Âşıkî, Manzume 109: Şarâb içdi bu Türkmân serhoş oldı

Manzume 109 — Şarâb içdi bu Türkmân serhoş oldı

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 14 October 2026 • 4 min reading

A feast that ends in mourning: the Kızılkocaoğulları, who cut the roads of Amasya and Tokat, are lured to Amasya by Yörgüç Paşa, seized at a feast and killed.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Şarâb içdi bu Türkmân serhoş oldı
Evinde 'avratı olan boş oldı

Yidi içdi döküldi yatdı Türkmân
Kazâya ogradı her ki tuş oldı

Didiler Yörgüç'üñ konuklıgıdur
Anuñ ni'meti kahr u mâr şiş oldı

Kızılkocalular iller yıkardı
Yıkıldı 'ömri kaygulu kış oldı

Tagıldı illere 'avrat u eri
Sorar birbirine kim ne iş oldı

Kanı bu dört beg oglı hanlarumuz
Kırıldı çerimüz nuht savaş oldı

In English

1. This Turkmen drank wine and grew drunk; the wife he had at home was left alone.

2. The Turkmen ate, drank, sprawled and lay down; whoever crossed his path met disaster.

3. They said, "It is Yörgüç's hospitality"; his bounty became wrath, a swollen snake.

4. The men of Kızılkoca used to ruin lands; their life was ruined, it became an anxious winter.

5. Women and men were scattered over the lands; they ask one another, "what happened."

6. "Where are these four lords' sons, our khans; our army was cut down, it was an ill-starred fight."

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Feast in Amasya

Amasya is named plainly in the heading of the ninety-eighth chapter: "This tells what the Kızılkocaoğulları did with Yörgüç in the province of Amasya and in Tokat." The author begins: the province of Amasya and Tokat never had any peace from the Turkmens of the Kızılkocaoğulları; travellers could not go from one town to another unless in a crowd, and even then there was no end to their "villainy". One day Yörgüç Paşa devises a trick: he prepares a false envoy speaking in the khan's name and has a letter written to the four brothers, with gifts. In the letter the khan tells them to march with his tutor Yörgüç against Alparslan's Canik, then to come to Artukova and take it as their timar. The Kızılkocaoğulları are found in the province of Çorumlu; they rejoice, and four hundred men gather. They make a plan among themselves: if Yörgüç comes out to meet them they will kill him, plunder the land and turn back. They come and camp on the "Merzuvan Ovası", the plain of Merzifon; Yörgüç does not come out to meet them; they are told he is "very unwell". They enter Amasya. Yörgüç's son meets them and says his father is ill and that the army stands ready at Sunsa. The four brothers are lodged in a fine place, the others in groups in various quarters; plenty of food and wine is given. At night, as they sleep drunk, first the four brothers and then the four hundred are seized, their hands bound, and put in the dungeon; the door is sealed, smoke is let in, and all of them suffocate. The four brothers are beheaded.

A Feast Turned Inside Out

In the couplets the scene becomes a wedding turned to mourning. The Turkmen drinks, grows drunk, eats and lies down; the wife he left at home is widowed. "Yörgüç'üñ konuklıgıdur", it is Yörgüç's hospitality, in the third couplet is ironic: the bounty of this hospitality has become wrath and a swollen snake. The fourth couplet is a reckoning: the Kızılkoca men who ruined lands have had their own lives ruined. The last two couplets are the voice of those left behind: women and men are scattered and ask one another what happened; where are the four lords' sons, their army is cut down, it has been an ill-starred fight. This chapter is one of the most detailed accounts of the district of Amasya in the work, and it shows Yörgüç Paşa's policy of security in Amasya in harsh terms. The refrain "oldı" is kept in all six couplets.