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Writing a Grammatical Commentary on Hafiz of Shiraz: a Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Scholar on the Divan of Hafiz

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Writing a Grammatical Commentary on Hafiz of Shiraz: a Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Scholar on the Divan of Hafiz Writing a Grammatical Commentary on Hafiz of Shiraz: A Sixteenth-century Ottoman Scholar on the Divan of Hafiz Murat Umut Inan A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2012 Reading Committee: Selim S. Kuru, Chair Walter G. Andrews Leroy F. Searle Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Near and Middle Eastern Studies University of Washington Abstract Writing a Grammatical Commentary on Hafiz of Shiraz: A Sixteenth-century Ottoman Scholar on the Divan of Hafiz Murat Umut Inan Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Selim S. Kuru Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization This dissertation explores the study and interpretation of the Divan (poetry collection) of Hafiz of Shiraz (d. ca. 1389), the most celebrated lyric poet of classical Persian, in the sixteenth- century Ottoman Empire and discusses the ways in which Hafiz’s Persian text was read, glossed and translated by Ottoman scholars. In terms of its scope, the dissertation focuses on a late sixteenth-century Ottoman Turkish commentary by Ahmed Sudi (d. ca. 1600), an Ottoman scholar of Arabic and Persian philology who is well-known primarily for his grammatical commentaries on Persian classics. The main concern of the dissertation is to explore and discuss the ways in which Sudi’s grammatical commentary on Hafiz’s Divan departs from the mystical/allegorical commentaries written by his predecessors Muslihiddin Süruri (d. 1561), an Ottoman Naqshbandi scholar renowned for his mystical commentaries on Persian classics, and Şem‘ullah Şem‘i (d. 1603), an Ottoman scholar affiliated with the Mavlavi order and the author of a number of allegorical/mystical commentaries on Persian classics. Reading Sudi’s commentary against the background of his predecessors’ and paying attention to the critical tone underlying his work, the dissertation demonstrates how an Ottoman scholar with a disciplinary training in Arabic and Persian philology presents his commentary as a critique not only of the canon of mystical scholarship but also of the textual and interpretive practices associated with it. In this regard, the dissertation argues that the primary motivation behind Sudi’s writing a non-canonical commentary is his pioneering attempt at introducing a grammatical approach to textual interpretation into the sixteenth-century Ottoman mystical scholarship on Persian classics. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my dissertation committee members for their long-term academic support and guidance and especially to my dissertation advisor Professor Selim S. Kuru for his academic friendship and mentorship. I would like to also acknowledge with gratitude the financial support I received from several institutions during both the research and writing of this dissertation, including the University of Washington Graduate School, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, Turkish Cultural Foundation, and Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute. As always, my family has been a great source of support and encouragement. I owe very special thanks to my wife and colleague, Sevim Kebeli, who has not only contributed to this project in many ways but also offered inspiring ideas, insightful comments and constant support. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction …………………………………………………………………………… 1 Part I Chapter I: Ahmed Sudi and His Commentary on Hafiz’s Divan …….……………….. 5 The Life and Works of an Ottoman Philologist ………………………….... 5 Sudi’s Commentary on Hafiz’s Divan ………………..………………….. 13 The Reception, Circulation and Transformation of Sudi’s Text …………. 28 Chapter II: A Comparative Reading and Analysis of Sudi’s Commentary ………….. 38 The Sample: Hafiz’s Opening Poem ……………………………….…..… 38 A Closer Look: Analyzing and Comparing Sudi’s Grammatical Analysis of the Opening Couplet …………...……………………………………… 42 Conclusions: Contextualizing Ahmed Sudi and His Commentary ……...………........ 65 Part II I. Transcribed Texts …………...…………………………………………………...… 75 Sudi’s Introduction and His Commentary on the First Five Poems in Hafiz’s Divan …………………………………………………………………………. 76 Süruri’s Introduction and His Commentary on Hafiz’s Opening Poem ……. 119 Şem‘i’s Introduction and His Commentary on Hafiz’s Opening Poem …...... 126 ii II. Translations …………………………………………………………………….… 132 Sudi’s Introduction and His Commentary on Hafiz’s Opening Couplet ……. 133 Süruri’s Introduction and His Commentary on Hafiz’s Opening Couplet …... 142 Şem‘i’s Introduction and His Commentary on Hafiz’s Opening Couplet ….... 146 III. Ottoman Texts …………………………………………………………………..... 