Scholarship on Literary text: ENA 3904.13

Literary text ENA 3904.13
  1. Bibliographic citation
    Jane Hathaway, Ottoman-Era Documents from the Cairo Genizah (Open Book Publishers, 2026).
    Relation to document
    • Digital Edition
    • Digital Translation
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Transcription
Translation

ENA 3904.13 1

°
1
Jane Hathaway, Ottoman-Era Documents from the Cairo Genizah (Open Book Publishers, 2026).

Recto, right column

  1. [Rubric:] ʿĀşıḳ ʿÖmer 

  2. Evvelā ḳālūbelādan ʿahd ile īmāndayuz.

  3. Uymayız cāhil sözüne ʿaḳl ile īzʿāndayuz.

  4. Düşmişem ġūrbet eline vir murādım yā Ġanī.

  5. Ulular sözi ṭuṭulmaz bir fenā zamāndayuz. 

  6. ʿĀḳil isen bir mūrşīdin eteğini ṭuṭagör.

  7. Nice yıllar tekkesinde mihmān olub, yaṭagör.

  8. Bunda yükledüb, metāʿnı varub, anda ṣaṭagör.

  9. İlerüsi durmaz geçer bir ulu kervāndayuz. 

  10. ʿĀḳil olan ʿāşıḳlara maʿlūm bizim aḥvālimiz.

  11. Yā ilāhī sen āsān it ḳabr’da suʾālimiz.

  12. Bin bir ayaḳ bir olunca, yā nice olur ḥālimiz?

  13. Nefs ile şeyṭāna uyub, cürm ile ʿisyāndayuz. 

  14. Der ki ʿÖmer yār içün āġyāra.

  15. Der ki ʿÖmer ʿāşıḳ sözlerini sen alagör.

  16. Dertli isen ey gönül derdine çāre bulagör.

  17. Aluben pāk abdesti beş vaḳtini ḳılagör.

  18. Ya bugün yāḥūt yārın bir ulu dīvāndayuz. 

  19. Hā bu ġafletden uyan, bir ulu dīvāndayuz. 

  20. [Rubric:] ʿĀşıḳ ʿÖmer 

  21. Bize sitem ḥancerini çekdi yār şimden gerü.

  22. Yoḳiymiş sende ḥaḳīḳat yüri var şimden gerü. 

  23. Kalmadı ṣabra mecālim çün zamān el virmedi.

  24. Gönlümi yabāna atdı rüzīgār şimden gerü.

  25. Ṭāşġın aḳar ҫāy menendi çaġlarım.

  26. Ṣoyunub, dervīş misāli eğnime pos[t] baġlarım.

  27. ʿAhdine vefā ḳılmayān dīldāri ben neyleyim?

  28. Gitdi ġayret, gitdi nāmūs, gitdi ʿār şimden gerü.

  29. Söyleyin ol gül yüzli şāhıma

  30. Ḳadrin [bil]medim baḳmasun günāhıma.

  31. Bunca ḫizmet demdīr ḫizmet itdim ismi // Meḥmed şāhıma //
  32. Oldı aḳlım tā başımdan ṭārumār şimden //gerü//.

Recto, left column

  1. Der ki ʿÖmer yār içün //āġā// yārā

  2. Der ki ʿÖmer yār içün aġyāra minnet eyleme.

  3. Ġam değildir bir gül içün ḥāra minnet eyleme.

  4. Ḳādir [sic] ḳıymet bilmeyen ḫārāna minnet eyleme.

  5. Terk ederim ḥarām olsun bu diyār şimden gerü.

  6. [Rubric:] Yaḥyā Çavuş

  7. Bizi yā Rab her kim ḥor ider ehl-[i] vaḳār olsun.

  8. Ḳo bī-raġbet olalım biz ol ehl-[i] iʿtibār olsun.

  9. Ḳabīḥ aḫlākla her kim bizi yād itdiyse ʿālemde

  10. Hemīşe ḥüsn-[i] ḫulḳ ile ana rifʿat şiʿār olsun.

  11. Cihānda dūr[a]dūrlı ġayibler içre ey Ḫālık.

  12. Bizi her kim tezekkür etse, ʿömri pāydār olsun.

  13. Bizi ḳahrla her kim bī-ḳarār isterse ʿālemde

  14. Ḥudā luṭf-[u] kerem ide hemīşe ber ḳarār olsun.

  15. Bizi yoḳluḳ ile zilletde dāʾim isteyen kimse

  16. İlahī ʿizzetin ḥaḳḳı içün cihān durduḳҫa var olsun.

  17. Bizi ehl-[i] felāketde ayaḳda ḳaldı kim derse

  18. Saʿādet ona bāl virsün, Ḫudāyā tācdār olsun.

  19. Bizi ġamgīn maḫzūn isteyenler rüzgār içre

  20. Hemīşe şād ḥurrem, her güni faṣl-ı pahār [bahār] olsun.

  21. Bizi ʿālemde her kim dirse ṭaʿn ile bī-devlet

  22. Cihānda ʿizz [u] iḳbāl ile her dem aġniyā olsun.

  23. Bizi ġaybet idüb ʿālemde her kim ʿaybımız derse,

  24. İlahī künd-i ġaybından ṣadā-yı bī-şümār olsun.

