Poetry in the Text Isam Article

8/13/2019 Poetry in the Text Isam Article

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Muammad bin AlRwands Rat al-udr wa yat al-surr (The Comfortof the Hearts and the Sign of Happiness) is a history of the Great Seljuq Empire

giving a detailed account of its last decade, namely its dissolution into minor localdynasties (namely the Seljuqs of Hamadn, Kermn, Syria, and Anatolia (Rm))and later the subsequent Khwarazmian occupation which resulted in the killingof the last Great Seljuq Sultan Tughril III (1175/6-94) by the Khwarezm-Shh,Alal-Dn Tekish (1172-1200) in 1194. Rat al-udrwas written in Persian andcompleted around the year 1205. It was first dedicated to the Seljuq Sultan of Rm,Suleimn Shh II (1196-1204), who was the eldest son of Kilij Arslan II (1156-92). Because of the Sultans sudden death however, Rwandhad to rededicate his

work to the new Sultan of Rm, Kaykhusraw I (first reign: 1192-96; second reign:1205-11). The text is full of interjections of poetry and after almost every episodeof historical events, Rwandincludes a couplet or sometimes even a whole blockof poetry to summarize these events or give a word of wisdom through poetry.In some cases, one might argue that the poetic exposition of the events is looselyrelated to the actual text and this essay will explore what possible functions thesepoetic interjections actually serve within the actual historical material.

About the texts and authorsa) Rwand:The edition of Rwands Rhat al-udr wa yat al-surr(that

Muammad Iqbl published) is based on the manuscript at the Biblotque Nationalein Paris and has the date of Ramadan 635, which is equivalent to April 1238 in theGregorian calendar. There are several works of history dating from the times of theGreat Seljuqs; and in that regard, as Muammad Iqbl puts it in his introduction tothe text, we can divide the Seljuq history into three different generic periods: the firstperiod, that Iqbl calls the imperial age is the period that starts from the foundation

of the empire to the death of Malik Shh I and this period can be surveyed throughBayhaqs famous Eleventh Century book of history named Trkh-e l-e Sebuktigin(The History of the Great Sebuktigin).1The second is the middle period whichcould be well surveyed through the historical works of Ibn al-Athr and Imd al-Dnal-Isfahn.2Lastly, Iqbl categorizes the third portion of the Great Seljuq history asthe period of decline and decay and further comments about how Rwands Ratal-udris a great historical work which gives us insightful information about thereign of the last Great Seljuq Sultan Tughril III.3

1 Muammad Iqbl, Nairin nsz, Rhat-s-Sudr ve yet-s-Srr, trans. AhmedAte, vol. I, (Ankara: Trk Tarih Kurumu, 1957), x.

2 Ibid.3 Ibid., xiii.


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Rwandwas born to a family with a long line of famous scholars in Rwand,a town very close to the city of Kshn, today in the Isfahn province of Iran.

His uncle Tj al-Dn Amad Rwandwas a renowned scholar in a madrasainHamadn that Sultan Tughril IIIs atabegJaml al-Dn Ay-Ebe had founded.4Staying under his uncles supervision for more than ten years, Rwandstudiedthe basic Islamic sciences such as the adth, tafsr, and Hanafitefiqhas well asthe literary and artistic conventions of his age such as Arabic and Persian litera-ture, calligraphy and book-binding.5The last Great Seljuq Sultan Tughril III, wasfamous for being a patron of the arts, and Rwandwas brought to court along

with other numerous calligraphers to work on a special manuscript of the Holy

Quran that was being specially prepared for the Sultan himself. He garnered theSultans attention through his successful execution of calligraphy and, after thedeposition of Sultan Tughril III from the throne by the Khwarezm-Shh Alal-DnTekish in 1194, Rwandfound refuge in the Hamadn household of the localAlid ruler, Far al-Dn Arabshh, who had previously been strangled by TughrilIII himself, upon accusations that the former was plotting against the Sultan.6Forsix years, Rwandwas the tutor of the late Arabshhs three sons, Majd al-DnHumyn, Far al-Dn Khusraw-Shh and Imd al-Dn Merdn-Shh, and laterspent another two years as the tutor of a young student named al-Kshn.7Itis said that he had the idea for a history book while working as the tutor of thelatter and started writing his history of the Great Seljuqs in the year 599/1203finishing it two years later. In order to get an honorarium from the legitimizedsuccessors of the Great Seljuqs, their heir in Anatolia, namely the Seljuqs of Rm,Rwandvisited Rukn al-Dn Suleimn Shh II after dedicating the book to him.Suleimn II, who had extorted the throne from his elder brother Kaykhusraw I,

was now dead and Kaykhusraw I was the ruler of the Seljuqs of Anatolia again. Forthis reason, Rwandrededicated his book of history by making some substantial

changes within the text, but still failed to exclude all the references that he hadmade to Suleimn II in poetic and biblical references. One example that Iqblcites in his introduction to the Turkish translation of the text is that Rwandforgot to omit the intertextual references to Prophet Solomon, the fourth kingof the united monarchy of Israel, through which he wanted to praise SuleimnII of the Seljuqs of Rm.8

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.6 Ibid., xv.7 Ibid., xv-xvi.8 Ibid., xvii.


