Poet Raḥmī and His Qasida on the City of Mostar

Abstract

The author has published the qasida of the poet Raḥmī, and his prayer with chronostych (tarih) from 1224. H. (1809/10), the manuscript of which can be found in the collection otf manuscripts No. 107 of The Franciscan Monastery of Mostar.

According to what this poet had said about himself in his qasida (1. and 2. bayt), he might be identified as the poet Raḥmī i Sicill-i Osmani, who died in 1223. H. (1808/9), with the supposition that the date of his death was not correct.

In the first part of the present paper, the author gives the analysis of the qasida which consists of three parts: 1. der medh-i Mostar, 2. der medh-i nehr-i Neretva, and 3. der medh-i tarif-i cisr. The comparison of this qasida with the poems on Mostar from the 17^th century, shows that Rahmi had known about the poems of the previous poets that had written about this town, and that he took from them certain motifs and expressions. ln comparison with the earlier poems, Ode to the Neretva River is a complete novelty among the poems about Mostar. There also, the poet used theological system of comparison, metaphoric comparisons, as well as the comparisons of mythological and geographic character. In some bayts, however, the poet often used purely descriptive method, thereby achieving very successful realistic comparison. In the analysis of the qasida, wh1·ch was written in the genre of Staedgedichte (sehirler siiri) - the divan poetry, the present author devoted special attention to the toponyms of self-warning and blessing in the last bayts, which could also be found in some sehr-engiz.

The prayer with chronostych, written on the occasion of making of the authors sword (tarih-i seylf-i Rahmi), is full of religious and combative fervour and hatred towards the enemies of the Ottoman state. It seems as though it might have been composed as a reaction to the Russian-Turkish wars fought at that time in the Danube region.

The author has presented the text of the qasida in Turkish, as well as the prayer with its translation, in the second part of his paper.