Hubyar: Alevi Texts

This art icle was downloaded by: [ Dr Pet er Alford Andrews] On: 23 July 2013, At : 03: 29 Publisher: Rout ledge I nform a Lt d Regist ered in England and Wales Regist ered Num ber: 1072954 Regist ered office: Mort im er House, 37- 41 Mort im er St reet , London W1T 3JH, UK British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Publicat ion det ails, including inst ruct ions f or aut hors and subscript ion inf ormat ion: ht t p: / / www. t andf online. com/ loi/ cbj m20 Hubyar: Alevi Texts Pet er Alf ord Andrews & Hidir Temel Published online: 23 Jul 2013. To cite this article: Brit ish Journal of Middle East ern St udies (2013): Hubyar: Alevi Text s, Brit ish Journal of Middle East ern St udies To link to this article: ht t p: / / dx. doi. org/ 10. 1080/ 13530194. 2013. 811632 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTI CLE Taylor & Francis m akes every effort t o ensure t he accuracy of all t he inform at ion ( t he “ Cont ent ” ) cont ained in t he publicat ions on our plat form . 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They are largely specific to the Hubyar, but the notes review their context in both general Alevi and Sufi terms. The authors also attempt to explain the meaning of allusions which are often inaccessible to the non-specialist Western reader. Introduction The texts given here, with their translations, are offered as illustrations to our article on the Hubyar community of Alevi in Turkey, published in BJMES 37.2 They are only a few from a much larger corpus of chants, known locally as deyiş, used in Hubyar worship, the words of which appear to be peculiar to the order.3 As songs of praise, doxologies, supplications or exhortations they correspond broadly to hymns in Christian liturgy, but as they are sung to the congregation by a musician, it might be confusing to use this parallel, so I shall refer to them throughout by their local name. Deyiş (pronounced ‘deyish’) in urban Turkish simply means ‘utterance’, but in rural usage can often mean a song, or formal verse, or even a funeral lament.4 Although other Alevi communities, like the Sunni orders of dervishes, also sing, and Sunni Turks in general are familiar with at least some verses by Yunus Emre, the Hubyar deyiş, if compared to the nefes or ilâhi sung by the Bektaşi or the Rufa’i, are often less sophisticated. They draw upon Hubyar allusions largely unknown to outsiders. Some of these may be understood from what we have already written about the Hubyar in the first article, especially the section on Miracles.5 *Peter Alford Andrews, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, UK. Email: [email protected]. **Hıdır Temel is unattached to any institution other than the Hubyar. Email:[email protected] (in Turkish or German) 1 Chants collected by Hıdır Temel with introduction, translations and notes by Peter Alford Andrews. This research was conducted within the framework of an ESRC grant awarded to David Shankland (RES-000-222592). The principle investigator and authors take this opportunity to offer their grateful thanks. 2 P.A. Andrews and H. Temel, ‘Hubyar’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 37(3) (December 2010), pp. 287–334. 3 These are of the genre of religious singing in verses known generally in Turkey as ilâhi. Cf. A.R. Şengel, Türk mûsiki klâsikleri: İlâhı̂ler (Istanbul: Kubbealtı Neşriyatı 1979–85), 6 vols, with notation. 4 SDD i, 423. 5 Andrews and Temel, “Hubyar” Op. cit., pp. 314– 317. q 2013 British Society of Middle Eastern Studies Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 PETER ALFORD ANDREWS AND HIDIR TEMEL Some of these deyiş are included in the performance of the Twelve Rites of the Hubyar assembly (Oniki Hizmetler, see p. 300 of the original article), as in the narration of the Mirac lama and Kırklar Semâhı or Pervaz (pp. 302– 303). Deyiş of this kind, accompanying the ceremony, are not sung outside the assembly, and any attempt to do so is disapproved of. Recently, however, some people have begun to sing them in public places and some more strident publicists even sell them on video clips. This unacceptable behaviour distresses practising Alevis.6 Deyiş that are performed in the more relaxed part of the assembly known as ‘discussion’— Muhabbet (p. 302)—may be sung outside in suitable settings, although they may not be used as entertainment. To give a resumé of the assembly ceremonial: once the presiding elder (dede) has recited the evening prayer (p. 302) or gülbenk,7 the cantor (zakir) must recite the praise of the Twelve Imams (duvazimam) three times, and then begins the sequence of Mirac lama, Kırklar Semâhı and Pervaz. Later, after the interval provided by the Muhabbet, the Erenler semâhı (Baş semâh) is performed and the other ritual dances start; there is essentially one deyiş to the music of every dance (semâh). As assemblies sometimes last until the next morning, many deyiş may be sung and played. If more than one cantor, or a visiting cantor, is present, the congregation takes advantage of the occasion to listen to their singing. No one but the cantors perform these deyiş. Members of the congregation who know the words may only join in special modes (makam) like the ‘Union’ (Tevhid), although in some of the deyiş sung by the cantor they can also take up the refrain (nakarat), or the choruses of supplication (yakarış), and interjections like hü, or repetitions of the names of Allah, Muhammed, Ali and Hüseyin.8 There is no particular order in which these deyiş should be sung; it depends on the repertoire of the cantor. The deyiş used to accompany the Twelve Rites, which are always the same, are obligatory, and the Rites would be incomplete without them. The cantor’s office is, of course, one of these twelve. No assembly could be held without the cantor’s singing and playing on the saz (a long-necked lute). During the Muhabbet, which is primarily concerned with teaching, the words of the elder (dede) can be accompanied by the cantor with deyiş of his own choice. How many he sings, and what mode he uses, are at his discretion; only their content must be appropriate to what the dede is saying. As there are different kinds of assembly, such as the Kurbanlı Cem, Kısır Cem, Abdal Musa Cemi, or Görgü Cemi, their duration varies, and the number of deyiş and their subjects vary accordingly. No one would think of trying to establish a fixed sequence. The Translation A.C. Graham, in his introduction to Poems of the Late T’ang, comments on his own translations: Beyond a certain point one cannot reconcile the demands of translation and of poetry, and must opt for one or the other. Partial reconciliation is possible because at least one element in poetry, imagery, can function in another language. But however much the imagery may 6 It is not only Alevis who are suffering from this kind of vulgarisation. The Mevlevi have recently seen their ceremony used as entertainment, even in hotel lobbies and television advertisements. 