Ottoman Songs in Sabbatian Manuscripts: Cross-Cultural Analysis

Ottoman Songs in Sabbatian Manuscripts: A Cross-Cultural
Perspective on the Inner Writings of the "Ma'aminim"
Hadar Feldman Samet
Jewish Quarterly Review, Volume 109, Number 4, Fall 2019, pp. 567-597 (Article)
Published by University of Pennsylvania Press
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jqr.2019.0026
For additional information about this article
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/736898
Access provided at 14 Jan 2020 15:24 GMT from Harvard Library
T H E J E W I S H Q U A R T E R LY R E V I E W , Vol. 109, No. 4 (Fall 2019) 567–597
Ottoman Songs in Sabbatian Manuscripts:
A Cross-Cultural Perspective on the Inner
Writings of the “Ma’aminim”
HADAR FELDMAN SAMET
T H I S PA P ER O FF E RS a new perspective on the mystical writings generated by the “Ma’aminim” (the faithful). The Ma’aminim, a group commonly known by their derogatory Turkish name Dönme (turncoats),1 were
descendants of Sephardic Jews who interpreted the conversion to Islam
of their messiah—Shabbetai Tsevi—as a necessary step toward redemption, forming a secret community of converts in his wake. The Ma’aminim
lived in Ottoman Salonica, one of the most important port cities of the
Ottoman Empire, the largest center of Sephardic Jews, and home to various Muslim and Christian communities. The Ma’aminim were formally
Muslim and part of Ottoman Islamic society, yet they maintained cryptic
associations and practiced in secret a unique messianic religion. As a
result of this secrecy, their intellectual, social, and spiritual world has
long been terra incognita to outsiders.
The internal communal writings of the Ma’aminim known to us today
reveal some aspects of their multilayered messianic religion, including the
I would like to thank Avishai Bar-Asher, Edwin Seroussi, Rachel Elior, and
the anonymous reviewers for their important feedback on this article. I would also
like to thank the editors of JQR for their special effort and important suggestions. I
am especially grateful to Sinem Erdoğan Işkorkutan for her comments and all her
help. The research for this article was carried out as part of my doctoral studies,
supported by the European Research Starting Grant TCCECJ, headed by Prof.
Pawel Maciejko and the Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities,
both at the Hebrew University, as well as the Posen Society of Fellows.
1. The Ma’aminim were divided into three subcommunities. Some of the information about this division and the differences between the communities is vague,
especially concerning attribution of the inner sources to a specific community of
Ma’aminim. Therefore, in this essay I will refer to the general name of the three
communities—Ma’aminim—without specifying to which of the three the inner
sources belong.
The Jewish Quarterly Review (Fall 2019)
Copyright 䉷 2019 Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.
All rights reserved.
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manner in which they integrated Jewish and non-Jewish mystical beliefs
and practices. These sources were composed in the late eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, a period during which tremendous cultural and
political reforms took place in Ottoman society. The writings of the
Ma’aminim were first exposed in the twentieth century by community
members who had abandoned their faith and Sabbatian heritage in favor
of assimilating into the so-called secular society of the Turkish Republic.
Research into these writings was initially carried out within Jewish studies, particularly by scholars whose interest and expertise lay in understanding Sabbatian texts in the context of other Jewish sources. These
researchers viewed the Ma’aminim as a transgressive, outcast sect that
nevertheless was still part of Jewish culture,2 giving little attention to
their interaction with the non-Jewish environment.
In the last two decades, Jewish studies scholarship has begun to widen
the perspective on the inner-communal sources of the Ma’aminim to
include general references to non-Jewish traditions. Recent research also
sheds light on the social history of the Ma’aminim by focusing on external
Ottoman sources, incorporated with contemporary evidence from the
community’s descendants, who attempt to reconstruct the tradition of
their ancestors.3
RESEARCH ON THE SONGS OF THE MA’AMINIM
Among the sources now available to researchers are communal songs.
The corpus of Ma’aminim songs comprises five manuscripts that differ
one from the other in scope, length, and content.4 Only one of them was
fully published, about seventy years ago, in an annotated scholarly edition, titled Sefer shirot ve-tishbah.ot shel ha-Shabta’im (A book of songs and
praises of the Sabbatians).5 The editors—Moshe Attias, Izhak Ben-Zvi,
2. For example Izhak Ben-Zvi calls them “the sinful brothers” (ha-ah.im hanifsha‘im). Sefer shirot ve-tishbah.ot shel ha-Shabta’im, transcr. M. Attias, intr. I. BenZvi, and annot. G. Scholem (Tel Aviv, 1947), 2.
3. Marc D. Baer, The Dönme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular
Turks (Stanford, Calif., 2010); Cengiz Şişman, The Burden of Silence: Sabbatai Sevi
and the Evolution of the Ottoman-Turkish Dönmes (New York, 2015).
4. Four of the manuscripts are in the Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem (MSS
2270, 2271, 2272, and 2273), and one manuscript is kept in the Houghton Library
at Harvard University (MS 80).
5. This publication is an edition of Ben-Zvi MS 2270, Sefer shirot ve-tishbah.ot.
Avner Perez published a bilingual (Judeo-Spanish and Hebrew) collection of
twenty-five songs, culled from different manuscripts; see Avner Perez, Maim, esh
ve-ahavah: Gazelim ve-shirim mistiyim ah.erim shel ha-Shabta’im (Ma’aleh Adumim,
2006). In addition, a literal translation of Ben-Zvi MS 2272 and part of Harvard–
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and Gershom Scholem—were the first to deal with this corpus. Their
introductions and footnotes focus mainly on aspects and themes that
emphasize the Jewish character of the Ma’aminim and, accordingly, identify a range of concepts adopted from the Jewish and kabbalisticSabbatian traditions. They also highlight characteristics of the JudeoSpanish tradition, traced primarily through the use of Ladino (JudeoSpanish) as their primary language. Because of these interests, only part
of the texts that were written in Turkish (in Hebrew script) were copied
and translated. The editors’ internal Jewish focus, treating non-Jewish
Ottoman culture as a negligible influence, was typical of their era.6
In a 2001 article, Paul Fenton showcased initial steps toward a crosscultural approach to the sources, pointing to elements that link the
Ma’aminim’s songs to non-Jewish Ottoman culture.7 One of the elements
that Fenton addresses is the incipits that appear in the headings of some
of the Sabbatian songs in the manuscripts; these incipits indicate the
Ottoman Turkish song (identified by its first words) according to whose
melody the Sabbatian song is to be sung.8 Judging from a few of the
Houghton MS 80 can be found on Perez’s website: http://folkmasa.org/av/av05
mh16.htm.
6. On the attitude of Scholem, and the generation of scholars preceding him,
to Sabbatianism, see David Biale, “Shabbatai Zvi and the Seduction of Jewish
Orientalism,” in The Sabbatian Movement and Its Aftermath: Messianism, Sabbatianism, and Frankism, ed. R. Elior (Hebrew and English; Jerusalem, 2001), vol. 2,
85–110. On Zionist-nationalist approaches in scholarly work on Sabbatianism
see Pawel Maciejko, “The Trouble with Sabbatianism,” in Maciejko, Sabbatian
Heresy: Writings on Mysticism, Messianism, and the Origins of Jewish Modernity (Waltham, Mass., 2017), 9–10; Boaz Huss, The Question about the Existence of Jewish
Mysticism: The Genealogy of Jewish Mysticism and the Theologies of Kabbalah Research
(Hebrew; Jerusalem, 2016), 75–76; Jacob Barnai, “The Jews of Muslim Countries in Modern Times and the ‘Jerusalem School of History’ ” (Hebrew),
Pe’amim 92 (2002): 83–115.
7. Paul Fenton, “A New Collection of Sabbatian Hymns” (Hebrew), in The
Sabbatian Movement and Its Aftermath, 1:329–51. In this article Fenton focuses on
Harvard-Houghton MS 80.
8. The incipits were mentioned in Sefer shirot ve-tishbah.ot only in a quote from
the scholar Salomon Rosanes, who claimed that he was exposed to the secret
writings of the Ma’aminim in Salonica in 1915; see Salomon Rosanes, Korot hayehudim be-turkiyah ve-artsot ha-kedem, vol. 4 (Jerusalem, 1945), 473–75. According to Fenton, his inspiration for addressing this phenomenon was a book dealing
with the Ottoman incipits in R. Israel Najara’s poems: Andreas Tietze and
Joseph Yahalom, Ottoman Melodies, Hebrew Hymns: A 16th-Century Cross-Cultural
Adventure (Budapest, 1995). The incipits found in Najara’s poem manuscripts are
being reexamined in a current research project conducted by Professors Edwin
Seroussi and Tova Beeri.
