Âşıkî, Manzume 163: Ne işler oldı gör fanî cihânda

Manzume 163 — Ne işler oldı gör fanî cihânda

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

Five untitled couplets where Gedük Ahmed receives Silifke, takes the fortresses of Mokan and Lüle by storm and kills their people, saying those who lay in palaces lie buried in rotten straw.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Ne işler oldı gör fanî cihânda
Dahı çok işleri vardur nihânda

Sakın kim magrûr olma bu fenâya
Ki assı sandugın ola ziyânda

Buña 'âkil 'ârifler uymadılar
Uyanlar cümle kalmışdur yabânda

Neye kim elüñ irse añ sen ölüm
Kim añmazsañ kalursın sen gümânda

Sarây u köşk ü serîrde yatanlar
Gömüldi yatdı çok çürük samanda

In English

1. See what deeds have come to pass in the passing world; and many of its deeds are still hidden.

2. Beware, do not be proud in this transient place; what you think gain may be in loss.

3. The wise and the knowing did not follow it; those who followed it are all left in the wilderness.

4. Whatever your hand reaches, remember death; if you do not, you will remain in doubt.

5. Those who lay in palace, pavilion and on throne were buried and lay in much rotten straw.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Silifke and Mokan

Silifke falls, in the hundred and forty-seventh chapter, through an offer made from inside the castle. When İshak Beg of Karaman fled to Uzun Hasan he left his son in the castle of Silifke; his brother Pîr Ahmed had taken the castle of Mokan. İshak Beg's son sends word to the Conqueror: "Let me give Silifke to my sultan; send your man." The Conqueror trusts him and sends Gedük Ahmed with able companions. Gedük Ahmed enters İçil, goes straight to Silifke, and İshak Beg's son comes out of the fortress and surrenders the castle. Meanwhile Kasım Beg of Karaman has gone to Uzun Hasan and received troops from him. After Silifke Gedük Ahmed marches on the fortress of Mokan. Pîr Ahmed's wife and son, a little son of İshak Beg and a beautiful daughter of Muhammed Beg of Karaman are there. Gedük Ahmed takes the fortress "by force of hand", that is by storm. Then he falls on Lüle, takes it too by storm and kills its people. The date is 877 (1472-73).

Rotten Straw

The verse, untitled in the edition, comes after these scenes in which the women and children of a dynasty are dragged from one fortress to another, and recalls the transience of the world. Many deeds have come to pass in the passing world and many more are hidden. The second couplet counsels against pride in this transient place: what is thought gain may be in loss. The third says the wise and the knowing did not follow the world, and those who followed it are left in the wilderness. The fourth couplet is plain counsel: whatever your hand reaches, remember death. The last carries one of the harshest images in the work: those who lay in palace, pavilion and on throne have been buried and lie in rotten straw. This image is directly linked with the fall of the lordly families told in the prose. The rhyme passes through cihânda, nihânda, ziyânda, yabânda and gümânda and ends on "samanda", in the straw.