Abstract
A Mawlid Written in Paris: Misbahu’s-Salah
İbnü’r-Reşâd Ali Ferruh Bey (5 June 1865-19 October
1904), both a poet and a diplomat, is utilized within
Mutavassıtîn (Mid Generaiton, Middlemans, Mediators,
Moderators) group which remains in between The
Tanzimât and Servet-i Funûn literature with respect to
the sense of literature and with the works that they
presented more between 1884-1896, they have a role in
preparing the way for the sense of poem of Servet-i Funûn
period. Beside his poems and articles that is published in
newspapers and magazines, he left his mark on his time
with his twenty works that is written as poetic and
prosaic, ten of them is printed and the other ten is
manuscript. In this article a mawlid that is not included
in any mawlid literature named Mısbâhu’s-Salâh, written
and published cursively by Ali Ferruh Bey in H.
Rebîülevvel 1305/November-December 1887 in Paris, is
introduced. After an introduction titled “Çünki”
(Because) that mentions the progress related to writing
process of the mawlid briefly, there are two parts in this
mawlid, one of them is prosaic and the other one is poetic.
In the prosaic part titled “Mukaddime”, a detailed
explanation about Muhammad the prophet’s birth and
ancestry is given. After this part that assisted with
various historical resources, a 191-couplets-long poem à
la mathnawi based on only Muhammad the prophet’s
birth comes. In this part which of its eight couplets is
cited from Süleyman Çelebi’s work named Vesîletü’n-
Necât, it is impossible to see the fluency as in the
Süleyman Çelebi’s mawlid. With this article it is revealed
that the tradition of writing mawlids is not limited only
with the regions that mostly Turks live, it is also
continued in the regions that few Turks live.
Keywords
Ali Ferruh, mawlid, Mısbahu’s-Salah, Muhammad the prophet, Paris, mathnawi, Karbala.