Dinbilimleri Akademik Araştırma Dergisi

Abstract

‘Omar Najmi Āfandi, who has six works including Turkish Divan, Persian Divançe, Kasîde-i Elfiyye, Tuhfe-i Vahdet, Sâkinâme and Şem'anâme, is a Sufi poet who produced works in the nineteenth century following the tradition. There is not much information in the sources about Najmi, who received ratification from various orders such as Shazeliyya, Halvetiyya, Şuttârîyye, Rufâîyye and Melâmîyye. However, he was one of the Sufi poets of the nineteenth century and an important poet who wrote poems in classical style. The fact that Najmi, who was a Melāmī poet, stayed away from fame is seen as the reason why his works did not find fame. Najmi an ecstatic poet, wrote his works with a Sufi flavor. The poet, who used a simple style in his poems, mostly wrote his poems in prosody and it can be said that Najmi was successful in using prosody. There are also poems in Turkish Divan written in syllabic meter. Najmi died in H. 1307/M. 1889 and was buried near Hırka-i Şerif. Najmi also wrote poems in Persian as well as Turkish. He even finds his Persian poems unique. ‘Omar Najmi Afandi’s poem, which he calls Şem'a-nâme, is an arranged in allegorical style. This poem consists of two parts: a question and an answer. In the poem, Şem'a (candle) is personified using the arts of identification and intâk, and he is asked to narrate his adventures and experiences. Although Najmi’s Şem'a-nâme is reminiscent of the Şem' u Pervâne masnavi in our literary tradition, it is not a text based on the lover and heart-throb relationship. Pervâne appears in a few places in the poem.
The source of the image of the butterfly is directly from the Qur'an and hadiths, while the image of the şem’ was inspired by the 35th verse of the 24th sura of the Qur'an. In Islamic literature, the story of Shem u Pervâne first appeared in Hallac-ı Mansûr's Kitâbu't-tavâsîn, using the words misbâh and ferrâsh, and later this story was developed in Ahmad Ghazâlî's Sevânih. In Persian and Turkish literature, the şem’ and the butterfly, which were initially used as images in couplets, were treated as separate works in later centuries. In Turkish literature, this image is first encountered in the poems of Khoja Dehhânî, one of the twelfth- century poets and one of the founders of divan literature. In the fourteenth century, Gülşehrî translated Feridüddîn-i Attâr's Mantıku't-tayr into Turkish and it was included in 62 couplets for the first time in a work here. This story was also included as a chapter in some masnavis, and poems with the redifs 'şem’ or 'candle' were also written. In parallel with the development of poetry, this image became more popular among fiveteenth century poets. By the sixteenth century, the şem’ and the butterfly, which were used as images in divans, began to be treated as independent masnavis. Zâtî, Lâmi'î, Mu'îdî and Feyzî, poets of the sixteenth century and seventeenth century respectively, are the poets who wrote independent Şem u Pervane in our literature.
There are two copies of the Şem’a-nāme that we have identified. These first copies are registered in the Galata Mevlevihanesi Collection of Süleymaniye Library. The other copy of the work is in Koyunoğlu City Museum and Library. Both copies include the poems Kasîde-i Elfiyye, Sakinâme, and Tuhfe-i Vahdet along with Şem'a-nâme. Seyyid Ahmad İrānī inscribed the Suleymaniye copy of the work in 1325/ September 17, 1907. The date of the Koyunoğlu copy is unknown, but it is understood from the note at the end of the work that this copy was copied from the author's copy. Again, from the note on the last leaf of this copy, it is written that Şem'a-nâme and the other poems in the copy were composed in 1299 / 1882. The work, written in a simple and symbolic language, consists of two parts: a question and an answer. The poem, written as qasida, consists of 69 couplets.
In this article, Najm's Şem'a-nâme, which he composed independently, is analyzed. In the introduction part of the study, information about the image of "şem’/mum" is given and then ‘Omar Najmi's life is briefly discussed. Then, the manuscript copies of Şem'a-nâme are introduced, information about the content of the work is given and the transcription and translation of the work are given.