Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gerekdür gayret İslâm gāzilerde
Ki söyleye dil anı gāzilerde
Hünerdür gayret-i dîn sakla anı
Añalar dâyim anı dillerde
Gāziler sorusuz cennete girdi
Soru virdi şehîd oldugı demde
Gāziler seyf-i İslâm saldı her dem
Makām-ı Mahmûd togrı yazılarda

In English

1. Zeal is needed in the gazis of Islam, that the tongue may speak of it in the gazis.

2. Zeal for the faith is a virtue, keep it; let them ever speak of it on their tongues.

3. The gazis entered paradise without questioning; they gave their account at the moment they were martyred.

4. The gazis swung the sword of Islam at every moment; in the writings (they were written) straight towards the Praised Station.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Golubac

After Salonica Murad's mind is on a campaign against Hungary; the hundred and fifth chapter opens with this intention. But İbrahim Beg of Karaman enters Hamidili, takes Beyşehir and seizes Şarabdar İlyas; Murad has to turn his attention there. Meanwhile the Hungarians besiege Golubac. Sinan Beg, governor-general of Rumelia, and Sinan of Vidin come with the raiders. When it is said that the horses take fright at the sound of the Hungarian cannon, Sinan of Vidin says, "Our own ears have learned the sound of cannon," mounts and calls to the gazis: "Ho, volunteer gazis, gazâ belongs to brave men, not to your women." The governor-general follows him; towards morning they attack with the takbîr, the Hungarians break, the king barely saves his head, and most of the infidels drown. The author says that in Edirne the best of the Hungarian captives sold for three hundred akçe. The reason for the lord of Karaman's dismay at this news is also explained: the lord of Karaman and the despot had agreed that the Hungarians should march from one side and Karaman from the other. The date is 837 (1433-34).

Paradise Without Questioning

The zeal heard in Sinan of Vidin's words becomes a general judgement in the couplets. The first two couplets say that zeal is a virtue to be spoken of on every tongue. The third voices the belief that martyrs enter paradise without questioning: they gave the account of the grave at the moment of their martyrdom. In the fourth couplet "Makām-ı Mahmûd" points to the praised station promised to the Prophet in the Quran; the gazis' swords write them towards that station. The refrain is "-lerde/-larda": gāzilerde, gāzilerde, dillerde, demde, yazılarda. Sinan of Vidin's saying that gazâ belongs to brave men, not to women, is one of the liveliest sentences in the work on the ethic of the gazi, and the verse sets it within a frame of divine promise.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 460-461 (transliterated text, bâb 105).