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incipits, which contain expressions of love, Fenton supposes a Sufi influence on the songs of the Ma’aminim and claims to have identified the
original Ottoman song referenced in one of the incipits.9 Later scholars
have followed in Fenton’s footsteps and indicated non-Jewish cultural
aspects of a few texts in the corpus.10
As part of an extensive research project that focused on the crosscultural contexts of the songs of the Ma’aminim, I was able to locate
many of the Ottoman songs indicated by the incipits. In what follows I
present my findings, demonstrating the significant contribution of the incipits to understanding the songs of the Ma’aminim in a wider cultural
historical context, thereby filling a lacuna in the study of the internal
writings of this group.
THE S ONG CORPUS O F T HE MA’AMINIM
As noted, to date only five principal manuscripts have been discovered in
which the songs of the Ma’aminim were set down in writing and anthologized. These collections appear as ledgers, typical of the Ottoman cultural
sphere, which were referred to as Güfte mecmuası, literally “a collection of
lyrics.”11 Such handwritten mecmuas were especially popular in Ottoman
society from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, after which similar collections were printed rather than handwritten. It seems that the
mecmuas of the Sabbatians were intended for use in the communal singing
gatherings.
The codicological aspects of these mecmuas resemble one another; their
9. Fenton, “A New Collection,” 339. He suggests that it is a “child dancers’
song” but does not record the lyrics of the Ottoman song nor any other of its
details. Moreover, the transliteration and the claimed context are not accurate.
The incipit is of a köçekçe—a song with an erotic character, performed by young
men dressed in women’s clothes, a genre to which we shall return later in this
essay.
10. Avraham Elqayam, “Sabbatean Hymns and Poetry—A Critical Study of
Gershom Scholem’s Unpublished Manuscript Notes” (Hebrew), Kabbalah 31
(2014): 119–68; Elqayam, “The Burden of Silence: Queen Esther as a Messianic
Prototype of Fluid Identity in Sabbatean Mythopoesis,” in Conceal the Outcasts:
Jews with Hidden Identities, ed. A. Elqayam and Y. Kaplan (Hebrew; Jerusalem,
2016), 173–249, esp. 187, n. 40. The incipit in which the Ottoman melody was
identified in Elqayam’s article is the only incipit that was translated from Turkish
into Hebrew in Sefer shirot ve-tishbah.ot.
11. Owen Wright, Words without Songs: Musicological Study of an Early Ottoman
Anthology and Its Precursors (London, 1992); Cem Behar, “The Ottoman Musical
Tradition,” in The Cambridge History of Turkey, 3: The Later Ottoman Empire, 1603–
1839, ed. S. N. Faroqhi (Cambridge, 2006), 393–407, esp. 395.
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dimensions are about 10 ⳯ 20 cm. While some songs appear in two or
more mecmuas, on the whole, they differ in their content, the number of
songs, and the order of their appearance. Together, the five mecmuas contain a total of about 1,500 songs, but after accounting for recurring songs,
the actual number of unique songs is about 880.12 Recurring songs are
not entirely identical; a comparison of parallel versions reveals differences
in words and phrases, and words—and sometimes whole verses—are
occasionally missing in one of the versions. Especially noticeable is the
use of different phonetic transcriptions and various forms of handwriting.
These differences exist both between and within certain mecmuas and are
helpful in identifying scribes who wrote at different times. These findings
indicate that the manuscripts are not edited texts but rather collections
that took shape over time. Therefore, one also occasionally finds blank
pages in the manuscripts, left to accommodate new songs in the future.
Most of the corpus is written in Solitreo (a Sephardic cursive script of
the Hebrew alphabet), which resembles the Perso-Arabic script used for
writing Ottoman Turkish. There is also some use of actual Perso-Arabic
characters in the titles of the songs and frequent use of Indo-Arabic
numerals.
The songs in the corpus are written in various literary genres, such
as romances (Spanish narrative songs), gazel (classical Ottoman poems
originating in Arabic and Persian poetry), and şarkı (artistic Ottoman
poems with characteristics of folk poetry),13 as well as other lyrical genres
common to Ottoman culture. Some of the songs were intended for the
Sabbatian holidays and for life-cycle events. The corpus includes many
elegies that contain the Hebrew name of a deceased member of the community; some note the Muslim name of the deceased in the song’s title.14
As in the mecmuas of Ottoman songs, the Sabbatian collections are for
the most part arranged according to a musical division by fasıl (a term
12. While most of the songs seem to have been copied in full, this number also
includes songs of which only the first sentence has been retained, without the rest
of the lyrics.
13. Walter Andrews, An Introduction to Ottoman Poetry (Minneapolis, Minn.,
1976), 161.
14. In some cases the Hebrew name is parallel to the Muslim name; see the
second Sabbatian song presented in this essay. For equivalent phenomena in
Jewish Ottoman culture, see Yaron Ben Naeh, “Names and Naming Practices—
Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic,” in Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic
World, ed. N. A. Stillman et al., 2014. Accessed June 4, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/
10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_COM_000722.
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similar to a suite in Western music) and according to a particular musical
scale known as makam in Oriental music.15 As is customary in Ottoman
poetry, the makhlas, the poet’s pen name, is often found in the last stanza.
Every Sabbatian mecmua contains works by various poets. Those who
have been identified by researchers are Rabbi Yehudah Levi, referred to
as “Tovah”; Hiya Alvo, known as “Zikhri”; and another poet, known as
“Shlomo” (though his name was pronounced “Shelema” as it appears in
the manuscripts). While scholars have hypothesized that the corpus was
compiled from the late eighteenth through the late nineteenth century,
they have not accurately established when the various poets lived. It is
also not entirely clear who owned these Sabbatian mecmuas—whether
they were cantors of the community who led the singing gatherings, or
whether various families collected songs and kept mecmuas in their homes.
As previously mentioned, the collections contain Turkish words and sentences written in Hebrew script, both within the text of the songs and in
the paratext. Approximately 340 songs, accounting for more than a third
of the collection, include Turkish incipits.16
TURKISH INCIPITS I N T HE SONG CORPUS OF THE MA’AMINIM
My research on the Turkish incipits in the corpus initially involved deciphering them, identifying the Ottoman songs whence they originated,
and comparing them to the Sabbatian songs. It is fortunate that most of
the Sabbatian songs date from the late eighteenth and the nineteenth
centuries, as this is a period from which much of the vast Ottoman musical tradition has been preserved.
Ottoman musical culture was predominantly oral: musical theory and
compositions were transferred personally from master to student.17 From
the seventeenth century onward, however, Ottoman songs began to be
set down in writing, with accompanying musical notations based on the
rules of Western music.18 These musical notations preserve melodies,
many of which continue to be performed nowadays. As awareness grew
of the importance of preserving the magnificent Ottoman musical tradi15. Edwin Seroussi, “Judeo-Islamic Sacred Soundscapes: The ‘Maqamization’ of Eastern Sephardic Jewish Liturgy,” in Jews and Muslims in the Islamic
World, ed. B. D. Cooperman and Z. Zohar (Bethesda, Md., 2013), 279–302.
16. I cannot give an exact number because in some song titles a single Turkish
word appears, which makes it difficult to know whether the word is part of an
incipit or not.
17. Behar, “Ottoman Musical Tradition,” 394.
18. Walter Feldman, “Ottoman Turkish Music: Genre and Form,” in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (New York, 2002), 6:113–28.
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tion, some of the materials that had been kept in manuscripts were collected and published in scholarly editions; much of this rich information
is available today thanks to the abundance of recordings by professional
musicians who perform Ottoman songs. The documentation of a composition typically includes information about the title of the song (which is
simply its opening line), the makam, the usul (rhythmic pattern), and the
song’s genre. Some sources also provide lyrics, musical notations, and
the name of the composer. A smaller number of them include the name
of the poet.
As with other languages included in the Sabbatian mecmuas, the scribes
wrote the Ottoman Turkish incipits phonetically, in Hebrew script. Thus,
the first task in identifying the incipits was to decipher the Turkish words
in Hebrew script and transliterate them into the Latin letters used in
contemporary written Turkish. This made it possible to locate information currently available. Of the 340 deciphered incipits, to date I have
been able to trace about 140 Ottoman songs on which the Sabbatian
poets based their oeuvre. Identifying the Ottoman songs enabled me to
find information relating to their musical performance (the name of the
makam, the usul, and notations), meaning that it is now possible to combine the Sabbatian lyrics with melodies and thus gain an insight into
how they might have sounded when performed by the Ma’aminim.19 The
contribution made by this discovery is not limited to providing information on musical aspects of these poems. In fact, the vast majority of these
Ottoman songs contain not only musical instructions but also the Turkish
lyrics and the name of the music composer, while about a third of them
also note the name of the author of the lyrics.