7 A call to prayer, or a prayer read on particular occasions, or, among Bektaşi and Mevlevi, one sung by a choir. 8 Photographs of the assembly can be seen in H. Temel, Tekeli semâha durunca (Istanbul: Hubyâr Eğitim Vakfı Yayınları, 2011), pp. 71 –80. 2 HUBYAR: ALEVI TEXTS Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 vitalize the rhythm and diction of the English, it is still true that the translator is trying to force into one language an imaginative process natural to another.9 The challenges of translating from Turkish may not be so great as with Chinese, but the structure of Turkish is still very different from Indo-European languages, and the Alevi context, besides the Islamic one, is still largely unfamiliar to English readers. The Hubyar imagery, in fact, is often inaccessible to them. As these texts are published especially for their ethnological value, I have concentrated on conveying the content and structure of the Turkish at the expense of a poetic equivalent. I have tried to provide clear and accurate translations including as many of the original meanings and allusions as possible while following the structure of the Turkish, without adding anything. Very occasionally I have added a word to convey something implicit in the original, but unwritten. For the wider connotations of the imagery, I have resorted to extensive notes on each hymn, which I hope will make it more accessible. When alternative interpretations are cited, the translation shows which I have chosen. The notes follow the sequence of lines and verses. Comparison Where it seems appropriate, I have referred throughout to a well-documented source of comparable material in Gölpınarlı’s Alevı̂–Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri10 to show that certain themes and topoi are common to both Hubyar and Bektaşi; on the whole the Bektaşi nefesler (the equivalent of the deyişler) are more literary in their general form, and although there is a general similarity in subject matter, the difference in character is striking. I have found no instances of parallel texts, verses, or even lines between the Hubyar and Bektaşi material; the closest texts are those listing saints (3 and 4). Alevi, from the Hubyar point of view, is an umbrella term, covering those who believe firstly in the monotheistic theology of creation called vahdet-i vucud, that nothing has any true existence except the Truth and its manifestations, and further, that this can be realised only in living and in spiritual experience;11 secondly in Ali as the undisputed representative (veli) of God. It includes groups with differing traditions, such as the Abdalân, Dervişân, or Sofiyân, which may vary locally, according to the centre (dergâh) to which they are attached.12 The Bektaşi are part of the Alevi, but in Turkey they can be divided into two branches, the Babagan and the Dedegan.13 The Hubyar are an independent ocak and autonomous in their affairs. They enjoy friendly relations with the Bektaşi as with all other Alevi groups, but are closer to the closed social group of the Dedegan branch. Haci Bektaş Veli (AD 1248– 1337) is accepted as the chief spiritual guide, mürşit, and is considered their 9 Poems of the Late T’ang, translated by A.C. Graham (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965), p. 32. A. Gölpınarlı (ed.), Alevı̂–Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri (Istanbul: Remzi Kitabevi, 1963). 11 S. Uludağ, Tassavuf terimlerin sözlüğü (Istanbul: Kabalcı Yayınevi, 2001), p. 364. 12 This and the following two paragraphs are translated directly from Hıdır Temel’s comments. 13 The Babagan function through the system of dergâh, or dervish centres; they have no assembly houses, but meet at the dergâh. Only those who have taken the oath of allegiance (ikrar) and declared themselves followers (mürit) may enter. No group demands that members necessarily be descended from Alevi parents; anyone who recognises the Truth may become a Bektaşi. The elders (dede) and fathers (baba) are acknowledged not because of their genealogical descent, but for their merit. Their membership, then, is not by virtue of the social group, but by selection. The Dedegan resemble the Kızılbaş Alevi and are bound to the descendants of Haci Bektaş Veli, and therefore call themselves Bektaşi. Apart from various traditional peculiarities, they do not differ from other Alevis. Their elders, dede, are from the Çelebi in the continuing blood line of Haci Bektaş. Their members must be descended from Alevi parents, so they constitute a closed social group; both elders and followers are from established lines of descent. (Note by H.T.) 10 3 PETER ALFORD ANDREWS AND HIDIR TEMEL representative, veli. Some deyiş refer to Hacı Bektaş directly, although not those given here.14 Hubyar may pay group visits to his Dergâh.15 Given the common origin of the Hubyar and the Bektaşi among immigrating Türkmen tribes, as set forth by Birge,16 this recognition is not surprising. On important questions affecting all Alevi the communities may meet together and exchange ideas; sometimes, if only two ocak are affected, those two will confer. The groups function, though, in differing ways. Deyiş The texts are printed as given, uncorrected, but please see the notes after each deyiş. Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 1. by Derviş Ali (as transmitted by Abdullah Temel) (referring to Miracles) Çıkıp arş yüzüne nurda oturan Meftesini meftesine yetiren Kudret yarılıp lokma getiren Südünen ahmerin balı Hubuyar He rose to the ninth heaven and sat in light The repeated Name sufficing him who repeats it; Splitting power, bringing nourishment His milk with red honey, Hubuyar. Ateş yoğ iken c iğler pişiren Muhanet köprüsün suyun şaşıran Dalga vurup kalbevimi coşturan Kurtardı zulumden yolu Hubuyar Cooking raw food without fire Confusing the waters of the bridge of the abased Beating the waves, exciting the house of my heart His way saved us from oppression, Hubuyar. Bakmıyor mu patcıların haline İsmi azam duası geldi diline Bir avuc kumu aldı eline Deryayı kuruda koydu Hubuyar Does he not see the guards’ attitude? The prayer of the Almighty came to his heart He took a handful of sand in his hand And dried up the sea, Hubuyar. Eşiğin altında kitap sırınan İki cihan boyanmıştı nurunan Ali Baba ile girdi fırına Estirdi kar ile yeli Hubuyar The Book below the Presence in secrecy The two worlds coloured in light He entered the furnace with Ali Baba And made the wind blow with snow, Hubuyar. Yedi gün yedi gece külhan yaktılar Onu yansın diye nara tıktılar Yirmi dört saatten sonra baktılar Sakalı buz tuttu c ıktı Hubuyar Seven days and seven nights they stoked the furnace They thrust him into the fire to burn: After twenty-four hours they looked in, He came out with ice in his beard, Hubuyar. Sağ adamı musallaya koydular Buyur derviş cenazeye dediler Orda hazır idi kırklar yediler Sağ adamı ölü kıldı Hubuyar They placed a sound man on the bier Called him, dervish, to the funeral The Forty and the Seven were present there; That sound man he made dead to the world, Hubuyar. İricarlar hep seyire dizildi Dillerinde abu Kevser ezildi Gürgen Çukuru’na berat yazıldı Baltasını daldan astı Hubuyar The saints lined up to watch (his progress); The waters of paradise melted on their tongues. Acquitted, to the Gürgen Hollow He hung his axe from a bough, Hubuyar. Kar etti bağrıma Düldül’ün sesi Dinleyince gerc ek erin nefesi Uzadın da neden bunun ötesi Kuldur Derviş Alim etna Hubuyar Düldül’s neigh affected my heart As I listened to the true man’s breath. You have gone on enough, what need is there for more? I Dervish Ali am your poor slave, Hubuyar. 