150 MS Hazine K. 933 …………………………………….…………………...… 150 MS Feyzullah Efendi 1641 …………………………………………….…….. 152 MS Ayasofya 4056 ……………………………………………………..……. 154 MS Kadızade Mehmed 403 ……………………………………………..…… 155 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………. 157 iii 1 INTRODUCTION The Topic, Scope and Argument of the Dissertation There are three sixteenth-century Ottoman Turkish commentaries on the Divan (poetry collection) of Hafiz of Shiraz (d. ca. 1390), one of the most celebrated lyric poets of Persia as well as of the late medieval and early modern literary world, by Ottoman commentators belonging to different schools of interpretation. These commentaries are written, respectively, by Muslihüddin Süruri (d. 1561), a Naqshbandi scholar renowned for his mystical commentaries on Persian classics, Şem‘ullah Şem‘i (d. 1603), a scholar affiliated with the Mavlavi order and the author of a number of allegorical/mystical commentaries on Persian classics, and, finally, by Ahmed Sudi (d. ca. 1600), an Ottoman scholar of Arabic and Persian philology who is well- known for his grammatical commentaries on Persian classics and on the major works of Arabic grammatical tradition. Of the three commentaries on the Divan , the dissertation focuses on Ahmed Sudi’s late sixteenth-century commentary. In the first part of the dissertation, first I introduce Sudi’s life and works before discussing his commentary in terms of its content and structure. As part of my discussion of the commentary, I also explore and discuss its reception and circulation by drawing on the available manuscript copies. Following this discussion, I focus on a selected portion from the commentary and discuss the ways in which Sudi analyzes, translates and interprets the opening couplet of Hafiz’s Divan . In my discussion, I also situate Sudi’s treatment of Hafiz’s text within a comparative framework to explore and elaborate on the ways in which Sudi’s 2 approach and analysis depart from those of his predecessors. Third, I draw conclusions primarily from my analyses and supplement these conclusions with the ones drawn from my general discussion of Sudi’s life and works and of his commentary. Here I mainly contextualize Sudi and his commentary based on my findings and conclusions. In doing so, I place Sudi’s commentary in two main contexts: one involving the Ottoman commentary tradition on Hafiz and his text, the other related to the study of Persian grammar and Persian classical texts in sixteenth-century Ottoman scholarship. In the second part of the dissertation, first I present the transcribed text of Sudi’s introduction to the commentary and his commentary on the first five poems in Hafiz’s Divan , mainly because of the fact that a reliable text of Sudi’s commentary is still unavailable despite the wide popularity of the commentary. Second, I give the transcribed texts of Süruri’s and Şem‘i’s introductory words to their commentaries and of their commentaries on the opening poem of Hafiz’s Divan , not only to make Süruri’s and Şem‘i’s texts available but also to let readers compare and contrast Sudi’s text with those of his predecessors. Finally, I present translations of the three commentators’ introductions and their commentaries on the opening couplet of Hafiz with the goal that my discussion of the Ottoman commentaries on Hafiz’ text be more accessible to non-specialists, especially to scholars specializing in different textual and/or exegetical traditions. The main reason why the dissertation focuses on Sudi’s commentary is that, in the corpus of writings on Hafiz’s poetry up to the end of the sixteenth century, it is the first and only text that does not approach Hafiz’s poems from a mystical and/or allegorical standpoint. Furthermore, the commentary is written as a critical response to the two preceding commentaries written in the same century, which is understood from the commentator’s introduction where he distances himself from his predecessors’ mystical/allegorical perspectives 3 and expresses his interest in a grammatical analysis of the poet’s text. Taken together, these two intriguing aspects of the commentary present us with an interesting case that invites scholarly inquiry. The main argument of the dissertation is that, as a critique of the mystical canon, Sudi’s commentary stands as a non-canonical commentary written by a scholar who takes a pioneering approach to Hafiz’s Divan . Accordingly, the dissertation contends that, as an Ottoman scholar with a disciplinary training in Arabic and Persian philology, Sudi presents his commentary as a critique not only of the canon of mystical scholarship but also of the textual and interpretive practices associated with it. In this regard, the dissertation particularly argues that the primary motivation behind Sudi’s writing a grammatical commentary is his pioneering attempt at introducing philological insights
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