The Turkish lyrics provide a substantial basis for tracing affinities
between the original Ottoman song and the Sabbatian song: the structure of the stanzas and verses, rhyme schemes, motifs, idioms, and
ideas. This comparative process reveals different models of Sabbatian
interpretation of the original Turkish song. Furthermore, in some
instances, the genre and performative context of the Ottoman songs
illuminate the cultural environment in which the Ma’aminim were
immersed. Finally, information about the composer and the author of
the Ottoman song also contribute to the historical contextualization of
19. Using Ottoman melodies to sing Hebrew lyrics was a very common practice among Ottoman Jewry. For a description of this practice among the Jews
of Salonica in the period in which the Sabbatian songs were composed, see Aron
Rodrigue and Sarah Abrevaya Stein, A Jewish Voice from Ottoman Salonica: The
Ladino Memoir of Sa’adi Besalel a-Levi, with translation, transliteration, and glossary
by I. Jerushalmi (Stanford, Calif., 2011), xlvii–xlviii.
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the Sabbatian song’s composition, and assist in the dating of its composition and the period in which its poet was active.
T HE S ON G S : FI VE MOD ELS O F A PP RO PRI ATI O N A ND
CULTURAL INTERPRETATION
This section presents five sample comparisons of Sabbatian songs with
the Ottoman songs indicated by their incipits, accompanied by translations.20 The examples illustrate various aspects of the Sabbatian songs’
appropriation and interpretation vis-à-vis the Ottoman songs, and illuminate some cross-cultural aspects.
Consonance as Allusion: Gönül-Go’el
The following two stanzas are taken from a song that appears in two
manuscripts of the corpus:
Emunah de Tsevi go’el
Es sekreto de el Yovel
Bien a el ke ata kon el
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
Faith in Tsevi go’el
Is the secret of the Yovel
Good to those attached to him
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
De Yovel sekreto, ved
Ke ay en el bet i lamed
I avrio go’el emet
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
See, the Yovel has a secret
That exists in bet and lamed
And revealed by the true go’el
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
This song focuses on the connection between true faith in the messiah
and sod ha-Yovel (the secret of the jubilee). Yovel is associated in Kabbalah
with Binah, one of the higher sefirot. Binah is comprised of “fifty gates of
understanding” (h.amishim sha‘are Binah), equal to the number of years in
the Jubilee. Several Sabbatian songs mention that Yovel and Binah are
sources of the freedom that arises with redemption, which has come by
way of the messiah Tsevi. The author of the song is Rabbi Yehudah Levi,
known as “Tovah” (“good” in Hebrew), as testified by his signature in the
third column of the penultimate stanza: “Tovah no aparta de el” (From
20. All transcriptions and translations are mine. In transliteration I have chosen to reproduce the songs as they were written, without correcting the grammatical mistakes in the original text. To highlight the mixing of languages and terms
in these texts, I have marked Hebrew words with underlining and Turkish with
bold. Plain text is Ladino. In the parallel translation (in the right-hand column),
untranslated words from any language are italicized. The full texts of the Sabbatian songs are reproduced in the appendix.
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him Tovah is not separate). Tovah also views himself as linked to the Yovel
and thus to the messiah, which ensures him the “goodness” of the Sabbatian faith. The same holds true for the deceased woman to whom the song
is dedicated—according to the last stanza, her Sabbatian name is
Palomba (lit., “dove”), a Spanish-Jewish name common among the
Ma’aminim. At her death, Palomba’s spirit attaches itself to “Ima” (lit.,
“mother”), an additional appellation for the sefirah Binah, reached by the
souls of all the Ma’aminim who have died, who thus attain eternal
redemption.
In form and content, this song is typical of the corpus. It is of the şarkı
genre and expresses beliefs of the Ma’aminim, formulated in recognizable
kabbalistic terminology. Beyond the adoption of this genre, the song
shows no apparent signs of Ottoman culture: not a single word of Ottoman Turkish appears. A different picture emerges, however, if one looks
beyond the Sabbatian text to the Turkish incipit that appears in one of
the two Sabbatian mecmuas, seeming significant at first only as a musical
guideline. The incipit refers to “Bir güzele bende gönül,” a şarkı of
unknown authorship that is performed to this day by specialists in Ottoman music.21 The Turkish song has only two stanzas:
Bir güzele bende gönül
Can ile efkende gönül (vay)
Derd ile gûyende gönül
Ah gönül, vah gönül vay
Heart, slave to the beautiful one
(Oh) heart, hopeless with the
beloved
Heart, singing with pain
Oh heart, oh heart, oh
Aşk ile sı̂ne dağlarım
Sinede yâre bağlarım
Yâr güler ben ağlarım
Ah gönül, vah gönül vay
I wound the heart with love
I bind the beloved at the heart
The beloved laughs, I cry
Oh heart, oh heart, oh
As can be seen, the Turkish song expresses the torments of hopeless love.
Although there is no information about the author, we know that its
.
music was composed by Hammâmı̂zade Ismail Dede Efendi (1778–1846),
who is considered one of the greatest Ottoman composers. His lifetime is
close to the period in which the Sabbatian songs are assumed to have
21. On the use of the şarkı genre in songs of the Ma’aminim, see Hadar Feldman Samet, “Cultural Trends of Urbanization in Salonica: Ottoman Poetic
Genres of the Ritual Songs of the Ma’aminim,” Journal of Levantine Studies 8.2
(2018): 45–58.
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been composed and is seen as a link between the classical and modern
.
eras of Ottoman music.22 Ismail Dede received his musical education in
Mevlevihane—the center of the Mevlevis, Sufi followers of Mevlânâ
Celâleddı̂n-i Rûmı̂—located in the Yenikapı quarter of Istanbul. The title
“Dede” suggests that he reached a high level in this Sufi brotherhood.
.
Ismail Dede composed hundreds of songs intended for Sufi rituals as well
as nonreligious occasions.23
In the Sabbatian song, the revelations of love have seemingly disappeared. Expressions of desperate love in the Ottoman lyrics have been
transformed into assertions of faith in the redemption of the messiah. But
if we move our focus away from the literal meaning of the text, there is
nonetheless a similarity. The structure of the Sabbatian song is identical
to that of the Ottoman song. As is typical of the şarkı genre, each stanza
of the Ottoman song contains four lines, the first three of which, each
containing eight syllables, rhyme, while the fourth is a non-rhyming
refrain. The Sabbatian song follows the same structure, and the similarity
is particularly striking in the refrain. The Ottoman refrain “Ah gönül, vah
gönül vay” is transformed in the Sabbatian song into “Ah go’el, h.ai go’el
h.ai,” maintaining the interjection “Ah,” while the interjections vah and vay
(pronounced in Turkish as “vai”) become h.ai. Furthermore, gönül, the
repeating Turkish motif of “heart,” which clearly expresses the singer’s
love, becomes the Hebrew word go’el, “redeemer.”
The similarity in structure and especially in the refrain shows us
the Sabbatian author’s familiarity with the Turkish song and reflects the
latter’s chronological precedence. It should be borne in mind that the
Ma’aminim who performed the Sabbatian song spoke Ottoman Turkish
as their daily language. It can be assumed that they were familiar enough
with the Ottoman song that they could sing its melody. If this was the
case, the content of the original song must have also been known to them.
Therefore, we may assume that its meaning, especially the consonant
gönül–go’el allusion, was on their minds during the Sabbatian communal
singing.
22. Walter Feldman, “Snapshot: Ismail Dede Efendi,” in Garland Encyclopedia
of World Music, 6:779–80.
23. Sufi lodges, especially those of the Mevlevis, served as centers for training
and teaching the Ottoman
musical traditions employed in religious and non.
religious contexts. Ismail Dede is a case in point, as he was summoned by Sultan
Selim III (ruled 1789–1807) to perform his compositions in the palace. Walter
Feldman, Music of the Ottoman Court: Makam, Composition and the Early Ottoman
Repertoire (Berlin, 1996), 85–104.
