Okcuzade and His Commentary for Forty Verses of Quran Named en-Nazmu’l-Mübîn fi’l-âyâti’l-erba‘în
Uğur BoranEven though the matter of the Quran’s Turkish translations and commentaries have been discussed extensively by researchers from different areas of specialization, there is still not a sufficient, comprehensive approach to this matter because the historical information necessary for a full translation has not yet been discovered. Okcuzade Mehmed Şahi, who lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, served as a clerk in the Ottoman Empire. In classical and modern sources, he is complemented for his talent in writing prose. Okcuzade contributed as Turkish version of forty verses of Quran, which is rare to find in that language. Our doctoral thesis about Okcuzade’s work, called En-Nazmu’l-Mübîn fi’l-âyâti’l-erba‘în, has identified faulty or incomplete information about enNazmu’l-Mübîn and reviewed the missing historical information that was mentioned at first sentence. Our thesis presents the importance and quality of en-Nazmu’l-Mübîn while providing literary analysis of the forty-verse translation’s commentary of Ottoman period. En-Nazmu’l-Mübîn fi’l-âyâti’l-erba‘în is a literary-wisdom commentary that includes forty verses of the Quran. The verses he chose were taken from these suras: Bakara (84–85, 185 & 32), Hûd (17, 60 & 116), Nisâ (171 & 100), Kasas (83 & 88), Şuarâ (82, 43 & 90), Yûsuf (91, 92 & 50), Enbiyâ (88 & 18), Kehf (109 & 82), Talak (1 & 3), Zâriyât (16 & 17), Arâf (148 & 183), Necm (39 & 42), Hadîd (13), Mülk (29), Âli İmrân (92), Fecr (9), Hac (27) Meryem (54), Tevbe (40), Ahzâb (53), Zuhruf (39), Yunus (30), Mâide (114), and Şûrâ (23).
Okçuzâde ve en-Nazmu’l-Mübîn fi’l-âyâti’l-erba‘în Adlı Türkçe Kırk Ayet Tefsiri
Uğur BoranTürkçe Kur’ân tercüme ve tefsirleri meselesi farklı uzmanlık alanlarından araştırmacılarca bugüne kadar çeşitli yönleriyle ele alınmışsa da tarihî malzemenin tamamı henüz ilmî incelemelerle ortaya çıkarılmamış olduğundan yeterli ve beklenen ölçüde kapsamlı bir yaklaşımda bulunabilmek için bir müddet daha beklemek gerekecektir. XVI. asrın son çeyreğinde dünyaya gelen ve XVII. asrın ilk yarısında vefat eden Okçuzâde Mehmed Şâhî münşîlik başta olmak üzere Osmanlı Devleti’nin çeşitli bürokratik kademelerinde vazife almış birisidir. İnşâ kudreti klasik ve modern kaynaklarda övgü dolu ifadelerle anılan Okçuzâde ilmî cephesinin meyvesi olarak kırk ayet türünde, aslında klasik edebiyatımızda örneklerine çok rastlanmayan bir eser telif etmiştir. Tam adı en-Nazmu’l-Mübîn fi’l-âyâti’l-erba‘în olan bu eser üzerine yaptığımız doktora teziyle bugüne kadar bu metne dair verilen ve genel olarak birbirini tekrarlayan yarı doğru yarı hatalı bilgilerin ötesine geçilmiş oldu hem de ilk cümlede ifade edilen söz konusu eksik tarihî malzemenin bir tanesinin daha gün yüzüne çıkması sağlandı. Böylece bir yandan en-Nazmu’l-Mübîn’in mahiyeti ortaya konulurken bir taraftan da edebîirfânî tefsir türüne dahil edilebilecek olan bu manzum-mensur karışık kırk ayet tercüme ve tefsirinin Osmanlı asrı Türkçe tercüme-tefsir hareketinin neresinde durduğuna dair bir kanaatin gelişmesine de olanak sağlaması amaçlandı. enNazmu’l-Mübîn fi’l-âyâti’l-erba‘în edebî-irfânî bir kırk ayet tefsiridir. Okçuzâde’nin Kur’ân’dan seçip tefsir ettiği ayetler şu surelerden alınmıştır: Bakara (84-85, 185 ve 32), Hûd (17, 60 ve 116), Nisâ (171 ve 100), Kasas (83 ve 88), Şuarâ (82, 43 ve 90), Yûsuf (91, 92 ve 50), Enbiyâ (88 ve 18), Kehf (109 ve 82), Talak (1 ve 3), Zâriyât (16 ve 17), Arâf (148 ve 183), Necm (39 ve 42), Hadîd (13), Mülk (29), Âli İmrân (92), Fecr (9), Hac (27) Meryem (54), Tevbe (40), Ahzâb (53), Zuhruf (39), Yunus (30), Mâide (114) ve Şûrâ (23).