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b) Yazczde Al:According to the Ottoman historian Ner, Yazczde Al,who served twice as an envoy to the Mamluks during the first reign of Murd

II, was one of the most important Ottoman historians of the Fifteenth Century.He probably wrote his famous book on the history of the Seljuqs, Tevrkh-il-iSel, around the year 1436 upon the request of Murd II.9We do not have muchinformation about his life other than Ners report, but there are further discus-sions among scholars concerning the possibility that Yazczde Alcould be thebrother of famous early Ottoman figures Yazczde Memed and Amed-iBjn

who were both active during the time of Murd II.10The first historical work inthe Ottoman Empire is said to have been written during the time of Orhan Gazi

by Isk Fah. However, even though no copy of this work survives to date, weknow that this work exists through an anecdote that paazde tells in his his-tory: as he was passing through Gebze, the hometown of Fah, he became sickand stayed at Fahs house and it was during his stay that he found the chance toread this work and later incorporate it into his own history.11Apart from Fahs

work, the oldest surviving history is Ameds appendix to his book of Alexanderromance, skender-nme, and this short historical account of the Ottomans includesthe events from Erturul Gaziup to the period of the Ottoman Interregnum(the text itself is composed of 340 beyts and has the title of Dastn-Tevrkh-i

Mlk-l-iOmn.12

The text that will be dealt with here, namely Yazczde Als Tevrkh-il-iSel(The History of the Great Seljuqs), has several names such as Ouz-nmeorMool-nmeand the reason for these other names is that Yazczde Alincludeda short introductory text as the first volume (to his five-volume history), namedOuz-nme inwhich he deals with the question of the origin of the Seljuqs (31).It is the first original attempt to trace the Ottomans back to the Seljuqs, evenrelating them to the Oghuz tribes by assigning them to a specific clan within thegreater Oghuz tribe. Yazczde Als work was very popular, both during his owntime and in later centuries, and there are many manuscripts available in many

9 quoted in Sevim Ylmaz nder, nsz, Tevrh-i l-i Selk, vol. II, (stanbul: BilgeOuz, 2009), 23. For Ners report: Neri Tarihi, ed. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Altay Kymen,vol. I, (Ankara: Kltr Turizm Bakanl, 1988), 239.

10 quoted in Dr. Abdullah Bakr, nsz, Tevrh-i l-i Selk, (stanbul: amlca Ba-sn Yayn, 2009), xxvi.

11 nder, nsz, 28. For further discussion: Herbert W. Duda, Zeitgenssische isla-

mische Quellen und das Ouznme des Jazyyolu Alzur Angeblichen TrkischenBesiedlung der Dobrudcha im 12. Jhd. n. Chr., Spisanie Na Bulgarskata AkadamiyaNa Naukit zkustvata KnigaLXVI (Sofiya: Peatnitsa Knipegraf, 1943), 139.

12 Ibid.


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different libraries worldwide such as in Istanbul, Ankara, Paris, Leiden, SaintPetersburg and Moscow.13

Yazczde Als five-volume work Tevrkh-il-iSelgives a detailed ac-count of the states of the Oghuz Turks, the Seljuqs, the Mongols (particularlythe Ilkhanids), the Anatolian Beyliks and the Ottomans.14The first volume, as Ihave mentioned above, gives some information about Turko-Mongol and Oghuzclans, and reinterprets the legend of Oghuz Khan through Islam by talking abouthow the Turks became Muslim and how particular Turkish clans such as Uighur,Kpchak, Karluk etc. were named after Oghuz Khan himself.15For references,Yazczde Alcounts Rashd al-Dn Hamadns enormous book of history from

the Ilkhanate Empire,Jmi al-tawrkh(Compendium of Chronicles or Uni-versal History), the Book of Dede Korkut as well as an older text of Ouz-nmewritten in the Uighur script.16The second volume is devoted to the history of theSeljuqs of Hamadn (Iran) and Kermn (Iraq) and is a word-for-word translationof Rwands Rat al-udr.17The fourth and fifth volumes of Yazczde Alshistory is directly taken from Ibn Bbs thirteenth-century history of the Seljuqs of

Anatolia written in Persian, al-Awmir al-aliyya fil-umr al-aliyya, and Rashdal-Dns aforementionedJmi al-tawrkh respectively.18After talking about all

these different periods, Yazczde Alfinishes his exhaustive historical account bysurveying the period after the death of Ghazan Khan of the Ilkhanids and laterdescribes the origins of the Ottoman dynasty.19

Poetry translations into vernacular Turkish during theFourteenth Century Anatolia

The fifteenth century was an important period of literary development both in

eastern (Chagatai) and western (Oghuz) Turkic languages. Especially in the eastof Persia, we see that there were many great works written in the eastern TurkicChagatailanguage. In that regard, AlShr Nav(1441-1501) is a towering figurecoming from a well-established family with a long line of bakhshs, court scribesspecialized in the Uighur script. Later, he became a public administrator as well

13 Ibid., 68.14 Ibid.15 Ibid.

16 Ibid., 32.17 Ibid.18 Ibid.19 quoted from Adnan Sadk Erzi in nder, nsz, 32.


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as one of the key advisors to Sultan usayn-e Byqar(1438-1506) and it wasduring this time that he accumulated a great amount of wealth and became one

of the greatest patrons of the arts during his age. AlShr Navwas an accom-plished poet who was included in Dawlatshhs Tazkrat al-shuaras one of the bestpoets of all ages, along with Jm. Interestingly enough, Dawlatshhs anthologyof poetry culminates with the poems of AlShr Nav, not with the works ofthe last great classical Persian poet, Jm. It is puzzling to see that AlShr Nav,

who is primarily known for his poetry not in Persian, but in Chagatai, is regardedeven greater than Jmaccording to the hierarchical ascension noted in Tazkratal-shuar. One explanation is that Jmis said to have lost his sense of reason in

his old age, even though Navdoes not make an account of such a statementin his works.20So, it could be that Jms mental health failed to a great extentat the time of his old age, but one thing that we can deduce from Dawlatshhsinclusion of Navas the last poet would be that the latter was considered to bea great poet in his lifetime. Additionally, Navwas also famous for his last book,

Mukamat al-lughatayn(Judgment of Two Languages), which asserts the poeticsuperiority of the Chagatailanguage over Persian. There were other accomplishedpoets who were writing in Chagataibefore the age of AlShr Navsuch as Luf,Saqqqand Gad.