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Translation of an Image: The Gazelle as a Beloved and Gender Fluidity
An example of the assimilation of symbolism from an Ottoman song
appears in the song of another Sabbatian poet—H
. iya Alvo, alias Zikhri,
a contemporary and close associate of Tovah. The following are the first
two stanzas:
Se alkansa a la H
. ohkmah
El ben David rey Shelema
En su sea se enrama
Canım Shabbetai Tsevi
El ben David rey Shelema
The H.okhmah will be attained
The son of David, King Solomon
In him will be bound
My love, Shabbetai Tsevi
The son of David, King Solomon
Se sonalso su reinado
Vadai era rey untado
En su raiz apegado
Canım Shabbetai Tsevi
El ben David rey Shelema
His kingship shall rise
Surely, he was king messiah
To his root is attached
My love, Shabbetai Tsevi
The son of David, King Solomon
The central character in this song is the mythical figure of King Solomon,
embodied in Shabbetai Tsevi. Tsevi qua Solomon is repairing the divine
worlds, and is associated with H.okhmah, probably H.okhmah ketanah (lit.,
“small wisdom”), which corresponds to the feminine sefirah Malkhut (lit.,
“kingship”). The name of the deceased to whom this song is dedicated, as
indicated in the final stanza, is the same that of as the main character
in the song—Shlomo. The Muslim name of the deceased appears in the
title—Süleyman Ağa (Mister or Master Suleiman)—and is compatible
with the Hebrew name, Suleiman being the Muslim version of Solomon.
Along with the divine and sublime description of the messiah-king, the
refrain contains another appellation for Shabbetai Tsevi: the Turkish
word canım, which literally means “my life” or “my soul” and figuratively
means “my dear” and “my love.” The term canım bestows upon the messiah a dimension that differs from his portrayal in the remainder of the
song—that of an intimate as opposed to an exalted figure as he is
described using kabbalistic terminology. A glance at the original Ottoman
song clarifies the inspiration for this intimate dimension. The incipit
points to “Baharın zamanı geldi,” two stanzas of which are as follows:
Baharın zamanı geldi (a canım)
Spring time has come (O, my
love)
Young gazelle, come let’s go
Our paths have become green
Yavru ceylân gel gidelim
Yollarımız yeşillendi
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Ceylân ceylân gidelim (ceylân)
Yavru ceylân gel gidelim
Gazelle, gazelle, let’s go (gazelle)
Young gazelle, come let’s go
Kolların boynuma uzat (a canım)
Extend your arms to my neck (O,
my love)
Put the strands of your hair in
order
Look after the roads of hunters
Gazelle, gazelle, let’s go (gazelle)
Young gazelle, come let’s go
Zülfünün tellerin düzelt
Avcıların yolun gözet
Ceylân ceylân gidelim (ceylân)
Yavru ceylân gel gidelim
Obviously, this is another Ottoman love song. Set against the backdrop
of green nature, the lover beckons his beloved to join him. In view of the
Sabbatian poet’s familiarity with the words of the Ottoman song, it is
astounding to find that in the Ottoman song the central image for the
beloved is none other than ceylân, the Turkish word for gazelle—in
Hebrew, tsevi. The gazelle as a metaphor for love is a widespread theme
in Islamic poetry and specifically in Ottoman poetry, often highlighting
its grace, shyness, and beautiful brown eyes.24 The Sabbatian song conveys a full rendition of the Ottoman image: the gazelle remains the symbol
of the beloved, but in the form of the beloved messiah Shabbetai Tsevi.
Notwithstanding the retention of the gazelle (the beloved ceylân) in
Zikhri’s song, the scene has shifted from nature to a mystical place where
the gazelle—tsevi—acts to promote divine repair. It should be noted that
the gazelle metaphor is no stranger to pre-Sabbatian Hebrew poetry, in
which the combination of interpretations of biblical verses from the Song
of Songs and conventional poetic metaphors from Islamic poetry inform
a convention of the gazelle representing a beloved marked by beauty and
splendor. It is quite possible that Zikhri consciously combined the meaning of the motif in Jewish sources with the image from the Ottoman
poem. Certainly he intentionally incorporated the name of the messiah,
and it can be assumed that he chose this Ottoman song because of the
central role of the tsevi. In any case, as we shall see, the precise preservation of the Ottoman song’s structure clearly indicates that the Sabbatian
poet used it as the basis for his composition.
Following is a comparison of the structure of the first stanza of each
song:
24. Ottoman Lyric Poetry: An Anthology, ed. and trans. W. Andrews, N. Black,
and M. Kalpakli (Austin, Tex., 1997), 194, 206.
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OTTOMAN SONGS—FELDMAN SAMET
Baharın zamanı geldi (a canım)
Yavru ceylân gel gidelim
Yollarımız yeşillendi
Ceylân ceylân gidelim (ceylân)
Yavru ceylân gel gidelim
579
Se alkansa a la H
. ohkmah
El ben David rey Shelema
En su sea se enrama
Canım Shabbetai Tsevi
El ben David rey Shelema
Unlike that of the previous song, the structure of this Sabbatian song is
rather uncommon in the corpus. We see a structure identical to that of
the Ottoman song: each stanza contains five lines, with the second line
in the first stanza repeated in the fifth line, constituting the second line of
the refrain. The refrain recurs at the end of each stanza, as the fourth and
fifth lines. Clearly, the underlying structure is preserved, though the
rhyme scheme is not.
Moreover, we can see that the endings of two of the lines in the Ottoman song contain words in parentheses—a canım and ceylân—that deviate
from the structure of the song and were probably added during its oral
transmission. It is possible that Zikhri was aware of the interjections, and
was inspired by them to add canım, the affectionate term for Shabbetai
Tsevi, in the refrain. This affectionate term is widespread in TurkishOttoman poetry and culture and also in the Sabbatian songs when referring to the messiah Tsevi.25
The Ottoman song’s author is unknown. Its melody was composed by
.
Ismail Dede. It belongs to the köçekçe genre of songs, which were composed as part of the köçek (pl. köçekler) entertainment show, featuring
handsome beardless boy dancers who were made up and dressed as
women.26 The köçekler performed on various occasions, such as during the
imperial celebrations and ceremonies conducted by the Ottoman sultan,
in other urban celebratory events, and in meyhane—taverns where alcoholic beverages were sold.
The young köçek boys symbolized a fluid gender identity, were the
object of homoerotic musing, and sometimes even provided sexual services for men. They were recruited from among the non-Muslims in the
Empire, many of them originating in the Balkans: Greeks, Jews, Armenians, and Romani people. The köçek culture was widespread in the Otto25. Hadar Feldman Samet, “ ‘Adam Kadmon’: Gilgulo shel mizmor Shabbeta’i,” El presente 10 (2016): 58–60.
26. Dorit Klebe, “Effeminate Professional Musicians in Sources of OttomanTurkish Court Poetry and Music of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,”
in Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography 30.1–2 (2005): 97–116;
Yael Segev, “Ha-kochek ba-merh.avim ha-ironiyim shel Istanbul ad reshit hame’ah ha-esrim,” Zmanim 131 (2015): 86–97.
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man Empire from the seventeenth century and continued until the
Tanzimat reforms in the nineteenth. It should come as no surprise that the
.
aforementioned Sufi composer Ismail Dede set this song to music to be
used in performances of a nonreligious nature; as mentioned, Sufi composers created music for contexts outside the religious order to which
they belonged.
Reading the Ottoman song in light of this performative context
reveals that the image of the beautiful gazelle assumes the coveted figure of the köçek. It is therefore an interesting choice by the Sabbatian
poet: the adoption of the Ottoman gazelle-köçek figure is consistent with
the broader concept of the messiah’s gender fluidity in the songs of the
Ma’aminim. Applying concepts from the world of Kabbalah, the songs
present the messiah both as a distinctively feminine and as a masculine
figure—mainly as the embodiment of the feminine Shekhinah (divine
presence) and of the masculine sefirah Tif’eret (adornment)—and sometimes even as androgynous.27
In any event, we have here a case of an Ottoman dance song, taken
from a nonreligious cultural context, that is transformed into a song of
faith. This song translates the image of the gazelle as the beloved to
the beloved (canım) Shabbetai Tsevi, which lends the Sabbatian song an
intimate—perhaps even erotic—tone vis-à-vis the messiah.
