“This World is Falling to Pieces, Do Not Expect it to Get Better in Our Time”: Nazires to the Famous Poem of Sultan Mustafa III

Abstract

The Turkish word nazire (reply in kind) is derived from the Arabic root nazara and describes a response poem. This article analyzes a poem consisting of two couplets by Mustafa III, the 26th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and its nazires. This poem is significant in that it was written by an active sultan of the Ottoman Empire and criticized the Ottoman bureaucracy coming to its downfall due to the lack of trustworthy and qualified sovereigns. At least 17 nazires were published in response to the poem. This article first provides brief information about Mustafa III and the state of the Ottoman Empire during his reign; then, it discusses his prominent poem as well the nazires to the poem and their authors. This article aims to expound on the conditions on the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire at the time and to discover even more nazires in response to the aforesaid poem of Mustafa III.