is one of the few poems in which Selim gives so much room to wine and the cupbearer. Although it looks like a reply to Hâfiz's famous ghazal beginning "Agar ân Turk-i Shîrâzî," its opening couplet bears traces of a couplet by Shâhî, and its second and third couplets traces of a ghazal by Sa'dî. The ghazal is found on folio 2a of the Amasya copy; according to Péri's description, in this copy the text continues with this ghazal after the loss of the opening folios.

Persian Ghazal: Har čand jaur-i bīš kašam tā vafā kunad

Har čand jaur-i bīš kašam tā vafā kunad
Ān mah ziyāda bā man-i miskīn jafā kunad
Jānā bar ār ḥājat-i ʿuššāq-i bī-navā
Tā ḥājatī ki hast tu-rā Ḥaq ravā kunad

The meaning, following Péri's English translation, is: However much torture I tolerate, hoping that the beloved will be faithful, that moon-faced one torments me, the wretched one, all the more. Darling, fulfil the needs of your helpless lovers, if you wish God to satisfy the needs you have.

This ghazal is not in Horn's edition and had not been published before Péri's study. Péri notes that the poem survives in only a few manuscripts; one of them is the Amasya copy, where the ghazal stands on folios 19a-19b. Its opening couplet bears traces of Anvarî, and its second couplet traces of Hâfiz's opening couplet "Gar may-furûsh hâjat-i rindân ravâ kunad." In Hâfiz the wine-seller's granting the wishes of the rinds earns God's forgiveness, while in Selim the same idea becomes a plea addressed to the beloved.

The Trabzon Ghazal: Har gūša butī, har ṭarafī ḥūr-sirištī

Har gūša butī, har ṭarafī ḥūr-sirištī
Yak ḥarf na-mī-gašt kam az lauḥ-i irādat
Kasī nāma-yi ʿiṣyān-i Salīm ar na-nivištī

The first line above is the first hemistich of the ghazal's opening couplet; the last two lines are the closing couplet. The meaning, following Péri's English translation, is: An idol in every corner, a houri-natured one in every direction. Not a single letter would have disappeared from the tablet of God's will if someone had not written a report on Selim's disobedience.

This ghazal too is among the poems that had not been published before Péri's study. According to the text Péri cites, the name Trabzon appears in the ghazal's opening couplet together with the rhyme "çü bihiştî," like paradise. A place name in a lyric ghazal is one of the rare cases that allows the date of composition to be estimated. Péri therefore thinks the ghazal may have been written during Selim's years as governor of Trabzon, to which he was appointed at seventeen and where he remained until 1510. This is a sign that Selim began writing poetry as a prince. The ghazal is a reply to a ghazal by Hâfiz rhyming in "-ishtî," and it is also found on folio 43b of the Amasya copy.

Turkish Ghazal: Bu mürde cismine cân olmayan cânânı neylersin

Bu mürde cismine cân olmayan cânânı neylersin
Dilâ derdine dermân olmayan dermânı neylersin
Gedây-ı bî-ser ü pâ iken ey dil gûşe-i gamda
Sevip bir pâdişâh-ı hüsn ü âlî-şânı neylersin
Der-i cânânı kor bâğ-ı cinânı medh eder vâiz
Dirîgâ anlamaz bir câhil ü nâ-dânı neylersin
Ser-i kuyunda durmasın rakîb-i rû-siyeh gitsin
Gülistân-ı cinânda ey melek şeytânı neylersin
Selîmî mâni'-i vuslat vücûdundur adem eyle
Visâl-i yâre er bu bâis-i hicrânı neylersin

In modern English the meaning is: O heart, what will you do with a beloved who is no soul to this dead body of yours, with a remedy that is no cure for your pain. Being a destitute beggar in the corner of grief, what will you do by loving a sovereign of beauty, one of lofty rank. The preacher leaves the beloved's door and praises the garden of paradise; alas, what will you do with an ignorant fool who does not understand. Let the black-faced rival not stand at the head of your street; let him go; O angel, what will you do with a devil in the rose garden of paradise. Selîmî, what bars union is your own being; annihilate it; if you wish to reach the beloved, what will you do with this being that causes separation.

This ghazal is one of the 28 Turkish poems published by M. Fatih Köksal in 2019 and shown by scholarly methods to belong to Selîmî; TEİS quotes it from Köksal's article. The refrain "neylersin," what will you do with, binds the whole ghazal to a single question. The thought in the closing couplet that "what bars union is your own being" expresses the Sufi idea of annihilating the self in the language of love poetry. This mystical inclination also accords with Emecen's note that Selim adopted the views of Ibn Arabi and held Rumi in great reverence.

