Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Aldı 'Osmân Bilecük'i hey yâr
Yarhisâr'ı içinde her ne ki var
Milk ü mâlın tasarruf itdi kamu
Nasîb itdi 'inâyet-i Gaffâr
Şular kim haraca mutî' degüldür
İşleri pür hîle vü mekkâr
Gāzi 'Osmân ki itdi hîle buña
Bilür-idi ki bular-ıdı gaddâr
Gāzi 'Osmân ne itdiyse hak itdi
Yine ider kâfirlere tekrâr

In English

1. O friend, Osman took Bilecik; Yarhisar too, with whatever was in it.

2. He took possession of all its land and wealth; the favour of the All-Forgiving granted it.

3. Those who will not submit to paying tribute: their deeds are full of trickery and deceit.

4. If Gazi Osman played a trick on them, he knew they were treacherous.

5. Whatever Gazi Osman did, he did rightly; he will do it to the infidels again and again.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Defence

Of the eleven couplets given in the edition under the heading "Nazım", the first six praise Lülüfer Hatun with the rhyme "-akdan"; these five move to the rhyme "-âr" and the subject changes too. Giving the second piece on a separate page is a choice based on this change of rhyme and subject; the edition does not show whether the manuscripts mark any division between the two. The couplets sum up the taking of Bilecik and Yarhisar and pass at once to a defence. The wedding raid was a trick; the verse does not deny it, but justifies it by the other side's treachery. The deeds of those who will not submit to tribute are "full of trickery and deceit"; Osman used a ruse because he knew they were "treacherous". In the last couplet this conduct becomes a principle: whatever Osman did, he did rightly, and he will do it to the infidels again.

The Moral of a Dynastic Narrative

How Âşıkpaşazâde legitimises the founding of the Ottoman state can be seen plainly in this defence. As Emine Sonnur Özcan has pointed out, the discourse of sovereignty in the work is largely placed in the verse lines; while the prose tells the event, the poem passes judgement on it. In the prose of the chapter the people returning to their villages are said to be more at ease than in the infidel's day; the verse builds the moral justification of the conquest. The attribute "Gaffâr" in the second couplet is one of the divine names that also appear in the prayer of Mesnevi 2.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 338 (transliterated text, bâb 13).
  • Emine Sonnur Özcan, "Âşıkpaşazâde Târihi'nde Osmanlı Hâkimiyet Söylemi ve Terminolojisi", OTAM, no. 38, 2015, pp. 141-156. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2160438

Online sources