Abstract
The Mazmuns of the Bow and “Qaaba Qawsayn” In Divan Poetry
The mazmun structure of divan poetry is one of the most important keys in understanding the accumulation of thousands of couplets that have survived since Kutadgu Bilig, the first work of Turkish-Islamic literature. This article examines the function of the mazmun in the aesthetics of poetry and its historical and cultural dimension, which makes it possible to install a rich web of meanings through the simile of the qaaba qawsayn. The expression qaaba qawsayn is a part of the 9th verse of Surah an-Nacm in the Qur'an, “fakaana qaaba qawsayni aw adnâ" (It was about two bows’ length or even closer.) has taken its place among the metaphors used for the eyebrows of the beloved in divan poetry, such as bow, crescent, mihrap and arch. Iktibas is the way in which verses or hadiths are quoted in divan literature. This verse describes the meeting between Allah and Muhammad without any intermediary on the night of Miraj.
In pre-Islamic thought of Turkish culture, various meanings were attributed to the bow symbol in different fields, from mythology to the political dominance, from the alphabet to stamps. With Islamization, this network of meanings has expanded and enriched by thematizing many new religious and mystical contents related to the qaaba qawsayn analogy. The qaaba qawsayn is a Qur'anic description of the fact that two different realms, namely the world of creation on the side of Muhammad and the realm of the divine on the side of Allah, are in fact very close to each other. The divan poet described the eyebrow of the beloved with such an effective analogy. Thus, the mazmun of the qaaba qawsayn has become a strong expression of the desire for closeness, which lies at the core of both human and divine love.
Keywords
Divan literature, mysticism, mythology, mazmun, qaaba qawsayn