According to Zeki Velidi Togan who wrote about history of Quran’s translation to Turkish language, the first Turkish translation is a brief translation of the Work called Cami‘u’l-Beyan which was translated from Arabic into Persian. Some Turkish scholars were members of a translation committee, which was established by Samanid Mansur b. Nuh (d. 976). The first translation of the Quran into Turkish was missing text and written in Argu dialect, and it was estimated to be translated by Turkish scholars who were on this translation committee. In the first half of Ottoman Empire’s establishment period, Turkish Quran translations were classified into three categories: interlinear translations, partial or expositional translations, and long commentaries. Most Quran commentaries (tafseers) translated into Turkish with the full text were written by the commentary writer known as Tefsîru Ebi’l-Leys es-Semerkandî written by Ebu’l-Leys Semerkandî (d. 993). Quran commentaries in the Ottoman period in and around Anatolia followed the model of Taberi and Semerkandî commentaries, which were among narrative commentaries; Ottoman glossators were influenced with Mefâtihu’l-Gayb by Razi (d. 1210), Envâru’t-Tenzîl by Beydavi (d. 1286), and Lübâbu’t-Te’vîl by Hazin (d. 1341), which were considered among mental commentaries (diraya tafseers). At the same time, Bahru’l-Hakâ’ik by Necmeddin Daye (d. 1256) was an important work among Sufistic wisdom commentaries.
In the seventeenth century, when Okcuzade wrote his works, there were 89 commentaries. In the same century, there were 43 number of glossators. Abdullah Bosnevî (d. 1644), Mollazâde eş-Şirvânî (d. 1627), Şeyhülislâm Yahya Efendi (d. 1678), and ve Niyâzî-i Mısrî (d. 1694) were among those who wrote Quran commentaries in this century. The most unique writer was Okcuzade Mehmet Şahi (until a new name is confirmed out of him), who wrote verseprose commentary on 40 verses of the Quran. In this century, most commentaries in the form of forty verses was in Arabic; only eight commentaries were written in Turkish. Bâğ-ı Behişt by Shaikh Hacı İlyas and en-Nazmu’l-Mübîn by Okcuzade were two of the few written in Turkish. The full text of Bâğ-ı Behişt was written in verse format, while en-Nazmu’l-Mübîn was written in both verse and prose format.
Okcuzade Mehmet Şahi was born in 1562 in Istanbul. He worked as head of the financial department and governor of Aleppo and Cyprus. He received decent education beginning from his childhood and was assigned to governmental offices. For three terms, he worked as marksman and for five terms he worked as tughra signer (who has the right to use sultan’s signature). Throughout his life, he was discharged/dismissed many times and had to live on the outskirts of society. It was alleged that Şeyhülislâm Hoca Sadeddin Efendi and his sons caused his discharge. Okcuzade Mehmed Şahi, who died when he was sixty-nine, used the pseudonyms "Şahi" and "Zeyni". He always mentioned his love, affection, and respect for Aziz Mahmud Hudayi and dedicated his works to him, which indicates that he was a member and follower of the Sufi path Jalvatiyyah. The nine works attributed correlated to Okcuzade are: Dîvân, Ahsenu’l-Hadîs, enNazmu’l-Mubîn fi’l-âyâti’l-erba‘în, Münşe’âtu’l-İnşâ, Tercüme-i Tuhfetu’s-Salavât, el-Makâmu’lMahmûd, Muhtâru’l-Ahyâr, Câmi‘u’l-Gâyât, and Kânûn-ı Cedîd-i Arazî.
In Turkish classical literature, previously only nine-verse commentaries or expositional translations were found. En-Nazmu’l-Mübîn fi’l-âyâti’l-erba‘în is a literary-wisdom commentary that includes forty verses of the Quran. It is a prose-based work but includes both complex verse and prose formats. He also expressed that his book named Ahsenu’l-Hadîs, which he wrote to explain forty hadiths, was admired by many. Therefore, he decided to write a commentary for 40 verses of the Quran. The verses he chose were taken from these suras: Bakara (84 - 85, 185 & 32), Hûd (17, 60 & 116), Nisâ (171 & 100), Kasas (83 & 88), Şuarâ (82, 43 & 90), Yûsuf (91, 92 & 50), Enbiyâ (88 & 18), Kehf (109 & 82), Talak (1 & 3), Zâriyât (16 & 17), Arâf (148 & 183), Necm (39 & 42), Hadîd (13), Mülk (29), Âli İmrân (92), Fecr (9), Hac (27) Meryem (54), Tevbe (40), Ahzâb (53), Zuhruf (39), Yunus (30), Mâide (114), and Şûrâ (23).
