Sehrengiz, Urban Rituals and Deviant Sufi Mysticism in Ottoman Istanbul by B. Deniz Çalis-Kural

Author:B. Deniz Çalis-Kural
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Tags: Renaissance, General, Art, Architecture, History
ISBN: 9781317057727
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-03-31T21:00:00+00:00

Composing jewels into a text, the wise man of this world

Has narrated one by one this city

Fairy-faced angelic-scenes

Beauties with elongated posture, tulip cheeks

Thus every one of them is an amulet for the essence

Day and night has become a riddle on my tongue

Fakiri illustrates the city by using Sufi metaphors. He recalls the dancing of dervishes along a circle, the circular layout of Sufi lodges, the prayer bowl of the Sufi dervishes and the dervish belt. He describes the city as an object, as a space, as a body by using Sufi metaphors. These descriptions suggest that the poet proposes an image of the city. This image is both an ideal representation and a real one. Ideally the city within the city walls is represented as a garden, either similar to the paradise garden, or similar to the legendary Garden of Iram whose magnificence preceded the beauty of the former. As well, the geographical location and the topography of the city are described. The city is presented as a real space.

In Fakiri’s Şehrengiz, there is a constant emphasis on visuality. Similar to the ideal and real images of the city, visuality also develops in ideal and real realms. The poem narrates the vision of the angels as they see the city from above. It also narrates the vision of ordinary people watching the city and its environs. The poem uses a variety of words to describe a setting, a scene, or a panorama (manzar, suret, hûb-manzar, mazâhir, melek-manzarları) and the act of watching (itdi seyran, temaşa eylesen, temaşa eyleyen, seyran iderler, eyler seyr-i dîdâr). Throughout the narrative, there is a constant emphasis on watching the city, watching the city in the background, watching a view, an event, or the people.

It is most likely that the poet is seated on one of the hilltops overlooking the city. He could either be in the Galata region, Sütlüce, or above Eyüp overlooking the Golden Horn. The city with the seven hills unfolds in the background as the poet describes it. In the foreground there is the canal where beautiful young guild boys are sailing. Some are swimming and some are traveling to the meadows at the skirts of this hilltop.

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