Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Zamândur dürlü devrân-ıla geçdi
Gehî şâdî gehî giryânla geçdi
Şâdîsidür yalan giryânı girçek
Bu gaflet ehli hep yalanla geçdi
Gice gündüz ha turmaz tartışurlar
Melâlet ata binüp yile geçdi
Benüm didükleri hay bunda kaldı
Hayâli cânuñ-ıla bile geçdi
Âşıkî yaz menâkıb Âl-i 'Osmân
Yidi ceddüñ bu âl-ılan bile geçdi

In English

1. The age has passed through many turns of fortune; now in joy, now in weeping it passed.

2. Its joy is a lie, its weeping true; these people of heedlessness all passed with a lie.

3. Night and day they wrangle without pause; sorrow mounted a horse and passed like the wind.

4. What they called "mine" remained here; its fancy passed together with your soul.

5. Âşıkî, write the legends of the House of Osman; seven of your forebears passed their lives together with this house.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Aydın and İzmiroğlu

How the land of Aydın passed to the Ottomans is the subject of the ninety-fourth chapter. The districts of Ayasuluğ and Tire are already in Ottoman hands, but because of İzmiroğlu the people's unrest never ends. The son of İsa Beg of Aydın holds a timar at the Porte and keeps saying, "Unless İzmiroğlu goes, the land will not be yours." The land of Aydın has been given to the khan's slave Yahşı Beg, who now and then clashes with İzmiroğlu. One day İzmiroğlu seizes Yahşı Beg's brother and kills him without mercy. The governor-general Oruç Beg is sent against him with Yahşı; İzmiroğlu does not resist and shuts himself in the castle of İpsili. Part of the land turns to the Ottomans and is given to timar holders, but İzmiroğlu's mischief does not cease.

Seven Forebears

The first four couplets of the verse are a lesson on transience: time passes in joy and weeping, joy is a lie and weeping true; the people of heedlessness pass with a lie; what they called "mine" stays behind. But the last couplet is one of the most quoted family records in the work: "Âşıkî yaz menâkıb Âl-i 'Osmân / Yidi ceddüñ bu âl-ılan bile geçdi." The author addresses himself: write the legends of the House of Osman, for seven of your forebears lived together with this dynasty. The editors quote exactly this couplet when they note that seven generations of Âşıkpaşazâde's ancestors had lived alongside the Ottoman line down to his day. The "seven forebears" of the couplet may be compared with the chain of descent the author listed in the introduction: Şeyh Yahya, Şeyh Selman, Âşık Paşa, Muhlis Paşa and Baba İlyas. This line is tied to the district of Amasya through the village of Elvan Çelebi; details are on the page Âşıkî (Âşıkpaşazâde). The refrain "geçdi" is kept in all five couplets.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 446 (transliterated text, bâb 94).
  • Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, "Önsöz" and "Hayatı ve 'Tarih'iyle Âşık Paşazade", in Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 25-48.