Murabba': Gözlerin fitnede ebrûn ile enbâz mı ki

Gözlerin fitnede ebrûn ile enbâz mı ki
Dil asılmaga iver zülfüne cânbâz mı ki
Bizi kahr eyledigin lutfuna âgâz mı ki
Neyiki şîve mi ki cevr mi ki nâz mı ki
Bu Selîmî kuluna cevri revân eyledigin
Bunca sıdkın reh-i aşkında yalan eyledigin
Yüzünü gösterüben yine nihân eyledigin
Neyiki şîve mi ki cevr mi ki nâz mı ki

In modern English the meaning is: Are your eyes partners with your brows in stirring up mischief; the heart hastens to hang from your locks, is it a rope-dancer. Is your crushing us the beginning of your kindness. What are these: coquetry, cruelty or disdain. Your thinking cruelty fit for this servant Selîmî, your making a lie of so much devotion on the path of love, your showing your face and hiding it again, what are they: coquetry, cruelty or disdain.

The first and last stanzas of the four-stanza murabba' are given; TEİS took the poem from the anthology Sultan Şairler by İsen and Bilkan. The refrain repeated at the end of every stanza carries the bewilderment of a lover who cannot find a name for the beloved's behaviour. It is a Turkish poem of the kind Sehî and Latîfî rejected; whether it is among the 28 poems whose authorship Köksal demonstrated could not be checked, since his article could not be consulted.

Turkish Ghazal (Disputed Attribution): Gözlerimden aktı deryâlar gibi yaşım benim

Gözlerimden aktı deryâlar gibi yaşım benim
Dostlar çok nesne gördü onmadık başım benim
Geçmek için seyl-i eşkimden hayâlim askeri
Bir direkli iki gözlü köprüdür kaşım benim
Her gece altun benekli âsmânîler giyip
İşbu çarh-ı pîre-zen olmuşdur oynaşım benim
Ben gedâ gurbet diyârında kalırdım yalınız
Mihnet ü derd ü belâ olmasa yoldaşım benim
Ey felek dokuz dolu câm içmeyince Han Selîm
Dehr içinde olmadı hergiz ayakdaşım benim

In modern English the meaning is: My tears flowed from my eyes like seas; O friends, my incurable head has seen many things. So that the soldiers of my imagination may cross the flood of my tears, my brow has become a bridge with one pier and two arches. Every night this old hag of a sky puts on sky-blue robes spangled with gold and has become my lover. I, a beggar, would have been left alone in a foreign land, had trial, pain and affliction not been my companions. O heavens, until Khan Selim drank nine full cups, no one in the world ever became my drinking companion.

TEİS took the ghazal from the anthology Sultanların Şiirleri Şiirlerin Sultanları by İsen, Bilkan and Durmuş. The comparison between brow and bridge is striking: the brows are likened to a bridge with one pier and two arches; the two arches (in Turkish, "eyes") of the bridge are the poet's eyes, and the soldiers of imagination cross the flood of tears by this bridge. That the name "Han Selîm" appears in the closing couplet instead of the pen name, and that the poem is in Turkish, call for its attribution to be weighed with care; whether this poem too is on Köksal's list could not be checked. It is probable that a link based on the idea of the nine heavens is intended between the "nine full cups" of the closing couplet and the sky addressed in the couplet.

Chronology

871-72 (1467) / 872 (1467-68) / 875 (1470): Born in Amasya; the TDV considers 875 the more probable date, Hüsameddin also records it under 875, and TEİS gives 871-72.

885 (1480): Summoned to Istanbul by his grandfather Mehmed II and circumcised (TDV).

892 (1487): Became sanjak governor of Trabzon; Péri thinks the ghazal mentioning Trabzon may have been written in these years.

918 (1512): Ascended the throne.

920 (1514): Battle of Çaldıran; arrived in Amasya on 6 Şevval 920 (Hüsameddin). According to Hüsameddin, Basîrî presented him with a victory qasida in Amasya.

921 (1515): Janissary revolt in Amasya; the houses of Pîrî Mehmed Paşa, Halîmî Çelebi and, according to Hüsameddin, Câfer Çelebi were plundered (TDV 22 February 1515; Hüsameddin 28 Muharrem 921). On 5 Rebîülevvel 921 (19 April 1515) the army left Amasya.

1515-1520: The illustrated copy of the divan held to have been prepared for Selim (Istanbul University FY 1330) is dated to these years.

926 (1520): Died near Çorlu on 8 Şevval (21 September).

961 (1554): The Jerusalem copy, reflecting the enlarged second redaction of the divan, was written in Istanbul.

1086 (1675): Date of the note in the Amasya copy; the manuscript was copied before this date.

1306 (1889): Hüseyin Hüsnî printed the divan in Istanbul for the first time.

1308 (1891): Şeyh Vasfî's Bârika was published.

1313 (1896): Manastırlı Dâniş Ahmed Efendi wrote his commentary Destâvîz-i Dâniş.

1904: Paul Horn's critical edition was printed in Berlin.

1946: Ali Nihad Tarlan's Turkish translation was published.

2019: M. Fatih Köksal published 28 Turkish poems by Selîmî.

2020: Benedek Péri described the 24 manuscripts used for the new critical edition.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

  • Sehî Beg, Heşt Bihişt, ed. Halûk İpekten, Günay Kut, Mustafa İsen, Hüseyin Ayan, Turgut Karabey, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, 2017 (e-book), pp. 19–21, entry on Sultan Selîm Şâh.

Books

Online sources