14 15 16 4 Cf. Temel, Tekeli semâha durunca, op. cit., pp. 37, 40 –41, 48, 156. Cf. Temel, Tekeli semâha durunca, op. cit., pp. 142–147 for illustrations of such a visit in 2007. J.K. Birge, The Bektashi Order of Dervishes (London and Hartford: Luzac and Co., 1937), p. 24. HUBYAR: ALEVI TEXTS Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 Notes These verses refer to various miracles associated with Hubyar; see Part I of this article, pp. 314– 315, in which some are recounted. Here those listed (p. 314) occur with some variation in the sequence 6, 3, 1b, 1a, 7, and 1b again. Others referred to, but not listed in Part I, concern ascent to the empyrean, the honey and milk, the bridge, and the book. 1. Arş (Ar. ‘arş) is ‘the ninth, highest heaven, the abode or throne of God, the empyrean’, and by metonymy the manifestation of God. 2. Nur (Ar. nūr) is not only physical ‘light’, but the light perceived by the heart, through which the Truth can be understood; as one of the names of God, it appears both in the presence of God and in his manifestation in all material things, for those with the eyes to see it. 3. Mefte, meftah (Ar. meftah) ‘treasure, store’ (R) could refer to the treasure of _ spiritual refinement. K.E., however, explains mefte as ‘Fet’e zikretmek, mefte ‘zikredilen’, thence ‘Zikredilen rabbi Zikredene yetiren’: ‘the Lord, when his name is repeated, suffices him who repeats it’. 4. Bal: a comparable reference to honey as an image of divine sweetness occurs in Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂– Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, p. 110, 7, Övüş, No. vii. 5. Çiğ, ‘raw, uncooked’ refers not only to material affected by a miracle, but obliquely to the ‘cooking’ of the aspirant through the fire of his or her spiritual endeavours. 6. Muhanet (muhanāt , Ar. muhannes), muhanat . . . muhannet, popularly ‘cowardly, base, treacherous, unmanly’ (A); ‘vile, wretched’ (R). However, H.T. explains this as gereksiz, yabanci, el, ‘needless, alien, foreign’. Possibly this reference to a bridge could be parallel to that in Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂– Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, p. 149, 8, Ahlak ve İnanc lar, No. xxv: Bozuk bir köprüye uğrayıp gec me / Bozuksa temeli yık etsin dedi. The bridge, though, is elsewhere characterised as ‘narrow as a hair’, kıl gibi köprü, as an image of difficult spiritual passage: kıldan köprü yaratmışsın gelsin kulum gec sin deyü: cf. ibid., pp. 212– 213, 225, 227, 13, İnanc ları tenkid, Nos. x, xi, xxviii and xxx (attributed to Yunus). Possibly muhanet is a mistake for mihnet, ‘misery’, so that mihnet köprüsü would be the equivalent of our ‘Vale of tears’. K.E. suggests mehanet ¼ zelil olma ‘to be contemptible’, as at the beginning of this note. 7. Zulüm (Ar. zulm), ‘wrong; oppression, cruelty’ characterises the world outside _ the way of spiritual aspiration, in the absence of Truth, and being forced into a false position. 8. Patcıların could be a distortion of padişah (P. pādišāh), ‘monarch’, in the honorific plural, as some miracles are associated with Hubyar’s refusal to be impressed with the might of the Ottoman sultan. H.T., however, explains that it means gec iş ic in para alan, ‘someone who takes money for allowing passage’, which presumably applies to another anecdote. K. E. points to pad as ‘saklayan gizleyen Hıfz eden anlamına geliyor Padcı ise saklamayı adet edinen yani bir anlamda Hakikatı koruduğunu iddia eden’: ‘saving, hiding, protecting, thus padcı would be accustomed to saving, that is to say in one meaning, claiming to protect the Truth’. If H.T.’s explanation is taken as ‘guard’ in a material sense, it accords with K.E.’s. 5 Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 PETER ALFORD ANDREWS AND HIDIR TEMEL 9. İsmi Azam (Ar. ism, ‘azam), ‘the highest name’, the great and secret name of _ God. According to some believers, this can be known by no one; according to others all the names of God are great; still others believe that lafza-i Celal is the highest name, and others again that it is hu. Someone who knows and pronounces the name can attain an extraordinary state of being and acquire great strength (U 189). 10. Sırınmak, ‘to arrange in series, quilt’, here appears to refer to reading one book after another under guidance, that is ‘under the threshold’ of the teacher. H.T. reads more literally eşik altına saklanmış kitap, ‘a book hidden under the threshold’. K.E. explains sırınan as sır ile, parallel to nurunan, nur ile, in the next line, thus nurlu ve sırlı, confirming that in a Sufi context eşik is to be taken in a metaphorical sense as ‘huzurunda, dergâhında’: ‘in his presence, in his convent’; kitap refers to a religious book or even the Qur’ān. This image of supplication at the threshold is used repeatedly in Hubyar deyiş: cf. Temel, Tekeli semâha durunca, op. cit., pp. 51, 53, 56, 69, 73, 118, 150–151. See also below, Deyiş 2, n. 3. 11. Nar (Ar. nār), ‘fire’, with connotations of ‘hellfire’, again refers obliquely to the need of the aspirant to refine his spirit with the fire of experience. Külhan (P. ka lhān) is the furnace for heating water for a Turkish bath. 12. Kırklar Yediler: Kırklar refers to the ‘Forty’, the representatives of the Rical-i gayb (see footnote 10) (R), the enlightened beings who are the spiritual directors of the world (A); as the essential leadership of the Way of Ali, their meeting is the prototype of the Ayin-i Cem assembly (cf. Birge, The Bektashi Order of Dervishes, pp. 138, 266). Yediler, the ‘Seven’, are given variously as the Seven Sleepers (R), and seven great enlightened ones from the hidden saints, but distinct from the Ricalü’l gayb (U). They, like the Kırklar, direct the world for God at a particular level (büdela) (A). They are believed to ascend to the presence of God with every breath to acquire spiritual knowledge (U). 13. Sağ adami ölü kıldı: K.E. comments that ‘burada dirilik mânevi ac ıdan dirilik ki böyle diri olanlar ölmez, sag adamı ölü kılmak ise, insanın nefsindeki hevesleri ölmesi anlamıda olacak, yani mânen diriyi ölü zannetiler’, ‘here dirilik is meant as alive in the spiritual sense, that is in a way that cannot die; to make a sound man die, then, is to be understood as killing the impulses of his desire; thus they thought someone spiritually alive to be dead’. This points to an inner meaning for the miracle claimed for Hubyar. The words for ‘desire’ (nefis) and ‘breath’ (nefes) are similar, so that when it is claimed that Hubyar killed the man with one breath, there may be some confusion: the breath of a sheikh would be beneficial. 