On the other hand, when we look at the development of the western Turkiclanguage Oghuz as an arising literary and political language, we see that the firstattempt to make Turkish the official state language was in the late ThirteenthCentury and was advanced by Karamanolu Memed Beg of the Principality ofKaraman, today in south-central Anatolia.21Likewise, later in the FourteenthCentury, we see a similar tendency toward some literary production in Turk-ish among the western Turks of Anatolia. Especially after the dissolution ofthe Seljuqs of Rm, we find the first attempts at the use of Turkish as a statelanguage: during the time of the Turkmen beyliks in Anatolia, there were somewaqfdocuments from the Germiyanids written in 1411 as well as the famousTeresslby Amed-iD, the first ul-e insh(style manual) work in Turkishto date, along with some kitbas (inscriptions) surviving from Ankara (1439)and Bursa (written by the poet Jamlin 1465).22Later during the time of theOttoman Sultan Bayazd I, we see that his son Emir Sleyman organized poetry

20 Cl. Huart and H. Mass, Djm, Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. II, (Leiden: E.J. Brill,1991), 422.

21 For the early influence of Turkish: Fuad Kprl, Yeni Farisde Trk Unsurlar,Trkiyat MecmuasVII-VIII.1(1942): 1-16.

22 nder, nsz, 19.


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gatherings in which poets such as Amed, eyhand Amed-iDrecitedpoetry in Turkish.23

One might read the use of Turkish for administrative and literary purposes asa general tendency of the era, as it was not only the Turks in Anatolia or Central

Asia and Khorsn who started to produce works in their own Turkic languages,but we see a similar tendency among the Mamluks, who are now composed ofa mix of Kipchak and Circassian Turks, as in the examples of Ayns Turkishtranslation of Qudrs tafsr, brhm Balis ikmet-nmeand the last MamlukSultan al-Ashraf Qnh al-Ghawrs dwn. We might, at the same time, tryto explain this broader interest in producing work in ones vernacular language

with the universal phenomenon of vernacularization and similar attempts alsoarising in medieval Europe, which culminated in Dantes Divinia Commediaof the Fourteenth Century, the first long literary work written in the local Ro-mance language.

In her analysis of Amed-iDs engnme, Gnl Alpay Tekin argues thatthe first literary production in the Oghuz language of the Fourteenth Century wasdue to the relatively short, but affluent period of small Anatolian frontier princi-palities (beyliks) governed by Turkmen community leaders named beys. Similarly,

when we look at the oldest extant Islamic manuscripts from Anatolia, we see thatthe most of the works except around 10 lines in Turkish by Rumias well as 74Turkish couplets from his son uln Veled, all the works were either written inPersian or Arabic.24According to Ate, the oldest surviving text is in Persian andit was el-Tiflss dream interpretation manual Kmil al-tabr.25This thesis waslater revised by Mikail Bayram, who argued that the oldest extant manuscriptis Kaf al-aqabawhich was written thirty years after the Battle of Manzikert in1071.26Furthermore, Bayram argues that among all the surviving manuscripts

from the Seljuq era, 145 and 68 of these manuscripts were in Persian and Arabicrespectively, whereas only 15 of them were in Turkish.27The oldest of the latter

23 Gnl Alpay Tekin, Ahmed-i Daden nceki Anadolunun Kltr HayatveAhmed-iDa,Ahmed-i Da and his engnme: An Old Ottoman Mesnevi, (Cambridge: HarvardUniversity The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1973), 1.

24 Mecdut Mansurolu, Anadoluda Trk Dili ve Edebiyatnn lk Mahslleri, stanbulniversitesi Edebiyat Fakltesi Trk Dili ve EdebiyatDergisi1.1(1946-7), 10.

25 Ahmed Ate, Hicri VI-VIII. (XII-XIV.) Asrlarda Anadoluda Farsa Eserler, Trki-

yat MecmuasVII-VIII (1945), 97.26 Mikail Bayram,Anadoluda Telif Edilen lk Eser Kefl-akabe, (Konya: Hayra Hiz-

met Vakf, 1981), 7.27 Ibid.


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ones probably being a medical treatise Tufe-iMbrizwritten by Khwarezmiankim Bereket.28

After the fragmentation of the Seljuq Sultanate of Rm with the Battle of KseDain 1243 by the Mongols, these local beyliks not only attracted many Turkmengroups into their frontier communities in the name ofghaz, the holy war againstthe infidel (in this case against the Byzantine Empire) originally referring to thecampaigns led by Prophet Muammad, but also accumulated considerable wealth intheir regional centers by creating vibrant commercial network.29It was in the courtsof these small Anatolian principalities that the very first western Turkic (Oghuz)translations of Persian and Arabic works were undertaken and it was again withinthis context, Turkish became canonized as an official state and literary language. Theliterary production in Turkish was not only limited to the works of literature, but avery early Turkish translation of the Quran dedicated to the head of the Isfendiyarids(formerly Candarids) Bayazd indicates us that even religious works were translatedinto Turkish in the courts of these small Anatolian principalities.30

It would, of course, be too simplistic to argue that the main reason why Turkishhad become so popular was because these beys were oblivious to and not particularlyeducated in the Persian scribal and literary traditions, even though the intellectualenterprise during the time of the Seljuq Sultanate of Rm relied mostly on the Persian(and Arabic) cultural and literary background.31Persian and Arabic were, however,still used especially in mosque inscriptions as well as the books compiled for madrasas(such as those in znik and Bursa).32However, we should also not forget that, inaddition to the relatively stable and affluent courts of these small principalities, theinfluence of taawwufwas common among the Turkmen populations of Anatolia, andtherefore, the very first literary and religions works, which were all Sufipoems in the

western Turkic dialect, were actually written by prominent Anatolian mutaawwifs

such as uln Veled, Amed Fah, Yunus Emre, Glehr(the early translator ofManiq al-ayrof Fard al-Dn Aar into Turkish in 1317), Paa (the author ofGarbnme) in the late Thirteenth and early Fourteenth Centuries.33

28 ehabeddin Tekinda, zzet Koyunolu Ktphanesinde Bulunan Trke YazmalarI, Trkiyat MecmuasXVI (1971), 134-5.

