Photo: Zeynel Cebeci, CC BY-SA 4.0

Manzume 103 — Gerekdür Laz mahbûbı gele çok

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 14 October 2026 • 3 min reading

The Serbian and Hungarian borders named in three couplets: Murad marches on Albania, marries İsfendiyar's daughter at Bursa, and the despot imprisons Delü Paşa.

Contents 4

1Original Ottoman Turkish Text
2In English
3Literary and Historical Commentary
4Bibliography

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gerekdür Laz mahbûbı gele çok
Ola gāzilerüñ göñli gözi tok

Niköpri vü Semendire iline
Vilâyet Arnavûd'a terkümüz yok

Gāzi Murâd Han ide gazâlar
Kırıla Üngürüz tutıla İzvornuk

In English

1. Beauties of the Laz (Serbia) must come in plenty, that the hearts and eyes of the gazis may be sated.

2. Novo Brdo and the land of Smederevo, the land of Albania: there is no giving them up for us.

3. Let Gazi Murad Han wage gazâs; let the Hungarian be cut down and Zvornik be taken.

Literary and Historical Commentary

İsfendiyar's Daughter

Having made peace with Dracul, Murad marches on Albania in the ninety-third chapter; he first sends Evrenezoğlu against that side, and the frontier is set up from two directions. He himself comes to Bursa to prepare a wedding. To fetch the bride are sent the chief taster Elvan Beg, many slaves of the Porte, two eunuchs, Şerefeddin Paşa and Reyhan Paşa; of the ladies, Hacı Halil Paşa's wife, Sultan Mehmed's nurse Dadu Hatun, Meric Böle and Paşa Kirecem, wife of Yakub Beg of Germiyan, whom the khan called "Şah Ana", also set out. They reach Kastamonu; but İsfendiyar has held the wedding at Dürekâni. The bride is handed over and brought to Bursa. While Murad is busy with the wedding at Bursa, the despot seizes Paşa Beg, son of İshak Beg, nicknamed Delü Paşa, and imprisons him in a fortress; when the news comes, Murad turns in that direction.

A Map of the Frontier

Set in a wedding chapter, the three couplets speak less of the wedding than of borders. The first couplet counts the beautiful captives to come from Serbia, the second the lands not to be given up: Niköpri (Novo Brdo), Smederevo and the land of Albania. The third couplet is a wish for future gazâ: let the Hungarian be cut down and Zvornik taken. Even in a wedding chapter Âşıkpaşazâde's eye is on the frontier; the author foretells the campaigns that will follow the breakdown of the Serbian peace with Delü Paşa's imprisonment. The Elvan Beg who leads the bridal party in this chapter is the son of Paşacuk Ağa, the chief taster who came from Germiyan in the time of Yıldırım Bayezid; he should not be confused with Elvan Çelebi, from whom the author descended. "-ok/-uk" is the rhyming sound: çok, tok, yok, İzvornuk.