14. İricarlar, possibly a corruption or mishearing of ricallar (Ar. riğāl), ‘dignitaries’; alternatively Rical-i gayb, ‘the Hidden Dignitaries’, thus ‘saints who know far-away events and become present wherever they wish’, understood as present in every period and able to communicate with God and each other without words (R). While they direct the world and are allowed to judge it, their identity is hidden from mankind (A). Cf. Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂ – Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, p. 137, 8 Ahlak ve inanc lar, No. xi: irehber for rehber. H.T. asks if it might mean inanmayanlar, ‘the nonbelievers’. 6 Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 HUBYAR: ALEVI TEXTS 15. Kevser (Ar. Kausar) is the name of a river or vast pool in Paradise (Qur’ān 108, as interpreted by al-Beidawı̄): all who drink from it will never thirst again. It is the river from which all other rivers derive (St). The Caliph Ali will bear cups of it on the day of resurrection. The sherbet drunk during the Ayn-i Cem represents this, and hence the water of life in a spiritual sense (cf. Birge, The Bektashi Order of Dervishes, p. 266). 16. Seyir (Ar. sayr), ‘progress’, but also ‘spectacle, show’ has the special meaning ‘spiritual progress’, which is referred to here as the journey towards Truth. 17. Balta, ‘axe’, or teber, one of the few insignia of a dervish (with the cap and turban of his order and a begging bowl). By hanging up his axe, Hubyar presumably showed his intent of staying at Gürgen Çukuru. 18. Düldül, as Duldul, is given by Brown (The Darvishes, p. 180) as the name of the Caliph Ali’s horse in Bektaşi belief, or in Egypt as that of his white mule: the three knots in its tethering cord are known as äl bağ, dil bağ, and bel bağ, that is the ties of one’s hands, tongue and loins respectively, symbolising self-restraint in covetousness, loose speech and licentiousness, as required on the path to Truth. Brown points out in a footnote that the method of hobbling a mount by all four fetlocks to four pegs in the ground is a really severe restraint, so that the metaphor here is a very strong one. Düldül appears several times in Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂ – Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri. 19. Kar etti: K.E. comments that if read as kâr etti, this should mean ‘to influence, affect’, tesir etmek. 20. Uzadın: apparently for uzattın ‘you have prolonged’; H.T. confirms the phrase as bunu daha fazla uzatma, ‘do not prolong this any further’. 21. Etna: untraced; H.T. explains this as fakir, ‘poor’, with the phrase Derviş Ali fakir kuldur, ‘Derviş Ali is a poor slave’ in the conventional mode of selfabnegation. 2. by Derviş Ali (as transmitted by Abdullah Temel) Ağlaya ağlaya murada geldim Ver benim muradım Şah Hızır Baba Yüz sürdüm dergaha feryada geldim Ver benim muradım Şah Hızır Baba Weeping, weeping I attained my acceptance: Give me my hope, Shah Baba Hızır! I rubbed my face on the threshold, came to lament: Guide me to Truth, Shah Baba Hızır. Dergahına geldim ben derviş oldum Hakikat madenin ben onda buldum Tuttum elinden de ummana daldım Ver benim muradım Şah Hızır Baba I came to your threshold, became a dervish, I found the mine of Truth with him, I held his hand and dived into the ocean: Guide me to Truth, Shah Baba Hızır. Derviş Alim diler özüne himmet Mahrum etme bizi nesli Muhammed Pirim Ali sensin senden mürüvet Ver benim muradım Şah Hızır Baba Derviş Ali himself begs for the blessing of help Do not leave us desolate, o child of Muhammed My Elder Ali, I await your grace Guide me to Truth, Shah Baba Hızır! 7 PETER ALFORD ANDREWS AND HIDIR TEMEL Notes Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 1. The word murad/murat (Ar. murād) represents desire in the sense of the purpose of an aspirant’s life, especially in the phrase muradı ermek, ‘to attain one’s desire’. Its meaning is manifest in the saying Hakk’ın muradı mürit, müridin muradı Hak’tır: ‘The desire of the Truth is the aspirant, the aspirant’s desire is the Truth’, when Hak, (Ar. Haq), ‘the Truth’, is of course _ synonymous with God. The weeping is a standard poetic expression of grief at separation from the Truth: cf. the opening of Celal al-Din Rumi’s Mesnevi. K. E. comments that to use the word ‘desire’ here would be misleading: to ask murad of the sheikh (şeyhten murad istemek) is used in the sense of being accepted as worthy to be his disciple (murid): the dervish hopes to learn the secrets of Truth from the sheikh. 2. Şah, ‘king’, is honorific for the saint-like figure of Hıdır or Hızır (Ar. Hidir, _ see Glossary), while baba, ‘father’, is both intimate and refers to the fatherly help and guidance he gives believers. As an immortal figure he is particularly appropriate in the aspiration towards eternal Truth. 3. Dergah means both ‘threshold’ (Persian lit. dar-gāh, ‘the door-place’) and the ‘court of a king’, or a ‘dervish convent’, here as the place where the aspirant applies for help. In earlier Islamic practice, subjects could submit petitions to their ruler at his threshold. To place one’s face on the threshold was a standard gesture of submission. This applies metaphorically to a pupil submitting to his spiritual guide. The threshold, however, also stands for Ali, according to a saying of the Prophet: ‘I am the city of knowledge, Ali is its doorway’ (Birge, The Bektashi Order of Dervishes, p. 261): thus the aspirant is supplicating Ali for help on the Way. The phrase, then, is a metaphor for submission. The Turkish equivalent of dergâh is eşik, see Deyiş 1, n. 10. 4. Mâden (Ar. ma‘din), ‘metal’, and by extension ‘mine’, refers to the phrase mâ’den-i mâ’rifetullah, ‘the mine of the knowledge of God’ (A. ma‘den). This is a frequent metaphor for untold inner riches. Cf. Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂– Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, p.120, 7, Övüş, No. xvi. 5. Umman (Ar. ‘ummān), ‘ocean’, refers to the ocean of Truth, and also the unknown into which the aspirant must plunge. It also represents the source from which all souls come and to which all shall, as drops, return. For Dervish Ali to hold Hıdır’s hand emphasises the need for spiritual guidance. Cf. Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂– Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, p. 136, 8 Ahlak ve inanc lar, No. x: Bir ummana dalmak gerek / Bir gevheri bulmak gerek. 6. Himmet (Ar. himmat), ‘grace, favour, moral support’ is here the miraculous influence or support exerted by a saint. 7. Nesil (Ar. nasl), ‘generation, descendants’, here implying that Hubyar was a Seyyid, or descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, in a genetic as well as a spiritual sense. ‘Child’ is here used in the sense of descendant. 