29 Tekin, Ahmed-i Daden nceki Anadolunun Kltr HayatveAhmed-i Da, 2.30 Ahmet Ate, Burdur-Antalya ve Havalisi Ktphanelerinde Bulunan Trke, Arapa

ve Farsa BazMhim Eserler, stanbul niversitesi Edebiyat Fakltesi Trk Dili ve

EdebiyatDergisi 3-4(1948), 174.31 Tekin, Ahmed-i Daden nceki Anadolunun Kltr HayatveAhmed-i Da, 6.32 Ibid.33 Ibid., 8.


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The most of the literary production of the Fourteenth Century was centeredaround principalities along the Aegean such as the Beyliks of Mentee, Aydn and

Germiyan. The literary activity in these frontier communities were twofold: theseworks in Turkish were either translations of famous Persian and Arabic literaryor religious works (e.i. Aydnolu Memeds translation of Fard al-Dn AarsTazkrat al-awliy, ul Mesds Kalla wa Dimna, Fars translation of Khusrawo Shrn) or works written directly in Turkish mostly as imitations of previousPersian works (e.i. the imitations of the manavYsuf o Zuleikhaby the poetseyyad amza and Sle Fah).34

In addition to the main structure of literary production in Turkish during the

period of Anatolian principalities, we also see that the concept of translation hasdifferent connotations and contextual uses. For instance, when we look at Amed-iDs engnmecomposed in 1423, we see that even though the author intendedthis work to be a translation of Sads no longer extant manavwith the samename, the work goes well beyond being a simple translation from Persian: as Sadsaforementioned manavincluded 70 beyts, Amed-iDs Turkish translation ofthis work includes 1446 such beyts.35This shows us clearly that the status of trans-lation in the early Fifteenth Century Anatolia had different connotations than we

would expect it to have. That is to say, in such translations from this period, weshould not expect that the author makes a faithful rendering of the original textinto his own language, but instead, he composes a new one by changing most ofthe cultural references as well as making additions to a great extent.

Textual references and their use in Rat al-udr

There are many word-for-word interjections in Rat al-udr from otherQuranic, historical, encyclopedic and literary texts. For instance, there are 264

pieces in Arabic that are directly taken from Abu Manr al-Thalibs Kitb al-fared wal-qaledwithout making any references to him.36All these short piecesare examples of arb-e maal(maxim or proverb in English), which are allpreserved in their Arabic originals within the text (without their Persian transla-tions). They are included after almost every episode of events and, differently frompoetic interjections, they act as plain words of wisdom to hint at the downfall of a

34 Ibid., 10-11.35 Gnl Alpay Tekin, engnmenin Kaynaklar, Ahmed-i Da and his engnme:

An Old Ottoman Mesnevi, (Cambridge: Harvard University The Department of NearEastern Languages and Civilizations, 1973), 72.

36 Julie Scott Meisami, Rvands Rat al-udr: History or Hybrid?, Edebiyt: TheJournal of Middle Eastern Literatures, vol 5/2(1994), 186.


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character or a later glory to come. These maxims are included at least more thanonce in every paragraph and the message that they want to convey is often repeatedin the poetry sections that come right after them. It is interesting enough to notethat, in some sections, the arb-e maals deliver a very similar message to thosethat the poems usually do; and therefore, one might easily see the poems includedin the text as the more elaborate expositions of the previosuly plainly expressedarb-e maals. For instance, in the section on Alp Arslan, in which Rwandtalksabout the execution of the previous vizier by the new one, namely the famousNim al-Mlk, the arb-e maalstates that the one who loves his own self shouldavoid sin, and the one who loves his son feels pity for the orphans ( ).37Likewise, the poetic interjection taken fromShh-nmahas a similar message:

As the arb-e maal remarks that one should not commit harm to others if theydo not want the very same things to happen to themselves, the part taken fromShh-nmasays similarly that one may never anticipate what destiny will bringand whatever happens to one does not really matter, as everyone will end up be-ing buried under the earth. Both of the texts, placed successively, hint at Nimal-Mlks tragic death at the hands of asan-e abbs assassins.

In terms of historical texts, we see that the first section of Rat al-udr, thesection that deals with the origins of the Seljuqs ( ), was primarily taken from Seljq-nmaof hir al-Dn Nshprwho was in thecourt of Sultan Arslan before the time of Sultan Tughril III.38Furthermore, thelater sections, on the question of drinking according tofiqhas well as another oneon the history of chess, were all taken from previous sources: the sections on the

37 Muammad bin Albin Sleymn al-Rwand, Rat al-udr wa yat al-surr, ed.Muammad Iqbl, (Tahrn: Enshert-e Amr-e Kebr, 1364), 118.

38 Iqbl, Nairin nsz, xx.


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permissibility of drinking, according to Ahmed Ate, were taken from famousbooks on the Hanafitefiqhsuch as al-Shaybns al-Jmi al-kabrand al-Jmi

al-ar,Mukhtaar al-aw,Mukhtaar al-Kar, as well as other commentariesby Masd, Qudrand Farghn; and similarly, the sections on the medicinal useof wine were directly taken from Isml Jurjns medical encyclopedia written inPersian,akhre-ye Khwrazmshh(Treasures dedicated to the king of Khwarezm),between the years 1111 and 1136.39

In addition to all these sections directly taken from other works of Quranic,historical and encyclopedic texts, there are many poems inserted into the historicalmaterials, most frequently in the forms of beyts (couplets) and qadas (a form of

lyric poetry with pre-Islamic Arab origins), but sometimes in the musammaand(in the case of Nem) manavforms. In the sabab-e talfsection of his Ratal-udr, Rwandtalks about how he always had an idea of compiling a book ofselections from the poetry of his age. The idea was given by a certain Shams al-Dnbin Manchihr Amad Shat-galla, who advised him not to read already outdatedpoets such as San, Unr, Muezzand Rdak(though Meisamiargues that thereare fragmentary verses from Sans adqat al-aqqa), but memorize the poemsof his contemporaries such as Imad, Anvarand Abl-Faraj Rninstead.40

In total, there are 2,799 beyts, both in Persian and Arabic, that are used in thewhole text and 511 of these beyts belong to Rwandhimself. According to Ate, allof the beyts by Rwandare panegyric in nature and written in praise of KaykhusrawI (probably all these beyts were initially written in praise of Suleimn II and laterrevised for his dedication of the whole book to the new Sultan Kaykhusraw I) (xx).

