The Work of Şerh-i Dîvân-ı Urfî-i Şîrâzî of Sahhâf Ahmed Rüşdî
Seyit YavuzClassical literature, which has a deep past, accommodates many poetic and prosaic works that are written according to pre-identified patterns. The subject of this study, Şerh-i Dîvân-ı Urfî-i Şîrâzî, was written in the 17th century by Sahhâf Ahmed Rüşdî and is a prosaic work. There have been many commentators who wrote numerous exegeses about the poems of Urfî-i Şîrâzî. One of them is the exegesis of Sahhâf Ahmed Rüşdî. Exegesis means to open or to fissure according to the dictionary definition. However, terminologically, it means that those who have better understanding over the particular topic try to explain the ambiguous and hazy expressions, in other word, they explain it at great length. Sahhâf Ahmed Rüşdî also did the same while explaining the poems of Urfî. In this study, firstly, some biographical information is given about Sahhâf Ahmed Rüşdî and Kıblelizâde Mahmut, a copyist of Şerh-i Dîvân-ı Urfî-i Şîrâzî, then Şerh-i Dîvân-ı Urfî-i Şîrâzî is introduced in detail, and finally the methodology of commentary is explained. Two odes, some gazelles and stanzas of Urfi are mentioned, and some pages from the aforementioned work and some information about Kıblelizâde Mahmut is given in attachment 1 and 2 at the end of the study.
Sahhâf Ahmed Rüşdî'nin Şerh-i Dîvân-ı Urfî-i Şîrâzî Adlı Eseri
Seyit YavuzOldukça uzun bir geçmişe sahip olan Dîvân edebiyatı, sınırları belli kalıplarla çevrelenmiş, kendine has mazmunlar dünyasına sahip bir edebiyattır. Gerek manzum gerek mensur eserlerde bu tür mazmunlara rastlamak mümkündür. Bu çalışma çerçevesinde ele almaya çalıştığımız ve 17. yüzyılda Sahhâf Ahmed Rüşdî tarafından kaleme alınan Şerh-i Dîvân-ı Urfî-i Şîrâzî adlı eser de mensur bir şerh hüviyetindedir. Türk edebiyatında Urfî-i Şîrâzî’nin şiirleri üzerine birçok şârih tarafından şerhler yazılmıştır. Bu şerhlerden biri de Sahhâf Ahmed Rüşdî’nin şerhidir. Şerh kelimesi lugat anlamıyla bir şeyi açmak, kesmek/yarmak gibi anlamlar taşır. Istılahî olarak ise bir metni başkalarından daha iyi anladığı iddiasında bulunan kişilerin, o metinde bulunan bazı muğlak, müphem yada anlaşılması zor ifadeleri açması, deyim yerindeyse bu tür ifadelerin üstündeki örtüyü kaldırarak daha anlaşılır bir hâle getirmesidir. Sahhâf Ahmed Rüşdî de bu yönde giderek Urfî’nin şiirlerini şerh etmiştir. Bu çalışmada öncelikle Sahhâf Ahmed Rüşdî ve Şerh-i Dîvân-ı Urfî-i Şîrâzî’nin müstensihi Kıblelizâde Mahmut hakkında biyografik bilgiler verilmiş, ardından Şerh-i Dîvân-ı Urfî-i Şîrâzî adlı eser ayrıntılı bir şekilde tanıtılmış, daha sonra şârihin şerh metodu ortaya konulmuştur. Çalışmanın sonuna mezkûr eserden alınan 2 kaside ve bazı gazel ve kıta şerhlerinin örnek metinleri konulmuş, Ek-1 ve Ek-2 bölümlerinde ise ayrıntılı bir şekilde ele alınan nüshanın bazı sayfaları ve Kıblelizâde Mahmut ile ilgili bazı arşiv belgeleri eklenmiştir.