8. Pir (P. pı̄r), ‘elder’, is the highest rank in a dervish order, one able to guide the aspirant through the third and fourth stages of spiritual development. Here pir is used metaphorically for Ali as the source of mystical initiation. 9. Mürüvvet (Ar. muruwat), ‘munificence, generosity, blessing’, refers externally to humanity in behaviour, but internally to the spiritual strength required for grace in action and attainment of spiritual desire. K.E. emphasises that rather than material generosity, what is meant here is ‘adamlık, mertlik, 8 HUBYAR: ALEVI TEXTS Allah ic in yapılan şeylerin artmasıve ve belki burada başkasının kusurlarını görmemek anlamınadır: yâni benim Mürşidim, şeyhim sensin Ali, benim kusurlarımı görme, bende insanlığı mertliği arttır’: ‘humanity, manliness, increasing those things done for Allah, and here perhaps in the sense of not seeing the faults of others, thus “my Teacher, sheikh, Ali, do not look at my faults, but increase humanity and manliness in me”’. 3. Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 by Hüseyin Abdal (as transmitted by Mehmet Calda) Şu cümle alemin mülki sahibi Güzel Ali ile güzel Muhammed Hattı hidayettir mülkün sahibi Güzel Ali ilen güzel Muhammed The patrons of all the wealth of this world, Ali the beautiful, Muhammed the beautiful, Patron of the wealth of the world of the Way, Ali the beautiful, with Muhammed the beautiful. Aşıkların sırdan gelir putası Kendisi sultandır Kabe nefesi Hasan ile Hüseyin’in atası Güzel Ali ile güzel Muhammed Their target derives from the lovers’ soul, He is the sultan, the Kabe his breath; The father of Hasan and Hüseyin, Ali the beautiful, with Muhammed the beautiful. Zeynel Abidin’dir aşkım artıran Yerlere sığmayıp göğlere atılan Her cuma gecesi cemde oturan Güzel Ali ile güzel Muhammed Zeynel Abidin is he who augments my love, Too large for the earth, leaping to the heavens, Who sits in the assembly each Friday eve, Ali the beautiful, with Muhammed the beautiful. Ol İmam Bakır’dır gözümün yaşı Ol İmam Cafer’den tuttum kumaşı Şu iki cihanın ayı güneşi Güzel Ali ile güzel Muhammed That is Imam Bakır, the tears of my eyes, Of that Imam Cafer I held the clothes. The moon and sun of the two worlds Ali the beautiful, with Muhammed the beautiful. Musa-ı Kazım’ın kokar gülleri İmam Rıza’nın doğru yolları Yüz yirmi dört nebi serveri Güzel Ali ile güzel Muhammed The scented roses of Musa-ı Kazım, The true ways of İmam Rıza, Prince of one hundred and twenty-four prophets, Ali the beautiful, with Muhammed the beautiful. Muhammed Taki’dir hattım ic inde Şah Ali Naki’dir tenim ic inde Gördüm oturuyor kandil ic inde Güzel Ali ile güzel Muhammed It is Muhammed Taki within my spiritual way, It is Şah Ali Naki within my body, I saw how he sat within a lamp, Ali the beautiful, with Muhammed the beautiful. Hüseyin’im bu işlerin zahiri Göc eyleyim şu dünyadan ahiri Kudret ilminden verdi mühürü Güzel Ali ile güzel Muhammed My Hüseyin is the expression of this work, Let us migrate from this world to the end, Omnipotence has set its seal from knowledge, Ali the beautiful, with Muhammed the beautiful. Notes This genre of deyiş may be compared with those in Gölpınarlı’s Alevı̂– Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, p. 45 ff., 2, Düvazdeh İmam, especially Nos. i and ii, and p. 301, i. It invokes a series of recognised Alevi spiritual guides, notably the descendants of Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet, that is the twelve Shiite and more particularly Bektaşi or Alevi imams, placing them in order of descent. 9 Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 PETER ALFORD ANDREWS AND HIDIR TEMEL 1. The word sahib (Ar. sāhib) primarily denotes the possessor or proprietor of _ _ something, but in this context the secondary meaning of protector or patron is more apposite. 2. Hatt (Ar. hat), ‘line’, could be used in the sense of ‘limits’, but here apparently _ refers (R, 7) to ‘the world of apparent and hidden things, the nearest approach to God’s essence’. 3. Hidayet (Ar. hidāyat) is the right way, the way of Islam and the path to Truth, hence by extension the search for Truth. Hidayet hattı is thus the true world of the path to Truth, but may also allude either to the biblical ‘straight and narrow path’, or the line between the world of heavenly influences and the world of earthly influences as imagined to divide the circular floor of the Mevlevi dervishes in their turning ceremony. 4. Aşıklar (Ar. ‘āšiq): lovers, a metaphor for the enraptured devotees. 5. Sır: K.E. points out that although this means ‘secret’, it also means ‘soul’ (ruh). 6. Puta (P:?): an archaic word for a leather target or the particular kind of arrow used to shoot at it. 7. Cuma gecesi: as the Muslim day starts at dusk, Cuma gecesi, ‘Friday night’, refers to the evening before Friday (cf. Christmas eve, Halloween), when religious meetings were traditionally held. 8. İmam Bakır refers to Muhammed Bakır (Ar. Muhammad al-Bāqir), _ Muhammed the Diligent, the fifth of the Bektaşi imams. 9. İmam Cafer refers to Ca’far-ı Sadıq (Ar. Ğa‘far al-Sādiq), Ca’far the Sincere, _ the sixth of the Bektaşi imams. 10. Tuttum kumaşı, literally ‘I held his cloth’. H.T. explains this as referring to a gesture of submission to a teacher or a ruler, in grasping the skirt of his robe, meaning that the writer had learned from him, and found truth with him. Similar expressions occur several times in Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂ – Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri. 11. Musa-ı Kazım (Ar. Musā al-Kāzim) refers to the seventh of the Bektaşi imams _ (in the ‘Twelver’ line). 12. İmam Rıza refers to Ali Rıza (Ar.‘Alı̄ ibn Musā al-Ridā), the eighth of the _ Bektaşi imams. 13. Nebi (Ar. nabı̄), ‘prophet’, here with a conventional number referring to the many prophets recognised by Islam, assumed to be 124, of whom the last was Muhammad. 14. Server (P. sarvar), meaning ‘chief, prince, head’, in the phrase server-i enbiya denotes the Prophet Muhammad, enbiya (Ar. anbiyā) being the plural of nebi, i.e. ‘The Prince among Prophets’. 15. Muhammed Taki refers to the ninth Bektaşi imam (Ar. Muhammad al-Taqı̄), _ Muhammed the Pious. 16. Hatt (Ar. hat), ‘line’, see notes 2 and 3 above. _ 17. Ali Naki refers to the tenth Bektaşi imam (Ar. ‘Alı̄ al-Naqı̄), Ali the Pure. 18. Zahir (Ar. zāhir): expression in the sense of the external aspect of inner _ Reality. 19. Hasan, al-Hasan, second of the Bektaşi imams, son of Ali (Ar. ‘Alı̄) the first. _ 20. The last two imams are omitted in this deyiş, but cf. No. 5, which includes all twelve. 10 HUBYAR: ALEVI TEXTS 4. Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 by Abdal dedem (as transmitted by Mehmet Calda) Muhammed Ali nurumuz Teslimdir cümle varımız Hasan Hüseyin Hubyarimiz İmam Zeynel sırımızdır Muhammad and Ali, our light All that we are is surrendered Hasan and Hüseyin, our Hubyar, The Imam Zeyn is our secret. Kevser ic ti İmam Bakır İmam Cafer göfer okur Musa-ı Kazım kema dokur Sermayemiz halimizdir Rıza’da bulduk kardaş Tasdik canlar olsun yoldaş Taki’ye ikrar bağlandı baş Ali’ün Naki sırımızdır The Imam Bakır drank from Kevser The Imam Cafer recites the Truth Musa-ı Kazım weaves the girdle Our fortune is our state. We found a brother, too, in Rıza, May assenting souls be our companions The head committed to Taki, Ali’s Naki is our secret. Askeri’yiz elde teber Muhammed Mehdi’den haber Dünü günü arzumdadır Pir rehber yolumuzdur We are his soldiers, axe in hand, News of Muhammed Mehdi Is our petition by night and day The Elder, the guide, he is our way. Abdalım üstaza teslim On İki İmam abul teslim Güruh-u naci ezel aslım Bu muhabbet karımızdır I am an Abdal, surrendered to the Master, The Twelve Imams, fathers of submission The flock of the saved is my eternal source, This discourse is our profit. Notes This deyiş, too, invokes the twelve Shiite and more particularly Bektaşi or Alevi imams, placing them in order of descent. For details of these see notes to No. 3. 1. İmam Zeynel refers to Zeyn el-Abidin, ‘Ornament of the Devotees’, the son of the Imam Hüseyin, the fourth of the twelve imams of the Bektaşi, and a direct descendant of the Prophet in the seventh century AD. He was killed by Mervan, son of Yezid. This distortion of his name is fairly common: cf. Temel, Tekeli semâha durunca, op. cit. pp. 150– 1, 153. 2. İmam Bakır refers to Muhammad Bakır, the fifth of the Bektaşi imams. 3. Göfer is given by SDD (for Aksaray, Niğde) as ‘nefes’, meaning ‘breath’, or in the Bektaşi order, ‘hymn’. In DS it is given in this sense for Akseki, Antalya, but as ‘kuvvet’, meaning ‘power’ for Başpınar, in Tefenni, Burdur and for Tokat in Eskişehir. H.T. regards it as equivalent to gevher (P. gavhar), meaning ‘jewel; essence; wisdom’ (R). 4. Kema dokur: possibly a distortion of kemer dokur, ‘he weaves the belt’, alluding to the woollen belt, tiğbent, put on by an initiate at his induction, with three knots to denote his restraint of hand, tongue and loins (Birge, The Bektashi Order of Dervishes, pp. 267, 270, 234–235 and illn. 10, no. 5), and hence rejection of temptation, cf. No. 1, note 18. However, in Bektaşi belief this is associated more with the Imams Ca’fer and Bakır. 5. İmam Cafer refers to Ca’fer-i Sadık, the sixth of the Bektaşi imams. 6. Musa-ı Kazım refers to Musa al-Kazim, the seventh of the Bektaşi imams. 7. Hal (Ar. hal) refers not only to a person’s condition, but to his or her spiritual _ state, attained by divine grace. 11 Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 PETER ALFORD ANDREWS AND HIDIR TEMEL 8. Rıza refers to Ali ibn Musa al-Riza, the eighth of the Bektaşi imams. 9. Tasdık (Ar. tasdı̄q), meaning 1. confirming; 2. affirming; 3.ratifying (R). Here _ the sense is that of companions who accept the teaching. 10. Taki refers to Muhammad Taki, the ninth of the Bektaşi imams. 11. İkrar bağlamak. İkrar (Ar. iqrār) denotes the ‘declaration’ or affirmation of belief in the initiation ceremony, ikrar ayını. Bağlamak, ‘to tie’, refers to allegiance to the sheikh; the belt is a symbol of this. 12. Naki refers to Ali Naki, the tenth of the Bektaşi imams. 13. Sır(r) (Ar. sirr) can be either something secretly brought by God unknown to the people, or a grace entrusted to human beings, such as the soul (U). In the latter sense, it can mean ‘a hidden experience of the heart’, a state of consciousness concealed from others (Birge, The Bektashi Order of Dervishes, p. 41, n. 3). Sırr-ı vilayet means ‘sainthood’ (ibid., p. 266). 14. Askeri, while meaning ‘his soldier(s)’, refers obliquely to Hasan al-Askeri (Ar. Hasan al-‘Askarı̄), eleventh of the Bektaşi imams. _ 15. Teber (P. tabar) is the pole-axe with a crescent-shaped blade used by Bektaşi tercüman, or ‘interpreters’ who accompany initiates into the tekke. It is explained as a weapon formerly carried by Bektaşi warriors such as Seyyid Ali Sultan (Birge, The Bektashi Order of Dervishes, pp. 233, 236; cf. pls. 6 and 10, item 9). 16. Muhammed Mehdi refers to Mahdi, twelfth and last of the Bektaşi imams, who is believed to have disappeared in AD 878 at Sāmarrā, and whose reappearance is expected by Alevis, Twelver Shiites and Sufis. 17. Haber: news of the coming of the Mahdi. 18. Dünü günü: dün here is not ‘yesterday’ as usual, but an archaic word for ‘night’. 19. Abdal (Ar. abdāl): ‘those who have given up, so as to change’; a group of saints numbering seven, seventy or forty; unworldly people who have given themselves to God, ‘fools of God’; the enlightened. 20. Ustaz, usually üstaz (Ar. ustād): ‘teacher’ (not to be confused with üstad).  21. Abul teslim: apparently ebül teslim in modern usage: ‘the fathers of those who submit’. Teslim (Ar. taslı̄m) is the fundamental surrender to the will of God required of every Muslim, including adepts, from the same triliteral root as Islam. 22. Güruh-u naci (P. gurūh, Ar. nāğı̄): ‘the flock of those who are saved’, ‘the community of those who have attained enlightenment’. Cf. Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂– Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, 16, Mâniler, p. 269, Lala Sultan: Gürûh-ı Nâcı̂ biziz / Yolda duâcı biziz. 23. Ezel (Ar. azal), ‘past eternity, time without beginning’ (R); ‘the eternal presence of God, without beginning’ (U). 5. by Hatayi (as transmitted by Mehmet Calda) (extract) Be sevdiğim kalk gidelim Dostlar ile danışmaya Evliyalar halka kurdu Küsülüler barışmaya 12 Hey, my beloved let us get up and go To talk with true friends The saints have formed a circle To make peace with the resentful. Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 HUBYAR: ALEVI TEXTS Candan severim Hasan’ı Ayırma cesetten canı Deh maniye c eksem seni Münafıklar erişmeye I love Hasan with all my soul: Do not separate the soul from the corpse. Yet if I prevent you, it is Lest the hypocrites reach you. Hasan Hüseyin sevdi bizi Yandı ciğerimin közü Ayırın sağ maldan yozu Biribirine karışmaya Hasan and Hüseyin loved us, The embers of my liver burned. Separate the healthy cattle from the wild, They should not mix. İmam Zeynel’den el tuttuk Bakır ilen yola gittik Göfer deryasına yettik Cemal görüp kavuşmaya We held the hand of Imam Zeyn(el), We set out on the way with Bakır, We reached the Sea of Wisdom, Beheld majesty, to be united. Cafer ilen gezdik hani Orda gördük Hak didarı Yenice ac tık dükkanı Müşteriler alışmaya As we travelled this caravansaray with Ca’fer, There we saw the face of Truth; We have opened the shop anew So customers may be used to it. Musa-ı Kazım’dan el tuttuk Rıza ile yola gittik Kumaş topun ortaya attık Müşteriler alışmaya We held the hand of Musa-ı Kazım, We set out on the way with Rıza; We cast the bolt of cloth in the centre So customers may be used to it. Taki Naki bezm-i venge Ali-ün Naki ol renge Hint kazasında olan cenge Askeri’nen ulaşmaya Taki and Naki at the Day of Judgement Ali’s purity against that dark hue? To reach the battle waged in Hind’s city With Askeri. Can Hatayim Mehdi geldi Bu mahluğun işleğin duydu On İki İmam tamam oldu Oturdular konuşmaya Hatayi my soul, Mehdi came Heard how this creature was concerned; The Twelve Imams were all there, And sat down to talk. Notes Hatayi (P. Hatā’ı̄) was the pen name of Shah Isma’il I of Iran (907/1502– 930/1524), the founder of the Shiite Safavid dynasty. As his dynasty arose in Ärdäbil, and his realm was centred on Azarbaijan, the language of this poem has traits of present-day Azäri. Some of the expressions here, however, are unsophisticated (e.g. Zeynel for Zeyn al-Abidin), suggesting that this is a popular version of anything Hatayi may have written. Again this deyiş invokes the twelve Shiite imams, in order of their appearance: see notes to Nos. 3 and 4. 