Again in the sabab-e talfsection of his Rat al-udr, Rwandmentions how hehad embellished his work with the words of wisdom extracted from Shh-nmaof Ferdows, a long epic poem written for Mamd of Ghaznbetween 977 and

1010 AD (Rwand71). In addi

ti

on to 676 beyts taken from Shh-nma, thereare also 348 from Mujir-e Baylaqn, 249 from NemGanjav(mostly from hisepic romances Khusraw o Shrn and Laylo Majnn), 81 beyts from Jaml al-DnIsfahn, 77 from Athr-e Ahsekat, 72 from Imad, 122 from numerous Arabicpoets (most of them being from the works of Tughraand Mutanabb), 6 from the

fahlawiyyt() genre (folkloric poems written in local dialects as well as thePahlavilanguage, the Middle Iranian language used at the time of the Sassanids)and the rest are from other numerous Persian poems.41

39 Ibid., xxi.40 Rwand, Rat al-udr wa yat al-surr, 70-71; Meisami, Rvands Rat al-udr:

History or Hybrid?, 187.41 Meisami, Rvands Rat al-udr: History or Hybrid?, 186.


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Textual references and their use in Tevrkh-i l-i Sel

The second volume of Yazczde Als text is a direct translation of RwandsRat al-udr. However, there are few parts that Yazczde Aldoes not includein his translation, such as the first two chapters of his work: in the first chapter ofhis work, Rwanddelivers a lengthy praise of Prophet Muammad and then theother important figures of his time including some of the recent Seljuq Sultans; andlater in the second chapter (sabab-e talf), he talks about the motivations behind

writing this work. Yazczde Als translation directly starts with the migration ofthe Seljuqs and he particularly avoids translating the later sections of the work in

which Rwandtalks about the games of chess and backgammon, the professionof calligraphy as well as the sections on Medieval numerology (abjadnumerals)and Aristotles advise to Alexander the Great. The majority of the historical pas-sages are preserved and it is only the poetic interjections (mostly in Persian) andthe arb-e maals in Arabic that are deliberately omitted from the translation. Thesuccession of events are copied from Rwands work word-for-word and it is onlyin two particular sections that the author does not follow the order, yet includesboth of these events in the later sections of his translation. Lastly, as YazczdeAlomits all the poems used within the text, we see that in some cases, he prefers

to write of his own by, for instance, praising his own Sultan, Murd II, instead ofthe historical figures mentioned in the text such as Kaykhusraw I.

The Section on Tughril Beg

In order to understand the real function of poetic interjections in historical works,I will select a few significant passages from Rat al-udrwhich are also present intheir Turkish translations in Yazczde Als Tevrkh-il-iSel. One interesting

aspect of Yazczde Als translation is that, even though he does not make anychanges in the storyline or in the main text itself, he omits all of the poems as wellas the arb-e maals included within the text. For the purpose of this essay, I willonly deal here with the use and function of the poetic interjections in RwandsRat al-udr, and talk about the comparison of the uses of poetic interjectionsin a later section devoted to the general use of poetry in historical texts.

The first section that will be dealt with in this analysis is that on the period ofTughril and ChaghriBegs, right before the great Battle of Dndanaqn against

the Ghaznavids in 1040, which historically legitimized the Seljuq supramacy inKhorsn. The full name of the section is:


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At the very beginning of this section, Rwandtalks about the viziers andchamberlains of Tughril Beg and then moves on to a famous anecdote that tells the

story of Tughril Begs encounter with three saintly figures, namely Bbher, thefamous eleventh century poet who wrote mystical verses in the Hamadndialect,BbJafer and Sheikh amsh. As Tughril Beg was passing from a mount namedKhir (probably a reference to the saintly figure mentioned in the eighteenthsura al-Kahf), he saw three dervishes sitting there. When the Sultan approachedthem, one of these dervishes, Bbher who was said to be little bit crazy, askedhim, by addressing him as the Turk, what he was going to do with them.42AfterTughril Beg answers Bbher modestly by saying that he would do whatever

he would command him to do, Bbher replies him by saying that he shoulddo whatever God commands him to do and recites the first part of the ninetiethverse of al-Nal, Allah commands justice, the doing of good ( ). Upon hearing this, Tughril Beg starts crying and after he gives the answerof yes to the question of Bbher whether Tughril Beg takes his word or not,Bbher takes out the broken mouth piece of a pitcher (ibrq) that he was

wearing as a ring, presents it to Tughril Beg and places it on his finger saying thatBbher himself has put all the realms inside this ring and for this, Tughril Begshould be with justice.43After this incident, whenever he fought an important war,Tughril Beg always wore this special ring charmed by Bbher.44

After this episode, a piece from Nems Khusraw o Shrnis interjected inorder to heighten the effectiveness of the description of Tughril Begs encounter

with the famous mystic Bbher.

According to the first two beyts of the poem, it is said that there are twoMuammads in the world after everyone is to receive their portion from compassionof God (rama): thus, one Muammad receives the ring (khatm, ring or seal)of the prophethood (nubuwwa) and the other receives the ring of all the countriesor the earthly realm (mamlik) in return.45Of course, Nemuses these beyts insome other context and maybe even to praise one of his patrons with the name

42 Rwand, Rat al-udr wa yat al-surr, 98.43 Ibid, 99.44 Ibid.45 Ibid.


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Muammad from the line of the Shirvnshhs. Similarly, Rwandhere uses thispassage from Khusraw o Shrn to praise Tughril Beg who has Muammad as one

of his names, and more importantly, Rwandwants to relate the story of TughrilBeg receiving the charmed ring from Bbher to these beyts from Nembyaddressing him as the real ruler of the world (as in the third beytof the poem, hemakes it clear that one Muammad (Prophet Muammad) is from the line of the

Arabs whereas the second is of the lands of Persians (ajem, which normally meanssomeone who does not know Arabic, non-Arab, a term coming from the ageof the Abbasids):46

