Littera Turca Journal of Turkish Language and Literature

Abstract

Ta‘miye, which is the process of encrypting person names and epithets in verse and prose
texts with orthographic and figurative methods, expanded its scope over time and created
the muamma poems considered an independent poetic genre whose the first examples
appeared in Arabic literature. Poem examples that are evaluated as works within the
muamma genre brought to our literature by the translation of Persian treatises of Mir
Hussein Nishaburi and Molla Jami can be identified with their specific formal features
starting from the 16th century to the 19th century; however, there were some works
containing concealed names by ta‘miye methods. Muamma poems are generally found in
diwans in which the poems of a certain poet are collected and in poetry collections which
are selections of various poets’ works. There are also poetry collections that contain only
muammas and guides on the ta‘miye methods. In addition to the muamma poems, many
treatises have been written on the methods of encryption and decryption in poetry.
Although muammas are mostly written in poetic forms, such as verse and stanza, there
are muammas in prose form and also written in poetic forms with formal integrity, such
as ghazal and qasida. A muamma ghazal by Ni‘metî, who lived in the early 17th century
and compiled a comprehensive collection consisting of muamma poems and many
treatises on the ta‘miye methods, is among these examples. Written in the classical ghazal
form and consisting of seven couplets, a name is encrypted in each couplet of this poem.
In this study, the transcription of Ni‘metî’s ghazal, its intralingual translation into prose,
and the encryption of its muammas are discussed.