AN ODE OF İSMAİL SADIK KEMAL PASHA ABOUT THE WATCHER OF BUDİN GÜL BABA

Abstract

The Ottoman Empire did not only enter the lands it had conquered as a political authority, but also conquered the hearts of the people with its cultural, social and spiritual elements. These lands have hosted many personalities with spiritual aspects as well as historical artefacts belonging to the ancestors. Gül Baba, buried in Budin, is also a person we can mention in this context. Many saints known as Gül Baba are encountered in Anatolia and the Balkans. The saint who is the subject of our study is one of the Bektashi dervishes who lived in the 16th century and it is stated that he was mentioned in this way because he constantly wore roses. Gül Baba, who participated in many wars during the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, was martyred in the Budin campaign and was buried there. The place where his tomb is located is called Gültepe or Gül Baba Bayırı. At the same time, he is the spiritual owner of Budin and a person who has become the symbol of the city. There is an eulogy of 57 couplets about Gül Baba, who has different information about his life and historical personality, in the third work of İsmail Sadık Kemal Pasha's corpus named Âsâr-ı Kemâl, one of the last period Ottoman scholars and poets. The author, who was born in Edirne, both gave some information about Gül Baba and told about the dream he had in this ode he wrote. The dream is about his father, Vecihi Pasha, who served in different government positions and served in the Balkans. In the poem, it is explained how the dream emerged with Gül Baba's help and patronage. While describing the process of the change of his father Vecihi Pasha's place of duty, the poet also gave information about some historical and social events of the period. When he was appointed as the governor of Ankara in 1848, the social problems experienced by the people as a result of the pressures of the tribes in Ankara, Yozgat and Kayseri and how these problems were resolved were reflected in the ode. In this article, first of all, information about Gül Baba will be given, and then İsmail Sadık Kemal Pasha will be briefly introduced. Then, based on the poet's poem about Gül Baba, general information will be given about the poet's dream, and some social problems and distresses experienced at that time will be mentioned. Keywords: Gül Baba (Father of Roses), Budin, Ismail Sadık Kemal Pasha, Āsâr-ı Kemāl, Vecihi Pasha, Mustafa Rashid Pasha.