The dichotomy between two Muammads, one being the guide of the heavens

and the other being that of the earth, dominates the rest of the poem; therefore,in the nextbeyt, we see that Nemsays that one Muammad saved religion fromoppression and the other brought justice to the earth. In the next beyt, Nemexecutes a very clever word game in which he says that by having incorporatingthe two letters of mmin the word Muammad, both of these Muammads man-age to unite both words (lam), one being the spiritual and the other being the

physical.47

In the last beytof the poem, Nemmakes mention of the hegemony of the

Turks in the political realm by saying that by abrogating pillage (naskh-e trj, whichcould be read in two ways as naskhboth means to abrogate and in the context ofkha-naskh, a type of calligraphic writing which at the same time, returns us tothe pen imagery in the rest of the beyt), this certain Turkish Muammad (withtwo mms) used one mmfor writing (qalam, pen) and the other mmfor the tj(crown, at the same time rhyming with the word trj):

46 Ibid.47 Ibid.


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That is to say, what Neamiconveys here is that the Turks, by establishing strongempires and therefore, bringing justice and order to the Islamic world, prevented more

pillaging (disorder) and combined the two realms in their own empires: they used onemmfrom the name Muammad for the arts and science (symbolized with qalam) andthe other for creating substantial empires (symbolized with tj) in the physical realm.One point here is that probably Nemdoes not praise his Shirvnshh patrons hereas, ethnically, the Shirvnshhs were Persianized Arabs. However, these lines fromKhusraw o Shrnperfectly suit Rwands intention of praising Tughril Beg.

Later, Rwandmoves on to the episode of the Seljuq-Ghaznavid battle andmentions how, with a huge army, Sultan Masd I of Ghaznsets out to Khorsnto eradicate the Seljuqs from the region. When Tughril Beg hears the messagethat Masd is approaching with a great army, being only 25farsakh(onefarsakhbeing 12,000 cubits or 5,919 meters) away from the city of Ts, Tughril Beg getsanxious that he will not make it to where his brother ChaghriBeg is, so that theycould unite their armies against Masd I.48Assuming that everything is undercontrol, Masd I falls asleep on his elephant and, in the morning, he realizes thatthe news that Tughril Beg had made it to where his brother was had not reachedhim, because everyone, including the mahout himself, had been afraid to wake

Masd I up.49

Here, Rwandincludes a line which, according to Iqbl, belongsto the vizier of Sultan Tughril III, and is written on the theme of wakefulness. Asthe line goes, if you wake up in the morning, I am afraid, it means that it would betoo little too late ( :). Masd I returned, with hisarmy, back to Khorsn and, in the desert between Sarakhs and Merv, there was agreat battle, before which the Seljuq army had dried up all the water sources in thedesert hiding some for themselves in wells.50Having received a serious defeat byTughril and ChaghriBegs, Masd I fled with his elephant from the battle field.

After giving an account of the great war between the Seljuqs and Ghaznavids,Rwand, interestingly enough, includes a section from Ferdowss Shh-nmaconcerning humility and the vanity of the world: Ferdows, in these lines, advisespeople not to be vengeful and reminds them that no one may ever be the solepossessor of the world as everyone is but a passer-by:

48 Ibid., 100.49 Ibid.50 Ibid.


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In that sense, Rwandcontrasts the gist of the words of wisdom from Shh-nmawith the rash and immodest behaviour of Masd I, yet the irony is that

he uses a book that was prepared for a Ghaznavid ruler, namely Masd Is father,Mamd of Ghazn, to address him. When compared to the arb-e maals used inthe text, these lines from Shh-nmaagain seem very repetious, since they do notadd anything more than a repetition of the points that have already been exposed bythe three arb-e maals placed after each sentence in this particular episode. When

we look at the number of sentences used to describe the clash between TughrilBeg and Masd I, we see that the sum of the couplets, plus the arb-e maals usedin the text, is nearly twice as many as the sentences used the text to describe the

anecdote. In that regard, this shows us that, as a rhetorical devise, Rwandprefersto use arb-e maals and poetic interjections to a great extent.

The last two beyts of the section included from Shh-nmaspeak of somethingdeep about the perception of life in medieval Islam:

So, as these two beyts state: one comes, one goes away, neither one hangs aroundin this station or grazes; the world was founded and put together like this, it takesits hand away and gives it to another. Rwandprobably used these lines to showthat Masd Is anger and greed is ungrounded and in vain. However, can we atthe same time read these beyts as being addressed to Tughril Beg or to any SeljuqSultan who reads this story to learn from the past? Probably. Even though we knowthat it is the obligation of a medieval historical narrative to glorify the historicalachievements of a particular dynasty that they are writing for, we should not, at the

same time, forget that the poetic interjections act as intermission where one thinksabout the story that has been read and further contemplates its implications forones own life. That is to say, although Masud I of Ghaznis heavily criticized inthese sections with words of wisdom by Ferdows, it is always good to think thatpeople who read these stories, be it someone from the Seljuq family or someoneelse not belonging to the past, at the same time, goes through a reflective processof thinking about their own actions.

The section that comes after Masd Is running away from the battle field has a

moral point behind it. When escaping from the Seljuq army, a few Seljuq soldierscatch up with Masd I, but, as he is getting on his horse, he smashes the head ofone of the soldiers with his mace and no one is able to come closer to him. Afterrelating this scene, Rwandincludes the two arb-e maals, namely virtue has


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nothing to do with ones origin (al) or genealogy (nasb), but has a basis in reason(aql) and good manners (adab) ( ) and anintelligent persons hostility (adva al-qel) is preferable to the friendship of anignorant one (adqa al-jhel) ( ), and repeats thesame message over with a couplet again from Shh-nma:51