1. Küsü in Azäri means ‘disorder, dissension’, whereas küsülü means ‘bearing a grudge against, being offended with’ someone (Kh.A. Azizbekov, Azerbaydzhansko-Russkiy slovar’, Baku 1965). 2. Danışmak in Azäri means ‘to talk, to come to terms with’ (ibid.). 3. Hasan: son of Ali, and the second of the Shiite imams. 4. Evliya: (pl. of veli) (Ar. ’awliyā’), ‘saint’ or ‘enlightened person’. In a general sense all Muslims are evliya; in a particular sense, only those perfected people on whom God has bestowed miracles and inspiration, and who are able to exercise spiritual power over a variety of beings (U). 13 Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 PETER ALFORD ANDREWS AND HIDIR TEMEL 5. Ayırma cesetten canı: this is parallel to a saying attributed to Mevlana, ‘ten candan, can tenden gizli değildir, teni görmeğe izin var, amma canı görmeğe izin yok’, ‘the body is not secret to the soul, the soul is not secret from the body, but although there is permission to see the body, there is none to see the soul’. 6. Maniye c eksem: if I prevent. 7. Hasan Hüseyin: sons of Ali, and the second and third Shiite imams, often mentioned together in this way. 8. Ciğerin közü: this is parallel to a saying of Gevheri, ‘yandı ciğer, kebab oldu, köz kaldı’ cited by A under köz. Another instance of the same image is given in Temel, Tekeli semâha durunca, op. cit., p. 118, Ciğerimi bastın ateşi közü. 9. Imam Zeynel, that is Zeyn el-Abidin, the fourth Shiite imam: see note to No. 4, n. 1. 10. Bakır: the fifth Shiite imam. 11. Göfer deryası: H.T. explains this as bilgi deryası, asıl öz bilgilere yaklaşmak, ‘the sea of knowledge, to approach true knowledge of oneself’. Göfer, as in ilâhi No. 4 above, is to be taken as gevher, ‘jewel; essence; wisdom’ (R), that is a metaphor for the Truth. 12. Cafer, Ca’fer-i Sadık, the sixth Shiite imam. 13. Hani: K.E. considers this should be hânı: the caravansaray is a metaphor for the world. This accords with the image of the shop and customers in the third and fourth lines of the stanza. 14. Dükkan: H.T. explains that in Islamic mysticism (tasavvuf) to open a shop, or bargain, is a metaphor for entering a loving relationship (muhabbet) with God, implying submission to Divine guidance, thence acquiring true knowledge. Cf. Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂ – Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, p. 140, 8 Ahlak ve inanc lar, No. xiv. 15. Musa-ı Kazım, Musa al-Kazim, the seventh Shiite imam in the ‘Twelver’ line. 16. Rıza, Ali ibn Musa al-Riza, the eighth Shiite imam. 17. Kumaş topu: H.T. explains this as işlenmiş bilgi, knowledge that has been acquired through effort. Cf. similar mercantile imagery in Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂– Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, p. 92, 6, İran’a baglılık, No. v. 18. Taki Naki, Muhammad Taki, the ninth, and Ali Naki, the tenth Shiite imam. K. E. explains that Taki (Ar. Taqı̄), ‘pious’, means someone who can protect himself from sin, complementing Naki (Ar. Naqı̄), ‘pure’. 19. Bezm (P. bazm) means ‘banquet, convivial meeting, feast’ (R), hence can be a metaphor for a meeting dedicated to God. 20. Venge: according to K.E. this is a very hard, almost black African timber used for making rosaries (tesbih); it can be used as a criterion for the colour of lighter timbers. Bezm-i venge, then, can mean a very hard, difficult assembly, thus the Day of Judgement (Kiyamet Günü). 21. Ali’un Naki, while evoking Ali Naki, the tenth imam. 22. Hint kazası: H.T. regards this as a periphrasis for Hindistan, India. K.E., however, comments that this refers not to India but to a notorious woman named Hind, the wife of Abu Sufyan; she had Hamza killed by her slave Vahsi at the Battle of Badr, and ate his liver or heart to avenge the death of her father. 14 HUBYAR: ALEVI TEXTS 23. Askeri, Hasan al-Askeri, the eleventh Shiite imam, askeri (Ar. ‘askarı̄), meaning ‘military’. 24. Mehdi: Muhammad al-Muntazar al-Mahdi, the twelfth and last Shiite imam. 6. Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 Collected by Emür Dedeşoğlu of the Hubyar Kükreyip oturur kendi halinde Kec eci Baba peyiklik eder önünde İki cihan selverinin yanında Üc ü de bir oldu geldi Hubuyâr Roaring, he sits as he is Kec eci Baba serves as his forerunner Beside the Prince of two worlds Three became one, Hubuyâr appeared. Seksen bin erlerden eli beratlı Doksan bin erlerden hem mucizatlı Uydurmuş yanına demirkıratlı Sevini sevini geldi Hubuyâr His hand is entitled by eighty thousand men, More miraculous, too, than ninety thousand men. Arranged beside him democratically Happily, happily came Hubuyâr. Dilinin tadı da balınan şeker Ali oğlu arslan hem bize c ıkar Başımız Hazreti Hızır’a c ıkar Hızır’ın sevdiği sensin Hubuyâr The taste on his tongue sugar with honey, The lion, son of Ali, appears to us too, Our chief ascends to Saint Hızır; You are the beloved of Hızır, Hubuyâr. Yüreğime vurdu göferin hası Yüz yirmü dört bin nebiler başı Şu iki cihanı aldı güneşi Parlayı parlayı gelir Hubuyâr The essence of the Truth struck my heart, Head of a hundred-and-twenty-four thousand prophets; His sun took these two worlds: Shining, shining came Hubuyâr. Doksan bin erlere hocalık etti Hem sırdan gelip de hem sırra gitti Muhammet Ali’nin sancağın tuttu Yeşil sancağını ac tı Hubuyâr He He He He Abdal Dedem divanına dizildi Meydanında Ab-ı Kevser ezildi Senin ismin kalp evime yazıldı Hızırın yoldaşı sensin Hubuyâr My Abdal Dede was given a place in his assembly, The water of Kevser melted in his court. Your name is written in the house of my heart; You are the companion of Hızır, Hubuyâr. has taught ninety thousand men, came from a secret and went to a secret, too, upheld the banner of Muhammed and Ali, unfurled the green banner, Hubuyâr. Notes This deyiş is remarkably militant compared to the others given here. 1. Peyiklik , peyk (P. payk), ‘i. satellite, follower; ii. (archaic) running footman, messenger’ (R). Cf. Temel, Tekeli semâha durunca, op. cit., pp. 150– 151. 2. Here selver is probably a substitute for server ( , P. sarvar), ‘prince’, parallel to selvi for servi; cf. Deyiş No. 3. Server-i enbiya, ‘Prince of Prophets’, is a title of the Propher Muhammed (R; A). 3. Geldi Hubuyâr: the implication is that the three united were manifest in Hubuyâr. 