Photo: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0

Manzume 120 — Şarâb-ı rahmet içdi bil şehîdler

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 14 October 2026 • 3 min reading

The martyrs' passage to the palace of permanence: Evrenezoğlu İsa Beg's raiders fall in Albania on roads cut by İskender, once the khan's page, now in rebellion.

Contents 4

1Original Ottoman Turkish Text
2In English
3Literary and Historical Commentary
4Bibliography

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Şarâb-ı rahmet içdi bil şehîdler
Sırâtı kuş gibi geçdi şehîdler

Fenâ mülkinde karâr itmediler
Bekā sarâyına göçdi şehîdler

Tecellî-yi o zât bunlaruñ oldı
Anuñçun 'ömrini biçdi şehîdler

In English

1. Know that the martyrs drank the wine of mercy; the martyrs crossed the Bridge like birds.

2. They made no stay in the realm of transience; the martyrs moved to the palace of permanence.

3. The manifestation of that Essence became theirs; for that the martyrs reaped their lives.

Literary and Historical Commentary

İskender

The khan's words one day, "Let us campaign against Kocacuk Hisarı," open the hundred and tenth chapter; Evrenezoğlu İsa Beg is sent ahead: "Go and give my raiders their fill." İsa Beg enters the interior of Albania and sends out raiders; but the infidels are ready and at once block the roads. The man who cuts the roads is one named İskender; he is the son of the lord of Albania, but in origin a page of the khan's inner palace. The khan had given him that land as a timar, and then he rebelled against the khan. Seeing the roads blocked, the gazis first kill the captives, then fight the infidels until their arrows are spent and their swords notched; most of the gazis fall as martyrs, but many lands are conquered too. The author adds that on that day, in 846 (1442), the sun was totally eclipsed at the hour of afternoon prayer.

The Palace of Permanence

In three couplets the defeat becomes a praise of martyrdom. The martyrs have drunk the wine of mercy and crossed the Bridge of Sırat like birds. The second couplet contrasts the transient world with the palace of permanence: the martyrs did not stay in the passing realm but moved to the eternal palace. In the third couplet the martyrs are said to have reaped their lives for the manifestation of God; "ömrini biçdi", reaped his life, is an image of harvest and shows valour as a crop. The refrain "şehîdler" recurs in all three couplets. The İskender named in the chapter is a lord raised in the Ottoman palace who later rebelled in Albania; the work keeps his story short and names it only as the treachery of a "page".