Linguistic and Symbolic Incorporation: Ottoman Love Poetry
The next song is even more indicative of the incorporation of the original
Ottoman song within the Sabbatian song. According to the order of the
stanzas in one of the two versions, it has an acrostic that suggests that
Tovah was its author.28 The following are the first and last of the four
stanzas in the Sabbatian song:
Tu sos el Mashiah. ben David
selah
Müptelâyım müptelâyım
müptelâ
You are the messiah son of David,
selah
I am in love, in love, in love
27. See, for example, Ben-Zvi MS 2270, song 238; Harvard-Houghton MS
80, song 338. On gender fluidity in the writings of the Ma’aminim as understood
in the Jewish context, see Elqayam, “The Burden.” On the androgyny of the
messiah in Sabbatian Kabbalah, see Elliot R. Wolfson, “The Engenderment of
Messianic Politics: Symbolic Significance of Sabbatai Sevi’s Coronation,” in
Toward the Millennium: Messianic Expectations from the Bible to Waco, ed. P. Schäfer
and M. Cohen (Leiden, 1998), 203–58.
28. Ben-Zvi MS 2271.
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OTTOMAN SONGS—FELDMAN SAMET
No vidi mas komo tu h.atan kalah
Müptelâyım müptelâyım
müptelâ
Ey cenanım can içeri cenansin
sen
Bı̂-misil bir cemal-i meleksin
sen
Gedulatkha vadai malkhut asta
ein
Müptelâyım müptelâyım
müptelâ
581
I have seen none like you—bride
and groom
I am in love, in love, in love
O loved one, you are the love
within my soul
You are an unmatched angelic
beauty
Your greatness is surely Malkhut
to infinity
I am in love, in love, in love
Unlike in the two previous Sabbatian songs, here the Turkish language (in
bold) is strongly present. Throughout the song, the author switches
between Ladino (mixed with Hebrew and Aramaic) and Turkish. The transition between languages is also one between dimensions of faith: Ladino
descriptions of Shabbetai Tsevi employ Sabbatian messianic terminology:the messiah, the holy son of David who embodies male and female
aspects (h.atan-kalah, bride and groom), works to “repair” the celestial
through the sefirot, and is of a divine character. When he switches to Turkish, the poet expresses feelings of fierce love for the beautiful beloved, who
connects intimately to the Ma’amin or Ma’aminah. If we read the Sabbatian
song in connection with the Ottoman song that appears in the incipit, “Bülbül âsâ rûz-ü şeb kârım nevâ,” we can clearly discern what inspired its
Turkish elements:
Bülbül Âsâ Rûz-ü Şeb Kârım
Nevâ
Müptelâyım müptelâyım ben sana
Söylesin ey gül sana bâd-ı Sabâ
Müptelâyım müptelâyım ben sana
Sen düşürdün âteş-i aşka beni
You brought me down to the fire
of love
You settled at the valley of misery
O beautiful moon, I loved you, I
will not deny
Vâdi-i mihnette tuttun meskeni
Sevdim inkâr eylemem ey meh
seni
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I sing day and night like the
nightingale
I am in love, in love with you
O rose, say, to you is the morning
wind
I am in love, in love with you
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Müptelâyım müptelâyım ben
sana.
I am in love, in love with you
Here we find love images that are widespread in Ottoman poetry: the
lover as nightingale (bülbül) who yearns for the beloved, symbolized by
the rose (gül ), and is consumed by the fire of passion and agony of love.
The refrain changes slightly from the Turkish song to the Sabbatian one:
from “müptelâyım müptelâyım ben sana” it becomes “müptelâyım müptelâyım müptelâ,” but the meaning is preserved. The repeated action (müptelâ, falling in love, can also be interpreted as “craving for” or “addiction
to” the beloved) remains as in the Ottoman song: the poet is in love!
Not only are the refrains nearly identical, but the very style and language of the Ottoman poem are sources of inspiration for the Sabbatian
poet. The last Sabbatian stanza, written in Turkish, does not appear in
the Ottoman song, meaning that it is a Sabbatian creation adopting common images of love from Ottoman poetry.
In the two previous examples it was shown that the Sabbatian poet,
and most likely the Ma’aminim who sang those texts, must have been
conscious of the Ottoman song’s content; the above example further
establishes the affinities to a specific Ottoman song, by showing how
powerful expressions of love made their way into the Sabbatian song
in their original language. These expressions of love received Sabbatian
mystical meaning through their merging with the messianic ideas
expressed in Jewish languages.
Sacred Song and Ritual Practice: Ilahı̂ and the Call Hu
The next song is mostly in Hebrew, unlike many of the other Sabbatian
songs, which are primarily in Ladino and only use Hebrew or Aramaic
for kabbalistic terminology.29
Ha-El ha-gadol veha-gibor vehanora’—Hu30
“The God of greatness, might,
and awe”—Hu
29. Examination of the manuscript indicates that this song was a late addition.
It does not appear in the list of contents and is one of few songs with remarkably
different handwriting; moreover, it was written in red ink, not black ink, like
most of the songs.
30. I differentiate between the use of hu’ as a personal pronoun in Hebrew
(transcribed as hu reflecting the spelling in the manuscripts) and Hu (with a
capital letter) as the Sufi name of God. Here, the word is being used both ways
at once.
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583
El Dio de go’el rey meshiah. shem
HaVaYaH31—Hu
Ashrei ha-adam mishe-yeda‘ et
elohuto
Ha-El Adonai, Hu Elohim, Hu
Elohim, Hu
God of the redeemer king
messiah, name HaVaYaH—Hu
Blessed be he, who knows his
divinity
God the Lord, Hu is God, Hu is
God, Hu
She-hu ha-bore’ veha-yotser ve‘oseh kulam
‘Oseh gedulot, ein lo h.eker hu h.ai
ve-kayam
He is the creator, form-giver and
“maker of them all”
“Who does great things,” beyond
comprehension, living and
steadfast
Come, thank God for he is
exalted God
God the Lord, Hu is God, Hu is
God, Hu
Bo’u hodu le-El Elohim she-hu
ha-El ram
Ha-El Adonai, Hu Elohim, Hu
Elohim, Hu
The song deals with knowledge of the supreme deity, represented by the
name Yahweh on the one hand and Hu on the other. This is the God
of Shabbetai Tsevi (the “Divine Redeemer,” also known by the acrostic
“Amirah”32). According to this song and other writings of the Ma’aminim,
the name Yahweh is the aspect of the deity to whom one turns for prayer
and thanksgiving, as a mediator between the hidden divine bounty and
human beings.
The song was written by the poet “Shlomo.” At the end of the song is
a dedication to the deceased Ma’amin Shlomo Ashkenazi who, according
to the title, bore the Muslim name of Rıza (lit., “consent” or “resignation”)
Efendi, son of Tah.sin (lit., “admiration” or “adornment”). The genre is
or ) that
noted in the song’s title—ilahı̂. This is a term in Arabic (
literally means “divine” or “heavenly,” and in Turkish denotes a chant
intended for prayer to God as part of a ritual.33 Accordingly, the incipit
points to an Ottoman ilahı̂ called “Gördükte o rûy üstüne ol hâl-i siyahı.”
The use of the term ilahı̂ indicates that the song was performed in liturgical contexts. Here are three stanzas and their translations:
31. A name of God, a version of the Tetragrammaton: h''ywh.
32. Adonenu Malkenu Yarum Hodo, “Our Lord, our King, may his Majesty be
Exalted.”
33. Walter Feldman, “Musical Genres and Zikir of the Sunni Tarikats of
Istanbul,” in The Dervish Lodge-Architecture: Art and Sufism in Ottoman Turkey, ed.
R. Lifchez (Berkeley, Calif., 1992), 187–202.
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Gördükte o rûy üstüne ol hâl-i
siyahı
Ifham edemem leylü nehar çek
diğimahı
Bin can alıyor nazile bir kerre
nigahı
Allah için Allah diyelim Hu
diyelim Hu
I have seen the darkness over the
light of God’s countenance
I cannot explain how much I
suffered day and night
His one flirty look takes a
thousand hearts
For Allah, let’s say Allah, let’s say
Hu, Hu
Ü elemi34 hicrile nây eyleyüb
efgan
Esrarı hüda söylemede aşıka her
an
Ey dil olayım dersen eğer mazharı
irfan
Allah için Allah diyelim Hu
diyelim Hu
His grief of separation was like
the moaning of a ney
Every second, God tells his
mysteries to the lover
O heart, If you say you can
manifest the secret knowledge
For Allah, let’s say Allah, let’s say
Hu, Hu
Dun mu acep nayıdan esrarı aliyi
I wonder, is it the night that
keeps away the exalted secret
Nazif, do you know the fine
eternal abundant
If you say that: “I will know the
hidden secrets”
For Allah, let’s say Allah, let’s say
Hu, Hu
Bildin mi Nazif nüktei feyzi
ezeliyi
Arif olayım dersen eğer sırrı
hafiyi
Allah için Allah diyelim Hu
diyelim Hu
Like many Ottoman songs, this one describes the suffering caused by the
author’s beloved, for instance with a sigh of grief emanating from the ney.
