Âşıkî, Manzume 150: Cihânda ne ola kim olmamışdur

Manzume 150 — Cihânda ne ola kim olmamışdur

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

Four couplets in the chapter where Koyulhisar is taken with cannon, and the author, asked as a dervish, explains the azaps' misdeeds and the army's twelve classes.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Cihânda ne ola kim olmamışdur
Yu kulak işidüp göz görmemişdür

Bu insân kim ider hayr u şerden
Ne ola ol kim insân gelmemişdür

Yavuzı idenü hayvândan ednâ
Dinildi "bel adall" mı olmamışdur

Ve hem bil bu 'azab kim ne gürûhdur
Niçe aylar yüzini yumamışdur

In English

1. What is there in the world that has not happened; or that ear has not heard and eye not seen.

2. (Much) does man do of good and evil; what could there be that man has not come to.

3. The evildoer was called lower than the beasts; was it not said, "nay, more astray".

4. And know too what sort of rabble these azaps are; for many months they have not washed their faces.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Koylıhisar

The story of Koylıhisar, that is Koyulhisar, in the hundred and thirty-fourth chapter begins with a look back: Uzun Hasan had earlier seized Hüseyin Beg, lord of the fortress, and taken it. While Hamza Beg, governor-general of Rumelia, besieges the fortress, the azaps commit unlawful acts in an Armenian village nearby; the Armenian priests complain to Uzun Hasan: in the time of their former lord such "filthiness" never befell them, and now, in the time of so mighty a sovereign as he, such things have been done to their wives and husbands. Years later, after taking Sinop, the Conqueror marches against Koylıhisar and sets up cannon on every side; when a few shots strike the fortress the people lose their wits and surrender it. The sovereign places his own slaves inside.

O Dervish

The most interesting place in the chapter is where the author answers a question put to him: "If they say, O dervish, why did these azaps commit such unlawful acts? This was not fitting for the army of the House of Osman." The answer describes the shape of the Ottoman army: the Ottoman soldiery is of twelve classes, each company belonging to a particular people; since the azaps march on the sovereign's pay, nothing is forbidden them in any province, and they harass as they please the peoples who deceive the sovereign, until that region submits to him. The couplets follow this explanation and say two things together. The first three couplets tell how inclined man is to evil; "bel adall" in the third couplet alludes to the Quranic phrase "nay, more astray" and says that the evildoer is lower than the beasts. The last couplet turns to the azaps and ends with a scornful detail: they are a rabble who have not washed their faces for months. Though the author explains the azaps' conduct in the prose, he does not praise them in the verse. Every couplet closes on the negative past refrain "-mamışdur/-memişdür".