4. Mucizatlı (Ar. muʽğizāt, pl. of muʽğiza ¼ miracle) (Ar. muʽğizāt, pl. of muʽğiza ¼ miracle). 5. Demirkıratlı: provincial corruption of demokrat ¼ democrat (R, v. demir). This play on words is taken from the emblem of the Democratic Party in the time of Menderes, the ‘iron grey horse’, demir kır at. 6. Çıkar . . . c ıkar is used in two senses, as ‘appears’ and ‘ascends’. 15 PETER ALFORD ANDREWS AND HIDIR TEMEL 7. Yüz yirmü dört bin nebiler: cf. İlahi 3, Yüz yirmi dört nebi. The symbolic number has been increased a thousandfold. All that is important is the idea of an overwhelming number. Nebi can mean a heavenly messenger as well as a recognised prophet. 8. Ab-ı Kevser: cf. Deyiş 1, Dillerinde abu Kevser ezildi. 7. Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 Collected by Emür Dedeşoğlu of the Hubyar Şükür olsun Şah’ı gördü gözümüz Ayaklara turab oldu yüzümüz Kabul eyle her dem niyazımız Ali’nin demine bir Hü c ekelim Thanks be that our eyes have seen the King, That our face has been dust at his feet; Accept our supplication at any time! Let us call Hü to the presence of Ali! Pirimin elinden ic tim bir dolu Gayet ince gider Ali’nin yolu Yetiş On İki İmam Hürşehit Ali Ali’nin demine bir HÜ c ekelim I have drunk a full draught from the hand of my Pir; The way of Ali is slender indeed. Come, Twelve Imams, to aid Ali the Sun! Let us call Hü to the presence of Ali! Hızır, Hubyâr, Ali üc ü de birdir Buna inanmayan münkürdür kördür Deryanın üstünde yolları vardır Ali’nin demine bir Hü c ekelim Hızır, Hubyâr, Ali, the three are one: Those who do not believe this are deniers, blind. There are paths on the surface of the sea. Let us call Hü to the presence of Ali! Hızır Dedem gülbengini yetire Yedi kat postuna gele otura Eksiğimiz c oktur Ali yetire Ali’nin demine bir Hü c ekelim May Hızır Dede lead us to attain prayer May he come and sit on the sevenfold sheepskin We have many failings; may Ali complete us. Let us call Hü to the presence of Ali! Abdal Dedem eydür yareli bizler Hak demine gelince bir olur özler Mümin müslüm birdir yolunu gözler Ali’nin demine bir Hü c ekelim Abdal Dede is goodness, we the wounded; Coming in the presence of Truth, essences are one; Believer and Muslim are one, and follow his path: Let us call Hü to the presence of Ali! Notes 1. Turab , türab (Ar. turāb) means ‘earth, dust’ (R) and, although a learned word, is here used in a telescoped form in the common metaphor for selfabasement before a saintly person, ‘to rub one’s face in the dust at his feet’, again as at the threshold. The cognate türbe, generally used for ‘mausoleum’, also has the learned meaning of ‘earth, dust, soil’ (R); it is used in Sufi parlance for the closed mausoleum or tomb of someone who has attained enlightenment, and whence it is believed that spiritual help can be found by living devotees (U). Cf. Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂– Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, p. 154, 8, Ahlak ve inanc lar, No. xxxii: Var türab’a yüz sur Hacı Bektaş’a. 2. Dem (P. dam) can mean both ‘breath’ or, poetically, ‘moment’, besides the common Alevi usage ‘a sip’ of wine or rakı (R). It can also be the external manifestation of the Divine, known to the Mevlevi as Hü; the beneficent breath consisting of God’s spiritual power ( feyiz) (U). In this verse its first occurrence is as ‘moment’ as in ‘the day is today, the hour this hour, the moment this moment’ (U); its second occurrence, in conjunction with the exclamation Hü, used by dervishes to assert the Divine, means rather the 16 HUBYAR: ALEVI TEXTS 3. 4. 5. Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 6. 7. 8. 9. breath of Ali of which this Hü would be an echo, but always with the resonance of ‘moment’ in the sense of Ali’s presence. Hü , more commonly hu (Ar. hū ¼ ‘He’), the Arabic third personal pronoun used mystically in the sense of ‘God’; hence ‘the absolutely invisible essence of God’ (U): the characteristic invocation of dervishes and Alevis. Gayet ince gider Alin’in yolu: cf. Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂ – Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, p. 129, 8, Ahlak ve inanc lar, No. iv: Kıldan ince yol sûrettir; also p. 190, 12 Aşk, No. xi: Erenlerin yolu incedir ince. Hürşehit must be a corruption of P. horšı̄d ¼ ‘sun’, in a metaphor for the splendour of Ali’s presence. Its distortion suggests that the word was borrowed half-understood from an Azäri context. Kör: the dismissal of those who deny Alevi tenets as ‘blind’ is common. Cf. Gölpınarlı, Alevı̂ – Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, p. 129, 8, Ahlak ve inanc lar, No. i. It reaches an extreme among the Nusairi (Alawi), for whom even other Alevis are blind.17 Dede, ‘grandfather’, is the honorific form of address to a senior Alevi (or Sufi) master. Gülbeng , gülbang (P. golbāng ¼ ‘the song of a nightingale; a loud shout; the war cry Allah Allah!’ (St)), means both a call to prayer and a prayer for a special occasion, especially one chanted in unison by, for example, the Bektaşi; poetically, the nightingale’s song (R; U). Post (P. pūst) is the sheepskin on which a sufi sheikh sits while presiding over a ceremony; it is usually dyed scarlet. It is here yedi kat, sevenfold, to indicate its hallowed continuance through generations. There are many other comparable deyiş used by the Hubyar.18 References for the notes (A) Ayverdi, İlhan, ed. Topaloğlu, Ahmet: Misalli büyük Türkc e sözlük, 3 vols, 2nd imprn., İstanbul 2006. (DS) Türkiye’de halk ağzından Derleme sözlüğü, 12 vols incl. supplement Ek-I, T.D.K., Ankara i-xi 1963– 1979, xii 1982. (HT) H. Temel, Tekeli semâha durunca, İstanbul 2011. (R) Redhouse yeni Türkc e-İngilizce sözlügü, 16th edn, İstanbul 1996. (SDD) Türkiye halk ağzından söz derleme dergisi, 3 vols, and Folklor sözleri supplement, T.D.K., İstanbul 1939, 1941, 1947, and Ankara 1952, respectively. (St) Steingass, F., A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, new impr., Beirut 1970. (U) Uludağ, S., Tasavvuf terimleri sözlüğü, İstanbul 2001. 17 See P.A. Andrews, Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey (Wiesbaden, Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1989/2002), i, pp. 151– 154. 18 Some 30 poems and Hubyar deyiş are given in Temel, Tekeli semâha durunca; some of these are attributed to Yunus Emre, Hawranı̂, Kül Himmet, Karaoğlan, Nesimi, Baba Tahir Üryân, and Virani. 17 PETER ALFORD ANDREWS AND HIDIR TEMEL Birge, J.K., The Bektashi Order of Dervishes, London and Hartford, CT, 1937. Brown, J.P., The Darvishes, or Oriental Spiritualism, ed. with introduction and notes by H.A. Rose (1868), rprt. London 1968. Gölpınarlı, A. (ed.), Alevı̂– Bektaşı̂ Nefesleri, İstanbul 1963. Downloaded by [Dr Peter Alford Andrews] at 03:29 23 July 2013 Initials H.T. Hıdır Temel. K.E. Kudsi Ergüner. My special thanks to Kudsi Ergüner, who had the kindness to read through the draft translations and make very helpful suggestions for their improvement. His remarks are included in the notes above. P.A.A. 11 January 2012 18