This deyiş makes its first appearance in publication in Gölpınarlı and Boratav’s 1943 collection. It is one of the many deyiş collected by Aşık Ali İzzet Özkan, in this case from Hüseyin Efendi from Kale village in Divriği. This is one of the clearest most insistent of the kızılbaş ‘optative’ lyrics recounting the desires and hopes that the triumph of the Şah (Shah) and the coming of the Mehdi will bring. As is common in these lyrics, mention of the Shah evokes both the great Shah Ali (Şah-ı Merdan, although not with that epithet in this case) and the Safavid monarch, unnamed although the reference to Husrev with its connotation of the ‘great monarch’ Cyrus makes this clear. It is indeed a battle cry, mentioning holy war (gaza) and the sword of Ali, Zülfikar. The lyric has an almost ecstatic quality in its repetition the dervish’s cry for victory. The mahlas is slightly odd being in the genitive case although the following line dramatically shifts the lyric to a personal declaration. I have left ‘Rum’ untranslated in this version although it could be translated simply as ‘Anatolia’. Good stuff. This early draft translation leaves some terms untranslated that I will probably consider translations for later: bey (chief, noble), paşa (someone of high rank) and dede (devish leader, from the ehlibeyt line).
Pir Sultan Abdal: Hak’tan inayet olursa
Translation: Paul Koerbin
If by the grace of God
May the Shah come to Rum one day
In holy battle may he strike Zulfikar
Against the unbelievers one day
May all tribes come together
May they be slaves for the Shah
The destitute in the land of Rum
May they rejoice and smile one day
May they raise and bear the banner
May the Shah sit in Istanbul
May he return the captives from the Franks
May he release them to Horasan one day
May he gather together bey and pasha
May he sieze the four exremities
May the monarch march and enjoy
May Ali establish court one day
That the Shah’s rose was born
That abundant mercy rained down
That happy days were born
May such a world rejoice one day
My dede Mahdi must come
Ali must establish the court
He must break down injustice
May he wreak vengeance one day
Pir Sultan’s work is but a sigh
I am in expectation of the beautiful Shah
The administration that is sovereign
May he be its master one day
——————————————————————————————————————
Original Turkish text from Gölpınarlı and Boratav (1943)
Hak’tan inayet olursa
Şah Urum’a gele bir gün
Gazâda bu Zülfikarı
Kâfirlere çala bir gün
Hep devşire gele iller
Şah’a ola köle kullar
Urumda ağlıyan sefiller
Şâd ola da güle bir gün
Çeke sancağı götüre
Şah İstanbul’a otura
Firenkten yesir getire
Horasana sala bir gün
Devşire beyi paşayı
Zapteyleye dört köşeyi
Husrev ede temaşayı
Âli divan kura bir gün
Gülü Şah’ın doğdu deyü
Bol ırahmet yağdu deyü
Kutlu günler doğdu deyü
Şu âlem şâd ola bir gün
Mehdi Dedem gelse gerek
Âli divan kursa gerek
Haksızları kırsa gerek
İntikamın ala bir gün
Pir Sultan’ın işi ahtır
İntizarım güzel Şah’tır
Mülk iyesi padişahtır
Mülke sahib ola bir gün
This deyiş appears in Ergun’s 1929 collection of Pir Sultan’s lyrics and again in Gölpınarlı and Boratav’s 1943 edition where the source is given as Ergun, although with a couple of slight changes. In the first line of the 4th verse Ergun has Mağripte (Mağrib = Magreb, the West) while Gölpınarlı/Boratav give Meydana; and in the 3rd verse Ergun has küçük gazili while Gölpınarlı/Boratav have köçek gazili. The version used for my translation is from Memet Fuat (1999 reprint edition) who follows Ergun in regards to Mağripte (well almost, since he has the ablative Mağriğtan rather than the locative) and Gölpınarlı/Boratav in regards to köçek (both versions give the sense of a novice entering the tarikat). This deyiş is a good example of a theme found in the lyrics of Pir Sultan – the hope and expectation of the coming of the Shah, in this case the temporal ruler. It is for such allegiances that the kızılbaş were pursued by the Ottoman authorities. The word Urum refers to the land of ‘Rum’, Anatolia, the Ottoman lands. Three generations of the Safavids are referred to in the lyric (as Fuat notes): Shah Tahmasp is the ‘beautiful leader’ who is expected; and he is the ‘Shah’s son’, that is the son of Shah Ismail, the first Safavid ruler, while ‘Old Haydar’ refers to Ismail’s father and Tahmasp’s grandfather. The mahlas verse reveals that this expectation may be but a wish of Pir Sultan’s.
This deyiş appears in the all of the earliest collections of Pir Sultan Abdal lyrics, including Besim Atalay’s 1924 publication Bektaşilik ve Edebiyatı (originally in Ottoman Turkish but translated into modern Turkish by Vedat Atila and published by Ant Yayınları in Istanbul in 1991). It also appears in Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun’s 1929 work on Pir Sultan Abdal and in the 1943 publication by Gölpınarlı and Boratav. Comparing these editions is interesting since there are minor variants in the texts – the minor nature of the variants is of itself interesting and perhaps gives a glimpse of how a traditional lyric may be adopted into the Pir Sultan canon. The lyric is not overtly on the central themes associated with Pir Sultan such as the kızılbaş devotion to the Imam Ali (but see below) or subjects associated with his life story; rather it seems closer to Sufi themes and the lyrics of Yunus Emre. The text I have translated is based on that presented in Gölpınarlı and Boratav’s 1943 edition. This seems to be something of composite text, though Gölpınarlı’s method of presenting the texts, while stating sources does not make clear how variants are used. The authors cite the sources as Atalay, Ergun and an undefined number of cönk and mecmua in Gölpınarlı’s possession. The most interesting of the minor variations of text is found in the version presented by Atalay who gives the last line of each stanza as ‘Ali deyu inilerim’ (‘I moan crying Ali’) thus revealing somewhat more overtly the Alevi theme in the lyric. The one line that is different in the three versions cited is the third line of the second stanza which in Gölpınarlı reads ‘Oldum ayn-i cem bülbülü’, in Ergun reads ‘Olmuşam Şah’ın bülbülü’ and in Atalay reads ‘Oldum muhabbet bülbülü’. While the signficance of the line is hardly altered, the approaches ranging from the specific mention of the ritual ceremony (ayn-i cem), to the hoped for Shah and to the general idea of love and unity (muhabbet) is instructive.
This book, simply titled Pir Sultan Abdal, was the second major work on Pir Sultan. It was published in 1943, 14 years after Ergun’s monograph, by the Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi in Ankara. The book was written and prepared by Abdülbâkî Gölpınarlı and Pertev Naili Boratav and is a major advance on Ergun’s book. Firstly it brings the literary historian (Gölpınarlı) and folklorist (Boratav) together. Most interesting is the work of Boratav who travelled in the Sivas region in 1939, including to Banaz, to undertake field work to collect songs and legends. Much that is in this book remains the foundation for our understanding of Pir Sultan. It includes around 136 song texts, but has a commentary of considerable substance. It also includes an index, glossary (lûgatçe) and some indication of the source of the text. A number of the texts come from Ergun, but there are also the texts collected by the great Sivas aşık Ali İzzet Özkan (1902-1981) mostly from the Şarkışla area from other aşık-s including Aşık Sabri and Aşık Veysel among others. The book is 198 pages in length and is bound in similar plain, soft cardboard to that of the earlier book by Ergun. As with the Ergun book, the printing is excellent. An expanded edition of the book was published nearly half a century later in 1991.
PİR SULTAN ABDAL and me 