The ney is a type of reed flute in Ottoman Turkish musical performances
that is frequently used in Mevlevi Sufi music. In Ottoman poetry the ney
also serves as a metaphor for love. In the Ottoman song, the pangs of
love merge with the lover’s attempt to discover the secrets of the beloved,
which are the mysteries of God. This is an illustration of the merging
elements of love and faith in God in mystical Ottoman poetry. It can be
assumed that the expression of the secrets of God—a common idea in
some Sufi beliefs—suited the centrality of the idea of secrecy as a leading
concept in Sabbatian belief, which has been thought to have evolved in
relation to the principle of taqiyya ( ) originating in Shi’ite Islam.35
34. Should probably be: öyle mi.
35. The first to mention the connection between the secrecy of the Ma’aminim
and the idea of taqiyya was Gershom Scholem; see his “Berukhiah: Rosh ha-
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OTTOMAN SONGS—FELDMAN SAMET
585
The refrain is a call for the recitation of two Islamic names of God—
Allah and Hu. The word Hu, which originated in Arabic ( ) and literally
means “he,” as it does in Hebrew, is an accepted term for God in different
Sufi traditions. The repeated recitation of God’s name echoes the Muslim
prayer ritual of zikr ( ), which means remembrance or recollection, and
is widespread among the Sufis. In this ritual, God’s name is repeated in a
word, phrase, or verse as a way of connecting the believer with God and
awakening God to the believer.36 Here is a comparison of the refrains of
the two songs.
In the Ottoman ilahı̂:
Allah için Allah diyelim Hu
diyelim Hu
For Allah, let’s say Allah, let’s say
Hu, Hu
In the Sabbatian ilahı̂:
Ha-El Adonai, Hu Elohim, Hu
Elohim, Hu
God the Lord, Hu is God, Hu is
God, Hu
In the refrain of the Sabbatian song, which follows that of the Ottoman
song, the use of Hu for God’s name and its integration with the names of
God from the Jewish tradition (Ha-El Adonai) stands out.
It seems that the Sabbatian poet and the scribe who wrote the song in
the manuscript (assuming that they are not the same person) knew the
Sufi ilahı̂ that inspired the Sabbatian hymn. Proof of this is found in
the manuscript itself, which contains in fragmented form two crossed-out
words from the Ottoman refrain in Hebrew letters: “Allah iç [. . .]” (see
Fig. 1). This is the opening of the refrain of the Ottoman ilahı̂, as we have
already seen: “Allah için Allah diyelim Hu diyelim Hu.”
The author of the Ottoman poem is Hasan Nazif Dede, as attested by
the signature, Nazif, in the second sentence of the last stanza (“Nazif, do
you know the fine eternal abundant?”). Nazif Dede was the fifteenth
sheikh of the Mevlevi Sufi brotherhood in Beşiktaş, Istanbul. He lived
from 1794 to 1861, which probably dates the writing of the Ottoman song
to no earlier than the second decade of the nineteenth century.37 On the
Shabeta’im be-Saloniki,” in Scholem, Researches in Sabbateanism (Jerusalem,
1991), 321–85, esp. 353.
36. On the appropriation of the zikr by the Ma’aminim, see Hadar Feldman
Samet, “Allahı Zikr Edilim (Let Us Do Zikr for Allah): The Sabbatian Appropriation of the Sufi Practice of Zikr as a Religious Renewal,” Zutot
16 (2018): 1–10.
.
37. Nuri Özcan, “Hâşim Bey,” in Türkiye diyanet vakfı Islam ansiklopedisi, vol.
16 (Istanbul, 1997), 407–8.
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Figure 1. Harvard-Houghton Ms. 80, song 852. The words in Hebrew
script 'gya h[l]la (Allah iç) marked here, taken from the Ottoman ilahı̂,
were first written and then crossed out by the Sabbatian scribe.
Photograph Hadar Feldman Samet.
basis of this information we have firm evidence for the terminus post quem
of the Sabbatian song’s composition and for the period when its poet
Shlomo was active.
As noted, this poem is based on the Sufi ilahı̂ song, which blends
expressions of love with explicit reference to God. The Sabbatian version
echoes the Islamic practice of reciting the names of God. Although
expressions of love are absent in the Sabbatian song, the call Hu is preserved and demonstrates the Sabbatian adoption of one of God’s names
from the Sufi tradition and perhaps the reciting of the name as in the
tradition of the zikr.
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OTTOMAN SONGS—FELDMAN SAMET
587
Dating the Sabbatian Songs: The Ottoman Song and Its Context
The final example in this essay is a song centered on the mythical figure
of Moses as the savior, who is associated with the messianic persona of
Shabbetai Tsevi. The law handed down through Moses to his nation
serves as a metaphor for the giving of the Torah by Shabbetai Tsevi to
his followers. This is the Torah of Emanation (torah de-atsilut) mentioned
in the sources of the Ma’aminim: according to Sabbatian belief, the familiar Torah, containing the commandments, is replaced by what is known
as the Torah of Creation (torah de-beri’ah).38
In the last stanza of the song, Moses/Shabbetai blends with the
deceased Ma’amin whose name is Moshe (i.e., Moses) Alfandari, and
whose Muslim name, as it appears in the title, is Topus Ağa (Mister or
Master Topus). Here are two of the stanzas:
Sekreto de adonenu ha-go’el
Moshe Rabbenu era pastor fiel
Secret of our Lord the redeemer
Moshe Rabbenu was a faithful
shepherd
He was a savior for Israel
Moshe Rabbenu was a faithful
shepherd
El se fue regmidor a Israel
Moshe Rabbenu era pastor fiel
I disheron kien es go’el primera
Be-vadai ke el sera en trazeria
Be-sod go’el Tsevi sultan Amirah
Moshe Rabbenu era pastor fiel
They said: who is the first
redeemer
Surely will be in the end
In the secret of the redeemer
Tsevi, sultan, Amirah
Moshe Rabbenu was a faithful
shepherd
The Turkish incipit is “Olmaz ilaç,” indicating the Ottoman song “Olmaz
ilaç sine-i sad pâreme”:
Olmaz ilaç sine-i sad pâreme
There is no cure for my heart,
broken into a hundred pieces
I know there is no remedy for my
pain
Çare bulunmaz bilirim yâreme
38. On the Sabbatian interpretation of the concepts “Torah of Emanation”
and “Torah of Creation” and its development in Frankist thought, see Rachel
Elior, “Jacob Frank and His Book The Sayings of the Lord: Religious Anarchism
as a Restoration of Myth and Metaphor” (Hebrew), in The Sabbatian Movement
and Its Aftermath, vol. 2, 487–94.
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Baksa tabiban-ı cihan çâreme
Though all the world’s healers
seek a cure for me
I know there is no remedy for my
pain
Çare bulunmaz bilirim yâreme
Kastediyor piri müjen canıma
The eyelashes of the saint
diminish my life
In the end (his/her) eyes will
enter my blood
I cannot explain my condition to
my beloved
I know there is no remedy for my
pain
Gözleri en son girecek kanıma
Şerh edemem halimi cananıma
Çare bulunmaz bilirim yareme
The structure of the two songs is identical and typical of the şarkı poetic
genre, but in terms of content there is no apparent connection between
the Sabbatian expressions of redemption and the Ottoman song, which is
primarily about heartbreak and despair. However, identifying the poet
and musical composer of the Ottoman song reveals important information.
There are dozens of recorded performances of this Ottoman song by
diverse artists and musicians in Turkey, including professional Ottoman
musicians and contemporary pop celebrities. The author of the song is
Namık Kemal (1840–88), who was born in Ottoman Tekirdağ, located
in eastern Thrace. In the Turkish cultural sphere, Kemal represents a
generation of reformers who accelerated the penetration of modern European thought and culture into Ottoman society (the founder of the modern Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, used to mention the
impact of Namık Kemal’s writings on the formation of his own nationalpolitical conceptions). Kemal was an Ottoman intellectual and patriot
who played an active role in promoting the reforms that took place in the
empire and was known as a member of the Freemasons. His lifetime was
a transitional period in the empire that created tension between the winds
of modernity and the longstanding Ottoman cultural tradition. Namık
Kemal’s writings are an example of efforts to combine and reconcile the
old with the new regarding, for instance, scientific development and the
Muslim faith. Like many of the Tanzimat generation, he sought to influence Ottoman society mainly through his writings as a journalist, playwright, and poet.