The main point about this part is that though Masd I seems strong and

brave in fighting, he let himself fell into this position because he was not able to

acti

ntelli

gently before.After winning the battle against the Ghaznavids, the Seljq power in Khorsn

was legitimized. Two brothers, Tughril and ChaghriBegs, and their uncles, as wellas the sons of their uncles, along with other members of the greater tribe, gatheredtogether to talk about the future of their newly legitimized state. Tughril Beg gavehis brother an arrow to snap and ChaghriBeg snapped it very easily indeed. Afterrepeating the same thing with two and three arrows consecutively, ChaghriBegin the end was not able to break a bundle of four arrows.52Upon this, Tughril

Beg remarked that as long as we are together, no one can prevai

l over us; howeverif we find ourselves against each other, then our enemies will be in the ascendantand we will lose our sovereignty:53

After this incident, Rwandagain includes two couplets from Shh-nma

and we see that before the couplets, he does not use any arb-e maals to bringfurther didacticism to the speech that Tughril Beg gives to the other members ofthe family. The beyts by Ferdowsecho the moral of the story:

51 Ibid., 101-2.52 Ibid., 102.53 Ibid.


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That is to say, if two brothers help one another, they will turn a huge mountaininto a stone, to a heart that suffers from a brothers affliction, the cure of the doc-

tors does bring any remedy.

Poetry in the text: The use and function of poetry in historical texts

Before talking about the general use and function of poetry in historical textsin light of Rwandis Rat al-udras well as its translation in the second volumeof Yazczde Als history, I want to note that Yazczde Als omission of poemsfrom the main text can give us some hints about the perception of poetry in the

Fifteenth Century historical works written in Anatolia. From the historical point ofview, if we say that the number of surviving manuscripts indicates the popularity ofa particular work, then we might conclude that the main motivation of YazczdeAls omission of poetry from his translation of Rwands work might suggest thatYazczde Alcould have wanted to compile a more concise history of the Seljuqs ofAnatolia by taking out the more elaborate and prosaic parts from his translation. IfYazczde Alis one of the first major popular historians who wrote about the originsand predecessors of the Ottomans, we might again conclude that he found poetic

interjections embedded in the main text as unnecessary digressions from the mainhistorical storyline, since his primary interest in compiling this five-volume work isnot to survey Seljuq history in its most precise context, but to create an outline ofhistorical genealogy for the Ottomans. However, we should not forget that the poemsthat Rwandselected for his history are both linguistically and culturally relevant tothe greater Persianatesocial context of the Seljuqs of the early Thirteenth Centuryand, as Yazczde Alwas one of the first great Ottoman historians to write in thenewly vernacularized form of the Anatolian Turkish language (which is at the same

time, the new widely used literary language), then he might have found these beytswritten in Persian, Arabic and other various local Iranian dialects culturally irrelevantand out of context. This is also because most of these interjections are heavily embed-ded in the Persian and Arabic poetic traditions and it is nearly impossible to retainthese lines without preserving the original syntax and vocabulary.

In that sense, it is understandable why Yazczde Alomitted the poems fromthe text, sincefirstlythey were not in Anatolian Turkish, and therefore, acted as ahuge hindrance to the general readership of the text as the audience of this five-

volume work would probably want the text to be within the Ottoman culturaland historical context (of course, here one should look more into the questionsof readership and literacy in the context of the Ottoman fifteenth century: if it

was only the Persian-educated high intellectuals who were reading Yazczde Al,


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then we can ask again why he would have omitted these sections). Secondly, weshould at the same time consider the fact that Yazczde Alalso omits the Arabic

arb-e maals taken from al-Thalib. As none of these proverbs selected fromal-Thalibs work include any specific references to a particular culture context(whether Persian or Arabic), as in the case of, for instance, thebeyts selected fromFerdowss Shh-nmaor Nems Khusraw o Shrn(yet I do not think that thepieces that Rwanduses within his text are strictly culture-specific, especially inthe sections analyzed above), there could well be another reason in Yazczde Alsremoval of these interjections. In that sense, since the other parts differing frompoems, namely the arb-e maals, do not bring any culturally specific dimension

to the text, Yazczde Almight have intended to carve out a precise text devoidof any unnecessary digressions.

Regarding the initial use and function of poetry in historical works, one mightfirst argue that any additional material to the central historical text could be usedas a rhetorical device to show that the author himself is highly knowledgeableabout the cultural heritage of the dynasty for which he is writing the history. Thisargument is similar to that made by the Persian scholar Isml Afshr as well asthe editor of the critical edition of Rwands Rat al-udr, Muammad Iqbl,

as it is stated in Julie Scott Meisamis article concerning Rwands prose style.In this article, Meisamipoints out the unusual hybrid quality of Rwands textby assessing Afshr and Iqbls argument that Rwands work is not original orinstructive as he had plagiarized from other historical works from beginning toend without making any specific acknowledgement of the authors that he hadused.54The accusation of plagiarism might be too anachronistic to use in this case,for it was a common convention during that period to use other materials when

writing a book of history (given the fact that most of the five-volume history ofYazczde Alwas composed of sections that he had translated (sometimes in theirentirety) from other works of history). Furthermore, as Afshr puts it, Rwandsgoal -who had a good hand and was skilled in gilding - in writing this book in thenewly Islamicized Asia Minor, in which region Persian literature had not yet putdown roots, and at a time when no Iranian notables or scholars were to be foundin Konya, was to obtain a stipend from the Seljuq Kaykhusraw.55This argumentcould be accurate, as it was very common for historians and even poets to pro-duce works in order to receive a honorarium or a promotion in administrativerank in medieval Islam; however, as Meisamiputs it, Rwandwrote this work in

Hamadn without having the intention of dedicating this book to any specific

54 quoted in Meisami, Rvands Rat al-udr: History or Hybrid?, 185.55 Ibid.


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ruler. It was only after going to Anatolia to present this volume to Suleimn ShhII that Rwandfound out that the former was already dead.

