External music and its link with content in Sultan Valad’s Lyrics

Abstract
The first Sufi poet who versified in mystical didactic poetry, after Masnavi Sharif, was “Baha al-Din Mohammad”, the eldest son of Mawlana Jalal al-Din Balkhi. He was born in 623 Hijra in Larandeh, one of the cities of Asia Minor, and was trained in Konya and Damascus. He understood the speeches of the elders and caliphs of his father, such as Borhan-al-Din Mohaghegh Termazi, Shams Tabrizi, Salah al-Din Zarkub and Hessam al-Din Chalabi; and in addition to acquiring clergyman position, he taught some lessons during the time of Mawlana life. Sultan Valad is one of the elders of the Moulayan dynasty. He has some poetry and prose works, including “Valadname” elegies, lyrics and couplet poetical works.
Problem statement and research questions
The meter of poem is one of the very influential elements in the fantasy of the word and leads to the dance of words in poetry, placing the poetry in a higher position than prose. In fact, the meter is a means for the poet to choose the musical field of poetry in accordance with the intended subject and theme and to affect the emotions and feelings of his audience. One of the main frontiers of success of the great poets is the harmony between the meter and the content of their poetry. In using the meter, the poet focuses on the music and its emotional impact, because the emotional impact of each meter is different. There are a variety of meter in poetry, each of which is effective in creating an attractive structure for poetry, and the music and symmetry created in poetry are not created merely with meter and rhythm. The present research, by using librarian and content analysis method, along with statistical data, studies the external music of Sultan Valad lyrics and seeks to answer these questions;
1- Statistically, what is the frequency of the prosodic meter used in the poet’s lyrics?
2- Has the poet used low-applicable and unfamiliar meter?
3- How much is the level of coordination of meter and content in the lyrics of Sultan Valad?
The use of fluent and reboant meter, the use of rhyming syllables in accordance with the word tone, and the use of nominal, verbal propositional rhythm and by Sultan Valad, had brought a soft music to his poem. Repetitions have an important role in creating music in Sultan Valad’s poetry and lead to a good melody in linear order.
Background
It should be said that due to the importance and the base that Sultan Valad has in mystical poetry, because he benefited from Mawlana, he had not been taken into consideration by critics and researchers as it should be. Only in some researches some aspects of his life and his poetry are explored briefly, which we briefly describe below:
- Burgel (1383), in the book “Moulavi Jala al-Din Mohammad bin Mohammad”, describes Sultan Valad as one of the most famous biographer of the father; the son who founded the Sama dervishes sect and followed the disposition and works of his father. In this work, the aspects of Sultan's life are also presented.
- Shafei Kadkani (1387), in an article titled "The Prosodic Characteristics of Sultan Valad Divan", believes that there is still no exact academic research on Sultan Valad’s spiritual heritage and mystical and poetical position. In this article, the influence of Turkish language and the language of monastery on the prosodic Bahrs of Sultan Valad poetry is studied.
- Mousavi and Hojat al-Eslami (1389), in the article “Sultan Valad and his caliphate after Mawlana” describe the position of Sultan Valad position in Maulavieh mysticism. In this article, the influence of Sultan Valad on mysticism and the introduction of his mystical position are studied.
In this research, which is done for investigating the external music of Sultan Valad’s lyrics and its relevance to the content, at first some samples of the poet's poems are given in terms of frequency respectively, and the coordination level of meter and content is investigated; then all the meter used by the poet are presented in sequential tables in terms of frequency and statistical data. Referrals will also refer to the number of the lyric and its page number.
Conclusion
The findings of the research indicate that Sultan Valad had used 26 meter in 9 different Bahr for versifying 826 lyrics, which Hazaj bahr with 325 lyrics and 34.39% has the highest frequency. Subsequently, Ramal bahr with 133 lyrics and 10.16% is ranked second, and Rajaz bahr with 130 lyrics and 73.15% is the third. The low-applicable and unfamiliar meter used by the poet is only 3, with a frequency of 9. Most of the meter used in Sultan Valad Divan are short, lively, joyous and sinuous. The meter “Mafaeil, Maqsur’, with the frequency of 150 lyrics, has the highest frequency. Perhaps the reason for using this much is the proper environment of the Sama circle as well as the inner emotion that forms the lyrics music before its words.
Also, after extracting of meter and bahr and thinking about the poems’ themes, the coordination level between meter and content in Sultan Valad poetry was investigated. It was found that he used the appropriate words, syllables, poetry options, rhymes ant rhythms to fit and coordinate meter and content. With the awareness and knowledge he had about poetry music and prosodic bahrs, Sultan Valad had chosen the bahr appropriate with the theme and subject in order to add to the effect of his speech. Among the studied poems, only in a few lyrics, fewer than a dozen, there is not much coordination between meter and content; meaning that the meter of these poems is not selected in full proportion to the content, although they can simply be neglected.