As a boy of fourteen, Kemal began writing songs, initially gazels of a
mystical-religious nature. From the age of twenty, in the 1860s, he wrote
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songs according to various forms and genres of Ottoman artistic poetry;
among these are songs of the şarkı genre, such as the aforementioned
“Olmaz ilaç.”39 But the most famous story behind the song “Olmaz ilaç”
is connected to the composer of its music, the well-known Hacı Ârif Bey
(1831–85), who was of Circassian origin and born in the Eyüp neighborhood in Istanbul.40 Thanks to the impression he made on Sultan Abdülmecit I (r. 1839–61) with his musical talent and beautiful voice, he was
appointed a music teacher in the Harem-i Hümayun, the sultan’s harem.
There he met and married his first love, a Circassian woman named
Çeşm-i Dilber, literally “spring beauty.” After giving birth to two daughters, Çeşm-i Dilber left him for a merchant. Ârif Bey overcame his heartbreak and married another woman from the harem, Zülf-i Nigâr, literally
“beautiful curl.” Together they left the palace of the sultan and the two
had a daughter. But this love ended tragically: Zülf-i Nigâr contracted
tuberculosis and eventually died. Following this tragedy, Ârif Bey composed music for the song “Olmaz ilaç” expressing his pain in terms of
unbearable disease. The height of Zülf-i Nigâr’s illness and her death
took place close in time to Sultan Abdülmecit I’s own death from tuberculosis in 1861.
There is therefore a correspondence between what we know about
when Ârif Bey composed the song’s music (namely, following the death
of Zülf-i Nigâr in 1861) and the assumed time when Namık Kemal wrote
the lyrics (namely, when he was in his twenties, in the early 1860s).
Accordingly, based on this poem we can determine with certainty a terminus post quem for the Sabbatian song, i.e., it was not written before 1861,
giving us a more accurate estimation of the creative period of the Sabbatian poet Shlomo. Moreover, the understanding that the Ottoman song
expresses pain over the death of the composer’s beloved raises the possibility of a conceptual connection to the Sabbatian song. The choice of
“Olmaz ilaç” may have been associated with the desire to express grief
and sorrow over the death of Moshe Alfandari, to whom the Sabbatian
song was dedicated.
C O N C L US I O N
This essay has focused on the identification of the original Ottoman songs
that served as the basis for Sabbatian songs. The five selections demon39. On the poetry of Kemal, see Fevziye A. Tansel, “Kemāl, Meh. med,
Nāmik⬚. k.,” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., ed. P. Bearman et al. Accessed April
22, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0479. .
40. Bekir Sıtkı Sezgin, “Hacı Ârif Bey,” in Türkiye diyanet vakfı Islam ansiklopedisi, vol. 14 (Istanbul, 1996), 440–42.
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strate different kinds of connections that widen our understanding of
Sabbatian songs, ranging from the adoption of Ottoman songs’ melodies
and structure; through the intertextual connection of tone, themes, terminology, and religious practice; to the historical information that, for the
first time, indicates the period in which the Sabbatian poets wrote and
lived.
While reference to Jewish tradition is an important element aiding in
the comprehension of the communal writings of the Ma’aminim, it is not
sufficient. Considering the Ottoman cultural sources of the Sabbatian
songs illuminates their ideas and poetic characteristics, performance, and
cultural-historical context. Widening the intra-Jewish gaze to a crosscultural one also broadens the scope of the meaning conveyed by the
Ma’aminim who created and performed them. Given the ritualistic nature
of the Sabbatian songs, they were not only read and perceived conceptually in religious terms but were also sung, performed, and experienced as
a set of voices, sounds, images, and cultural associations.
Moreover, it has been shown that diverse types of Ottoman songs provided inspiration to Sabbatian writers—songs from different cultural contexts, both religious and nonreligious. This intercultural dynamic is
typical of the Ottoman context but is especially significant considering
the late nineteenth-century dating of some of the songs through their
incipits. The Ma’aminim played a prominent role in the process of modernization, and the current study reveals that during this period they continued to create their religious texts and perform rituals in their
traditional communal gatherings.
The comparative methodology deployed in this essay shows the way
for further research on Sabbatian sources and their cross-cultural historical linkages. This perspective provides fresh insight into the secret
religious and cultural world of the Ma’aminim and indicates how they
implemented, integrated, and created their own unique interpretation
of Jewish traditions and Ottoman sources from their eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century Salonican society.
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APPENDIX:
THE S ABBATIAN SONGS TRANSLITERATED AND TRANSLATED
The following transliterations (in the left-hand column) are from the
manuscripts indicated. I have chosen to reproduce the songs as they were
written, without correcting the grammatical mistakes in the original text.
To highlight the mixing of languages and terms in these texts, I have
marked Hebrew words with underlining and Turkish with bold. Plain
text is Ladino. In the parallel translation (in the right-hand column),
untranslated words from any language are italicized.
1
Houghton Library, Harvard University MS 80, song 510; Ben-Zvi Institute MS 2273, song 236
Makam: Acem-Aşı̂rân
Melody: lwnw'q ydnyb ylyzw'q ryb (Bir güzele bende gönül)
Author: R. Yehudah Levi (Tovah)
Emunah de Tsevi go’el
Es sekreto de el Yovel
Bien a el ke ata kon el
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
Faith in Tsevi go’el41
Is the secret of the Yovel42
Good43 to those attached to him
Ah go’el, h.ai44 go’el, h.ai
De Yovel sekreto, ved
Ke ay en el bet i lamed
I avrio go’el emet
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
See, the Yovel has a secret
That exists in bet and lamed45
And revealed by the true go’el
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
41. Hebrew: redeemer. The original Hebrew word was kept in the translation
in order to preserve the wordplay with the Ottoman word: gönül—go’el.
42. Hebrew: Jubilee; literally, “fiftieth year.”
43. The word “good” reappears in the songs in different phrases. In this song
we see it in Ladino as bien, bueno, and buendad.
44. Hebrew: alive. The original Hebrew word was kept in the translation, in
order to preserve the wordplay with the original Ottoman song: vah/vai—h.ai.
45. In Hebrew the word Yovel (lbwy) is constructed of four letters mentioned
in this song: yod, vav, bet, and lamed. The letters bet and lamed add up to the numerical value of 32, and in Kabbalah this is an idiom for “32 ways of wisdom” (lamedbet netivot h.okhmah), the ways by which God created the universe according to
the book Sefer yetsirah (Book of formation).
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La yud i vav siman de mem bet
Kon la lamed se azi ‘ayin bet
I de aki amostrar kof bet
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
The yod and vav, signs of mem bet46
With the lamed becomes ‘ayin bet47
And from here to show kof bet48
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
Ya amostro Adonenu
Sin saver no es bueno
Sekreto de oro fino
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
Already shown by our Lord
Without knowing, there is no
good
Secret of pure gold49
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
La emunah de la vedrad
Se le faya kon la buendad
Le dio a nos un ermandad
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
The faith of the truth
It is found with the good
He gave us brotherhood
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
Kien afirma lo bien a el
Kon el ereda a Yovel
Tovah no aparta de el
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
Good to whoever keeps it
With him, he will inherit the Yovel
Tovah50 is not separate from him
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
H
. azak sea su neshamah
Su nombre Palomba yama
Strong her soul shall be
She is called by her name
Palomba
Clinging to Ima51
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
Apegara en la Ima
Ah go’el, h.ai go’el, h.ai
46. Mem bet (bm) has the numerical value of 42. It stands for “Shem Mem Bet”
(“the name of 42 [letters]”)—one of the appellations of God in kabbalistic tradition. The Ma’aminim use it with various interpretations.
47. Refers to “Shem ‘Ayin Bet” (“the name of 72 [letters]”), a reference to God’s
name that is constructed of 72 letters. Here it probably refers to a calculation of
the numerical value of the full names of the four letters in the Tetragrammaton:
y''h w''yw ,y''h ,d''wy.
48. As in other Ma’aminim songs, this probably refers to the numerical value
of kof bet—102, the same as the numerical value of the name of the messiah Tsevi
(ybx).
49. In a few songs, Shabbetai Tsevi is called “pure gold.”
50. A reference to the author of the song; the Hebrew word tovah also means
good.
