Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gāziler toyum oldı var Biligrat
Bozuldı bâguñuz ne bil ne ırgad
Senüñ horyâdlaruñ hep gāzi kırdı
Dögün sen iy kıral şapkañı tîz at
Senüñ mahbûblaruñ İslâm'a geldi
Olaruñ hüsni oldı 'ışka mir'ât

In English

1. The gazis are sated, go, Belgrade; your vineyards are ruined, neither gardener nor labourer is left.

2. The gazis have cut down all your peasants; beat your breast, O king, and quickly throw off your hat.

3. Your beauties have come to Islam; their beauty became a mirror to love.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Author on Campaign

Having toured the land of Hungary, Murad turns towards Belgrade in the hundred and eleventh chapter, for he knows that Belgrade is the gate of the Hungarian land. They make as if to fight the fortress, cross the Sava and send raiders to Biline. The gazis are so sated that a beautiful slave girl is given for a pair of boots. At this point the author tells of himself: "The poor writer too was on that campaign; I bought a boy of six or seven years for a hundred akçe." A captive able to serve with horses sells for a hundred and fifty akçe. From the raiders seven slaves and slave girls fall to the author; when the army moves, the captives outnumber the soldiers. One day the author goes before the khan; the khan gives him a captive. The author says, "Fortunate sultan, a horse is needed to carry this captive, and money for them on the road"; the khan grants him five thousand akçe and two horses. He returns to Edirne with nine captives and four horses and sells the captives for three hundred and two hundred akçe each. The author's part in some of Murad II's campaigns, and the favour he won, appear in the TDV article as well.

Addressing Belgrade

The first couplet speaks to Belgrade directly: "var Biligrat", go, Belgrade. Its vineyards are ruined, neither gardener nor labourer is left. The second couplet scorns the king: his peasants are cut down, let him beat his breast and throw off his hat. The hat appears often in the work as the emblem of European rulers. The third couplet names the beauties taken captive and says their beauty became a mirror to love; this line belongs to the same world as the detail in the prose of the slave girl given for boots. This chapter is one of the places where Âşıkpaşazâde speaks most openly as a witness and participant. That a dervish should take and sell captives may surprise today's reader, but it shows the author describing the economy of gazâ of his time as it was. "-at" is the rhyming sound: Biligrat, ırgad, at, mir'ât.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 467 (transliterated text, bâb 111).
  • Abdülkadir Özcan, "Âşıkpaşazâde", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 4, Istanbul 1991, pp. 6-7. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/asikpasazade

Online sources