Different from Afshr and Iqbl, Meisamilooks for other ways to explainthe hybrid, or as she calls it the bipartite nature of Rwands prose. Of course,the argument that any interjection in the main historical text has a functionin which the author finds a way of acknowledging his versatility in Arabic andPersian literature, as well as Islamic theology, is still a valid one. In order for atext to be legitimized as a great historical work (whether they are pre-IslamicSasanid mirrors for princes with full of ancient Persian proverbs arb-e maalsas in Rwands case or earlier Islamic histories as in the example of al-abars

comprehensive text Trkh al-Rusul wa al-Mulk(The History of the Prophetsand Kings)) during the medieval period, it needs to make references not onlyto the particular verses of the Holy Quran or to the adth, but also to the mostsignificant poetic works of Persian literature. In contrast, Meisamiargues that thehybridity of Rwands text has more complex structural and thematic ends thanit is generally thought to be.56For instance, when Meisamitalks about one of theearlier sections of Rwands book, namely , in which hetalks about the origins of the Seljuqs after taking the text directly from Nshprs

Seljq-nma, she points out that the references that Rwandmakes within thetext, deviate from the schematically continuous and unadorned narrative; that isto say, by recasting Seljq-nmathrough omission, amplification and rearrange-ment, Rwandrestructures Nshprs authoritative narrative of the formativeyears of the Seljuqs into a new, well-structured text with many thematically con-nected references to poetry, Islamic proverbs and Quranic verses.57In that sense,by breaking the straight-forward and generic narrative style of older historicaltexts, Rwands scattered quotations serve not only to demonstrate morals, butalso to provide introductions, transitions and conclusions in the best tradition ofusn-e mala, usn-e takhalluand usn-e maqa and are structurally woven intocoherent passages linked thematically with their contexts.58

One could argue that the inclusion of poetry in historical texts has many usesand functions. One apparent function would be to relate the greater historicalnarrative to a particular cultural context and in the case of Rwands book, we seethat he intends to situate his history of the Seljuqs within the greater Islamic andPersianatecultures. In that sense, we see that Rwandnot only makes an extensiveuse of Persian classical poetry from the works of Ferdowsand Nem, but also

56 Ibid.57 Ibid., 193; 202.58 Ibid., 202-3.


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includes the Islamic lore of arb-e maals as well as verses from the Holy Quran.There are several arguments devised by Iranian scholars Afshr and Iqbl who both

believe that these textual references and interjections from the greater Islamic andPersianate cultural context do not have any particular meaning, but are used onlyto impress the Seljuq Sultan to whom the book is dedicated. In contrast, Meisamiargues that these interjected passages are structurally and thematically connectedto Rwands greater historical account and have a rhetorical function in the greaternarrative scheme. Considering Yazczde Als omission of these poetic interjectionsfrom his translation of Rwands Rat al-udrin the second volume of Tevrkh-i

l-iSel, I want to argue that the perception of poetic interjections is culturally

specific. One possible reason why Yazczde Almight have omitted these poemsin Persian could be explained within the context of the Ottoman Fifteenth Century,in which there was a particular interest in producing literature in the vernacularTurkish rather than the official literary languages of the age, Persian and Arabic.

Similarly, when we look at the common trends among the translations from thisperiod, we see that as in the example of Amed-iDs engnme, the translationsare not limited to the original language itself, but consist of extensive additions andrevisions in the culture-specific content of the works being translated. Remind-

ing that Amed-iDs engnmehad 1376 more beyts than the original wouldprobably be sufficient to point out the different approaches and perceptions intranslation during the Fifteenth Century Anatolia.

I want to conclude that the poetic interjections used in Rwands text are the-matically connected to the historical episodes that they come after; however, thebeyts that are chosen are sometimes too long and digressing to include or repetitivegiven the fact that, in most cases, these beyts do not add anything new structurallyand content-wise to the already quoted arb-e maals from al-Thalibs Kitb al-

fared wal-qaled. The main function of poetic interjections in historical texts isto summarize the historical episode that comes before them and make the moralof the story to be easily remembered through their rhymed schemes. For instance,

when describing the deeds of Sultan Masd I of Ghaznin the Tughril Beg episode,Rwandaims to delineate Sultan Masd Is hubris in a very didactic way with hisreferences to Ferdowsand Nem. Even though Rwands poetic interjectionsare thematically related to the general moral of the story, they do not add anythingnew to the points already made in the arb-e maals. That is to say, especially in

Rwands case, the poetic interjections do not add anything new to the generalmoral quality of these historical episodes, but resituates them within the greaterIslamic and Persianate context. This point is probably the main factor why YazczdeAlomits these interjections from his translation of the very same work.


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Poetry in the Text: The Use and Function of Poetry in Rwands Rat al-udrandYazczde Als Translation of the Same Work in Tevrkh-il-iSelk

Abstract Rwands Rat al-udr wa yat al-surr (The Comfort of the Heartsand the Sign of Happiness) is an early Thirteenth Century history of the GreatSeljuq Empire giving a detailed account of its dissolution into minor local dynas-ties. This particular work is full of interjections of poetry and after almost everyepisode of historical events, Rwandincludes a couplet or sometimes even a wholeblock of poetry to summarize these events or give a word of wisdom throughpoetry. Two centuries later, the Ottoman historian Yazczde Al, who servedtwice as an envoy to the Mamluks during the first reign of Murd II (1421-1444),is today mainly famous for his five-volume work Tevrkh-il-iSel(The

History of the Great Seljuqs) which gives a detailed genealogical account of theOttomans, tracing the histories of the Oghuz Turks, the Seljuqs, the Ilkhanids, as

well as later Anatolian principalities. The second volume of this work is devotedto the history of the Seljuqs of Hamadn and Kermn, and is a word-for-wordtranslation of Rwands Rat al-udr. Interestingly, Yazczde Alomits mostof Rwands poetic interjections from his translation of Rat al-udr; and insome cases, he rewrites them according to the Ottoman cultural context. Thisessay will explore what possible functions these poetic interjections actually serve

within the context of these two historical works and later argue that Yazczde

Als perception of poetic interjections is that the use of poetry in historical textsis culturally specific.

Keywords: History and Historiography, Vernacular Translations in Anatolia, theSeljuq and Ottoman Empires, the Use and Function of Poetry in Historical Texts.

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Poetry in the Text Isam Article