Poetry
Zafername
Not translated into English
Ziya Pasha · 1870
Synopsis
In the form of a eulogy, a satire of the grand vizier Âli Paşa, whom the text congratulates for having settled the Cretan revolt of 1866: this settlement, which granted the island its autonomy, is celebrated as a military victory. The book brings together a qasida of praise, a tahmis that amplifies it by adding three lines to each distich, and a prose commentary that explains the verses word by word; each piece is signed by a front name. According to the Humanities Institute, the praise mocks the vizier's physique, his evenings, his ambition, his favouritism and his policy, from Crete to Egypt.
Context
According to the Turkish Islamic encyclopedia, the work was begun in Paris in 1867 and completed in Geneva in 1870, during its author's exile; Britannica also dates it to 1870, and the Humanities Institute to 1868. It first circulated in lithograph form, without date or place. The qasida, written first, has 56 couplets according to the Humanities Institute, 66 according to the Diyanet. The three names that sign the pieces are pen names. An edition in the Latin alphabet appeared in Istanbul in 1975.
Who it is for
A short work in Ottoman Turkish, never translated into French or English; one needs to know the politics of the time.
Prizes and reception
According to Britannica, a modern development of satire in Turkish, directed against the grand vizier in office.
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