Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Cüneyd'üñ defterini yırtdı Hamza
Hisârın aldı 'ömrin yıkdı Hamza
Anuñ Kurd oglını bil tavuk itdi
Anı bir dilküye bogdurdı Hamza
Murâd Han hâyını düzmeye vardı
Anuñdur kanını kim dökdi Hamza

In English

1. Hamza tore up Cüneyd's register; he took his fortress and pulled down his life.

2. Know that he made his Wolf son a hen; he had him strangled by a fox, did Hamza.

3. Murad Han went against that traitor, the Pretender's man; it is Hamza who shed his blood.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Before İpsili

İzmiroğlu's story closes in the ninety-fifth chapter. Oruç Beg has died and the governorship-general has passed to Hamza Beg. The paşas send him a letter: let him march against İzmiroğlu together with Yahşı Beg, the sancak of Saruhan and the sancak of Bursa, and let him on no account be slack. The army reaches the district of İpsili; İzmiroğlu too gathers his troops and comes, and there is a hard fight. İzmiroğlu's son Kurt Hasan chases one wing of the army and draws off; few troops remain with Cüneyd. Hamza Beg advances on Cüneyd; Cüneyd, "being ritually impure, to wash", flees into his fortress. His son is caught on his return. The fortress is besieged for a long time; at last Cüneyd comes out under oath that he will be sent to the khan. When he enters Hamza Beg's tent he sees his son sitting there. Yahşı Beg rises, seizes Cüneyd by the collar, takes him to his own tent, sends for the executioner, first has his son's throat cut before Cüneyd's eyes, then has Cüneyd beheaded. The two heads are shown to the fortress and the fortress surrenders.

Hen and Fox

At the end of every couplet the refrain "Hamza" names the owner of the victory, while the bloody scene is told through images of the hunt. In the first couplet Hamza tears up Cüneyd's register, that is, the record of a principality is erased. The second plays on a name: Cüneyd's son is called "Kurt", Wolf, Hasan, but Hamza has turned this wolf into a hen and had him strangled by a fox. Whether the "fox" stands for Cüneyd or for Yahşı Beg, who took revenge, the text does not say outright. The third couplet recalls Cüneyd as the traitor who helped the Pretender Mustafa and shows Hamza as the one who shed his blood. Âşıkpaşazâde tells without comment of the son killed before his father's eyes; but by recalling once more Cüneyd's role in the days of the Pretender, he presents this end as a settling of accounts.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 447-448 (transliterated text, bâb 95).