While it means to open, to fissure, and to find out according to the dictionary definition, an exegesis terminologically means to read between the lines, or to reveal hazy and ambiguous discourses. Exegesis, or explanation of texts – şerh-i mütûn – as it was called by the deceased Ali Nihad Tarlan, means elaboration of the text by those who claim they have a better understanding of the text in order to enlighten others. The primary resource of exegesis, which is the one of the most important fields of old Turkic literature, is definitely those works that are done to understand and interpret The Holy Quran. That is why it can be said that this field is directly related to exegeses in the early years of Islam.
There are many exegeses for different works in our literature. Sometimes a poem and sometimes books that are divided into volumes are expounded by various people. In particular, Mesnevi by Mevlana, Kaside-i Bürde by el-Busîrî, as well as certain poems of Yunus Emre have been expounded by many commentators. That being said, one of the most expounded works is Dîvân of Urfî-i Şîrâzî. There is a point here that needs to be mentioned specifically; the movement called Sebk-i Hindi in our literature in the 17th century did not only influence the poets such as Neşatî, Nailî, Nef’î, Şeyh Gâlip but also it affected commentators. Many exegeses have been written about both the full text of Dîvân of Urfi-i Sirazi and certain parts of it like his gazelles and odes. One of these exegeses is the exegesis of Sahhâf Ahmed Rusdi. The main source of this study, Şerh-i Dîvân-ı Urfî-i Şîrâzî, is registered to the Unique Works Library of Istanbul University with the registry number of TY-3501. This work consists of 226 pages and was copied by Kıblelizâde Mahmut in 1741, (1154 in Islamic calender) and it was made known by M. Akif Gozitok for the first time. In this book, firstly the odes of Urfi and then his gazelles and stanzas are expounded. There is an index which shows the first two words of poems immediately after the first page of the book. It is easy to find the pages of the odes thanks to this index.
Sahhâf Ahmed Rusdi gave the original Persian couplets first and then gave the Turkish interpretation while commenting. He sometimes mentioned what Urfi might have meant by the couplets when he saw necessary. That is why we can say that this work is perhaps more an interpretation rather than an exegesis. This attitude of the commentator can be seen till the end of the book. He also benefited from others who expounded the works of Urfi, especially from Nesati. Others who Sahhâf Ahmed Rusdi benefited and mentioned in his book are Naziri and Nedimi. Moreover, Sahhâf Ahmed Rusdi saw other exegeses about Urfi and mentioned what others said about certain words of Urfi in his book. He also does not mention grammatical explanations like many others did as long as he doesn’t see a necessity. If there are various narratives about a word, he gives some information about how to understand those and some of their dictionary meanings in texts, and sometimes in apostilles. Some of the dictionaries he mentioned in the book are Ahterî, Şu’ûrî, Keşfu’l-Lugât, Şerh-i Lugat-ı Şehnâme and Şerefnâme.
In this study, some information is given about exegeses. Later, the writer of Şerh-i Dîvân-ı Urfî-i Şîrâzî, Sahhâf Ahmed Rusdi, and the copyist of this work, Kıblelizâde Mahmut are briefly mentioned. In the third part of the study, firstly the characteristics of the book are addressed and the registry of completion is shown to demonstrate the beginning and the end of the text and when it was copied. Afterward, the exegesis methodology of the commentator is depicted with examples picked from the text. Later on, the dictionaries that are mentioned in the text are listed. Lastly, gazelles, odes and stanzas chosen from the text and transcribed are presented. At the end of the study, pages from the copy of Kıblelizâde Mahmut and two documents about Kıblelizâde Mahmut in The Ottoman Archives of the Prime Ministry are attached in appx. 1 and appx 2.
To conclude, it is understood that the main reason of Ahmed Rusdi in the text is to translate the Persian text to Turkish. After translating to Turkish, the writer mentioned what Urfi might mean in his poems. There is no doubt that any study on Şerh-i Dîvân-ı Urfî-i Şîrâzî of Sahhâf Ahmed Rusdi will benefit both our literature and classic exegesis literature quite a lot.
