A Translation Of Kaside-i Bürde By Şemseddin Sivâsî

Kaside, the age of Cahiliye Period poem, which deals with the praise of a ruler from whose authority people are afraid of or whom they expect a favor deals with four main topics as praise, satire, pride and depiction and the themes contradicting with the Islamic belief and Islamic moral principles have given their place to Islamic values inspired from the Koran. The prophet Muhammad praises starting with A‘şa and Ka‘b b. Züheyr’s kaside during the golden age went on with Hassân b. Sâbit; however, in time, this situation changed and praises praising just the Prophet Muhammad emerged. Works that focus on the Prophet Muhammad like Esmâ-i Nebî, Sîre, Mevlid, Mirâc-nâme, Mu‘cizât-ı Nebî, Gazavât-ı Nebî, Şefâat-nâme, Kırk Hadis,Yüz Hadis etc. helped a substantial Islamic literature to emerge and various works in different types have continuously been created for centuries. Altough Kaside-i Bürde and Kaside-i Bür’e, written in order to praise the Prophet Muhammad, are different works they are known as Kaside-i Bürde in literature and they keep their reputation since they have been written. The fact that the work regards love for the Prophet Muhammad as worship has led to a lot of translations, explanations, tahmises, teshtirs and tezyils to be written in our literature. Şemseddin Sivâsî is one of our poets trying to express his love for the prophet both in written and oral forms. He is the founder of Şemsiyye section of Halvetiyye sect and his full name is Ahmed Şemseddin Ebu’s-Senâ b.Muhammed Ebi’l Berekât b. ÂrifHasan Zîlî es Sivâsî. According to the information we get from Necmü’l-Hüdâ written by Recebü’s-Sivâsî who is both his son-in-law and also his nephew and from other biographical resources he was born in Zile, a town of Tokat, in 629 AH (1520 A.D.), improved his knowledge, worked as a professor at Sahn madrasas in Istanbul, but since he was not satisfied with the course of events he immigrated to Sivas on the invitation of the present governor Hasan Pasha, worked as an Islamic preacher in Meydan Mosque and died after the military expediton with Mehmed III in Sivas in 1006 AH. (1597A.D.). Our study gives information about Şemseddin Sivâsî who is not considered as a first class poet although he wrote a lot of poems and prose, whose name is not included in collections of poet biographies and who is known as a sufi rather than as a poet and his Translation of Kaside-i Bürde which was written by Busîrî, translated by Şemseddin Sivâsî and edited by Hâfız Hüseyin b.Ali who collected the tahmises and translations written for the Kaside-i Bürde in his book. The poet who is not insensible of social and political events during the 16th century, who used the name Şemsî as a pseudonym, who has a hamse and whose name has been identified with Sivas translated Kaside-i Bürde and made his love for the Prophet Muhammad eternal with his work.

Keywords

Kaside, Kaside-i Bürde, Kaside-i Bür'e, Şemseddin Sivâsî, Translation