  25. Bizi her laḥża bī-kām isteyenler rüzgār içre

  26. Murātda olmayam vāṣıl tek anlar ber-murād olsun.

  27. Bize her kim söğerse rū-be-rū yā Rab her lahża

  28. Duʿālarla senālarla ana bizden yādigār olsun.

  29. Kimseye bāḳi değildir mülk [ü] devlet, sīm [u] zer.

  30. Bir vīrān olmuş gönülün taʿmīrin itmekdir hüner.

Recto, lower right margin, in red ink

  1. Yaḥyā Çavuş//sene 1172

Jane Hathaway, Ottoman-Era Documents from the Cairo Genizah (Open Book Publishers, 2026).

Recto, right column

  1. [Rubric:] ʿĀşıḳ ʿÖmer

  2. First of all, we are faithful and keep the covenant of ‘they said, “Of course!’’’.

  3. We do not conform to the words of the ignorant; with intellect, we have quick understanding.

  4. I have fallen into exile. Give me my desire, o God.

  5. We are in a bad time when the promises of the great are not kept.

  6. If you are intelligent, grasp the skirt of the [mystical] guide.

  7. Be a guest for many years in his [the guide’s] Sufi lodge and sleep there.

  8. Load up your goods here; sell them there.

  9. We are in a great caravan that never stops but goes on by.

  10. Our [spiritual] state is known to the intelligent ʿāşıḳs [Sufi masters].

  11. O God! Make easy our questions in the grave.

  12. When a thousand and one feet become one, what will be-

    come of us?

  13. We conform to Satan with our souls and rebel with our sins.

  14. ʿÖmer [the poet] says, go to other than the beloved for the sake of the beloved.

  15. ʿÖmer says, take the ʿāşıḳ’s words.

  16. If you are afflicted, o heart, find a remedy for your pain.

  17. Perform pure ablutions and pray [at the prescribed] five times.

  18. Any day now, we will be in a great court.

  19. Wake from this heedless dream! We are in a great court.

  20. [Rubric:] ʿĀşıḳ ʿÖmer

  21. The beloved has pulled his dagger of reproach on us now and forevermore.

  22. ‘It turns out there is no truth in you. Go away forevermore’ [quoting the beloved].

  23. I have no strength left for patience, for no time is left to me.

  24. The wind has thrown my heart into the wilderness forever- more.

  25. I burble like an overflowing stream.

  26. I will give up everything [lit., ‘remove my clothes’] and, like a dervish, don the sheepskin [lit., ‘attach the sheepskin to my back’].

  27. What shall I do with the beloved who does not keep his word?

  28. I have given up [vain] perseverance, honour, and shame forevermore.

  29. Tell my rose-faced shah:

  30. I did not know your worth; don’t look at my sin [i.e., for- give me].

  31. Thus since that moment I have been in the orbit of [lit., ‘have performed service for’] my shah whose name is Meḥmed,

  32. My intelligence has reached the point that I am confused forever //more//.

Recto, left column

  1. 1. ʿÖmer [the poet] says, turn to other than the beloved for the sake of the beloved.

  2. 2. ʿÖmer says, don’t do favours for others for the sake of the beloved.

  3. 3. It doesn’t matter. Don’t do favours for the thorn for the sake of the rose.

  4. 4. Don’t do favours for a thorn who doesn’t know the value of things.

  5. I am leaving this land, may it be ḥarām, forevermore. 

  6. [Rubric:] Yaḥyā Çavuş

  7. O God, make whoever despises us great and mighty.

  8. Let us be disregarded; let them [i.e., the people who despise us] be respected. 

  9. Whoever may have remembered us [as having] despicable

    morals in [this] world,

  10. May he always be distinguished by good character and em- inence.

  11. [As long as we are] in the universe, we are among the lost, o Creator.

  12. May whoever mentions us live forever.

  13. Whoever angrily wants us to be unsettled in [this] world,

  14. May God be generous to him and always let him be settled.

  15. May whoever wants us always to be in poverty and abase- ment

  16. Exist as long as the universe for the sake of almighty God’s truth.

  17. Whoever says of us, ‘They can’t find a place among the peo- ple of calamity’,

  18. May happiness give him honey; may he be one of God’s kings.

  19. Those who want us to be grief-stricken and sad at all times,

  20. May they always be happy and joyful, may their every day be springtime. 

  21. Whoever reproaches us with misfortune in [this] world,

  22. May his every moment in the universe be abundant with glory and good fortune.

  23. Whoever talks behind our backs and speaks of our flaws in [this] world,

  24. May there be [i.e., may he experience] countless echoes from the divine hidden world.

  25. Whoever wants us not to get our desire in these times—

  26. May I not get what I want; only let them get their desires.

  27. Whoever curses us to our faces, o God, every moment,

  28. May our prayers and praise be a souvenir from us to him.

  29. No one has property and fortune, silver and gold, forever.

  30. The real art is to repair a heart in ruins. 

Recto, lower right margin, in red ink

  1. [by] Yaḥyā Çavuş//[in] the year 1172 [1758]

ENA 3904.13 2

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  • ENA 3904.13: Images provided by the Jewish Theological Seminary Library (JTSL)