51. Hebrew: mother. Refers to the sefirah Binah.
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2
Houghton Library, Harvard University Ms. 80, song 468
Makam: Hicâz
Melody: ydly'q ynamyz ˜yrajyb (Baharın zamanı geldi)
Author: H
. iya Alvo (Zikhri)
In memory of Süleyman Ağa
Se alkansa a la H
. ohkmah
El ben David rey Shelema53
En su sea se enrama
Canım Shabbetai Tsevi
El ben David rey Shelema
The H.okhmah52 will be attained
The son of David, King Solomon
In him will be bound
My love, Shabbetai Tsevi
The son of David, King Solomon
Se sonalso su reinado
Vadai era rey untado
En su raiz apegado
Canım Shabbetai Tsevi
El ben David rey Shelema
His kingship shall rise
Surely, he was king messiah
To his root is attached
My love, Shabbetai Tsevi
The son of David, King Solomon
Por su manu se adovo
La mankura lo ke uvo
I la luna se sostuvo
Canım Shabbetai Tsevi
El ben David rey Shelema
By his own hand was repaired
What was lacking
And the moon was sustained
My love, Shabbetai Tsevi
The son of David, King Solomon
En sesh grados asentado
En sétino rey untado
Disho: lugar adovado
Canım Shabbetai Tsevi
El ben David rey Shelema
He sat in six levels54
In the seventh king messiah
He said: a place repaired
My love, Shabbetai Tsevi
The son of David, King Solomon
Makdish sea a su alma
Shelema ‘Asael yama
Zikhri dize luz de flama
Canım Shabbetai Tsevi
El ben David rey Shelema
Sanctified shall be his soul
Shelema ‘Asael his name
Zikhri said: light of the flame
My love, Shabbetai Tsevi
The son of David, King Solomon
52. Hebrew: wisdom. This refers to H.okhmah ketanah (small wisdom)—the
sefirah of Malkhut.
53. The phonetic spelling for the Ma’aminim’s pronunciation of Shlomo.
54. This refers to six sefirot, perhaps the six lower ones, and Tsevi the messiah
sits on the seventh—malkhut.
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3
Houghton Library, Harvard University Ms. 80, song 241; Ben-Zvi Institute Ms. 2271, song 30
Makam: Ferâhnâk
Melody: a'byn μyra'qpy'ç yzwraça lwblwb (Bülbül asa ruzü şeb karım neva)55
Author: Yehuda Levi (Tovah)
Tu sos el Mashiah. ben David
selah
Müptelâyım müptelâyım
müptelâ
No vidi mas komo tu h.atan kalah
Müptelâyım müptelâyım
müptelâ
Vadai tu venistes kon dos
madregot
Adovistes los ‘olamot
Tu aunas a todos las sefirot
Müptelâyım müptelâyım
müptelâ
You are the messiah son of David,
selah
I am in love, in love, in love56
I have seen none like you—bride
and groom
I am in love, in love, in love
Surely you came in two levels
You have repaired the worlds
You unify all of the sefirot
I am in love, in love, in love
Bikedushot tu sus santo de santos
Ati mira los bashos i altos
Ati esperan bivos i muertos
Müptelâyım müptelâyım
müptelâ
Ey cenanım can içeri cenansın
sen
Bı̂ misil bir cemal-i meleksin sen
In sanctifications you are the
sacred of sacred ones
Lower and upper ones gaze at
you
All, living and dead, await you
I am in love, in love, in love
O loved one, you are the love
within my soul
You are an unmatched angelic
beauty
55. In Ben-Zvi Ms. 2271 the incipit mentioned in the title of this song is Ben
sana, taken from the refrain of the Ottoman song. I wish to thank Walter Feldman and Selim Kuru for their remarks regarding the translation of the Ottoman
parts of this song.
56. Can also be translated as “I am addicted to” or “I desire.”
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OTTOMAN SONGS—FELDMAN SAMET
Gedulatkha vadai Malkhut asta
ein58
Müptelâyım müptelâyım
müptelâ
595
Your greatness is surely Malkhut57
to infinity
I am in love, in love, in love
4
Houghton Library, Harvard University Ms. 80, song 852
Makam: Hicâzkâr
Melody: hayyç ylah lwa ynwfçwa yywr wa yd'qwdrw'q (Gördükte o rûy üstüne ol
hâl-isiyahı)
Author: Shelema (Shlomo)
In memory of Tah.sin zade Rıza Efendi
Ha-El ha-gadol veha-gibor vehanora’—Hu59
El Dio de go’el rey meshiah. shem
HaVaYaH61—Hu
Ashrei ha-adam mi she-yeda‘ et62
elohuto
Ha-El Adonai, Hu Elohim, Hu
Elohim, Hu
“The God of greatness, might,
and awe”60 —Hu
God of the redeemer king
messiah, name HaVaYaH—Hu
Blessed be he, who knows his
divinity
God the Lord, Hu is God, Hu is
God, Hu
She-hu ha-bore’ veha-yotser ve‘oseh kulam
‘Oseh gedulot, ein lo h.eker hu h.ai
ve-kayam
He is the creator, form-giver, and
“maker of them all”63
“Who does great things,”64
beyond comprehension, living
and steadfast
Come, thank God for he is
exalted God
God the Lord, Hu is God, Hu is
God, Hu
Bo’u hodu le-El Elohim she-hu
ha-El ram
Ha-El Adonai, Hu Elohim, Hu
Elohim, Hu
57. Hebrew: kingship. The last sefirah.
58. The word ein here most likely stands for the kabbalisitic term ein sof, in
Hebrew: infinity.
59. See above, note 30.
60. Deut 10.17.
61. A name of God, a version of the Tetragrammaton: h''ywh.
62. In the manuscript: El.
63. Prov 22.2.
64. Job 9.10.
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Vadai sheha-nikra’ le-shmo shehu ha-shem “MaH”
Be-tokh shel ha-‘eser sefirot hu
ha-neshamah
Hu yekabel tefilatenu, ana
Shelema
Ha-El Adonai, Hu Elohim, Hu
Elohim, Hu
Surely we will call his name,65 for
he is the name “MaH”66
Inside the ten sefirot, he is the
soul
He will receive our prayers,
please Shelema
God the Lord, Hu is God, Hu is
God, Hu
H
. azak le-Shelomo Ashkenazi lo
ke sera
I su neshamah en Eden se suvida
A resivira a su alma Dio de
Amirah
Ha-El Adonai, Hu Elohim, Hu
Elohim, Hu
Shlomo Ashkenazi will be strong
His soul will rise to paradise
The God of Amirah will receive
his soul
God the Lord, Hu is God, Hu is
God, Hu
5
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Ms. 80, song 625
Makam: Hicâzkâr
Melody: 'galy[ çam lwa (Olmaz ilaç [sine-i sad pâreme])
Author: Shelema (Shlomo)
In memory of Topus(?) Ağa
Sekreto de adonenu ha-go’el
The secret of our Lord the
redeemer
Moshe Rabbenu was a faithful
shepherd
He was a savior for Israel
Moshe Rabbenu was a faithful
shepherd
Moshe Rabbenu era pastor fiel
El se fue regmidor a Israel
Moshe Rabbenu era pastor fiel
I disheron kien es go’el primera
They said: who is the first
redeemer
Surely will be in the end
Be-vadai ke el sera en trazeria
65. The Hebrew text is not clear here, and might be sheha-nikra’ ‘al shmo,
which translates as “that is called by his name.”
66. “MaH” stands for “Mem Heh” (hm), the numerical value of 45. This is
another combination of the Tetragrammaton, written this way: a''h w''aw a''h d''wy,
which adds up to the number 45.
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Be-sod go’el Tsevi, sultan,
Amirah
Moshe Rabbenu era pastor fiel
In the secret of the redeemer
Tsevi, sultan, Amirah
Moshe Rabbenu was a faithful
shepherd
Torah tsivah lanu Moshe
morashah
A nos ke es su pueblo kedushah
Su remez de Tsevi el rey kadisha
“Moshe charged us with a Torah,
an inheritance”67
To us, for we are his holy people
His insinuation, of Tsevi the holy
king
Moshe Rabbenu was a faithful
shepherd
Moshe Rabbenu era pastor fiel
Be-kol beti ne’eman hu be-vadai
Siendo era mandando de Adonai
Shelema es Tsevi go’el Shabbetai
Moshe Rabbenu era pastor fiel
H
. azak sea su alma su neshamah
Moshe Alfandari a el se yama
A resivida a el por su fama
Moshe Rabbenu era pastor fiel
“He is faithful in all my house,”
surely68
Since he was a messenger of the
Lord
Shelema is Tsevi the redeemer,
Shabbetai
Moshe Rabbenu was a faithful
shepherd
Strong will be his spirit, his soul
His name is Moshe Alfandari
Receive him for his glory
Moshe Rabbenu was a faithful
shepherd
H ADAR F ELDMAN S AMET is a Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard
University’s Center for Jewish Studies.
67. Deut 33.4.
68. Num 12.7.
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