Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gazâ kim bunlar itdi hakdan oldı
'İnâyet Hâkim-i mutlakdan oldı
Bu âlüñdür gazavât bil cihânda
Atañ u hem dedeñ Gök Alp'dan oldı
Bulara han didiler hônı boldur
'Atâ vü hem kerem bunlardan oldı
Murâd Hanam Muhammed Bâyezîd Han
Murâd u Orhan u 'Osmân'dan oldı
İlâhî fazl u ihsânuñ bu âle
Mü'ebbed it 'atâsı senden oldı

In English

1. The gazâ these men waged came from God; favour came from the absolute Judge.

2. Know that the gazâs of the world belong to this house; your father and grandfather came from Gök Alp.

3. They called them khans; their table is plentiful; giving and generosity came from them.

4. I am Murad Han; Muhammed, Bayezid Han; came from Murad and Orhan and Osman.

5. O God, may Your grace and bounty be upon this house; make it everlasting, its giving came from You.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Forty-Five Days

The campaign against Hungary begins in the hundred and ninth chapter. He first sends a man to the despot: he will cross into Hungary by way of Smederevo, let the preparations be complete. Word goes to Dracul of Wallachia too: let him gather his army and come, or Murad will not be slow to march against him. Dracul says, "Fortunate khan, I am ready to lead my sultan's horse and dog." Murad reaches Vidin with a great army, and all the raiders of Rumelia cross at Vidin too. Several fortresses are taken in Hungary and they go as far as Sibiu; for forty-five days they roam the land of Hungary and return by way of Wallachia. On the way back Dracul acts as guide, on the way out the Serbian despot's army led the van. No infidel comes out against them.

A Genealogy

After the raid comes a count of the Ottoman line. The second couplet ties the root of the dynasty to Gök Alp; the fourth counts the chain backwards: Murad Han, Mehmed, Bayezid Han, Murad, Orhan, Osman. This count is a short verse repetition of the long genealogy at the beginning of the work, and presents gazâ as the inheritance of the line. "Hônı boldur", their table is plentiful, in the third couplet points again to the virtue of generosity. The fifth couplet is a prayer: may God's grace be ever upon this house. The refrain "oldı" is kept in all five couplets; the rhyme is built on the words hakdan, mutlakdan, Gök Alp'dan, bunlardan, 'Osmân'dan, senden.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 465 (transliterated text, bâb 109).