Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Bu resme kodı kānûnı 'Osmân
Ki şâkir ola andan Ganî Sübhân
Didi sultân ki Hak'dur milk anuñdur
Anuñdur virmek ü almag u dîvân
Arada biz bahâne olduk ancak
Bahâneden göründi halka bürhân
Cihâna di gelen kim bâkî kaldı
Kanı ol kim didi hanam ya sultân
Niçe gemileri gark itdi deryâ
Adı 'unsur nihâyetsüz bu 'ummân
Belürmez iz kârubânlar yitüpdür
Hemân bir ad kodı gitdi Süleymân
Sakın kim aduñ añup sögmesünler
Dilerseñ rahmet ide saña Gufrân
Cihânda çok nişân kodı gelenler
Nişânı 'adlı bedli kodı 'Osmân

In English

1. Osman laid down his law in this manner, so that God, the Rich and Glorious, might be pleased with it.

2. The sultan said: sovereignty belongs to God, it is His; giving and taking and the council are His.

3. We were only an occasion in between; through this occasion God's proof appeared to the people.

4. Say, of those who came into the world, who remained forever; where is he who said "my khan" or "my sultan".

5. The sea has sunk many ships; the element of this ocean is without end.

6. Caravans have vanished, no trace appears; Solomon too left only a name and went.

7. Take care that they do not curse you when they speak your name; if you wish, may the Forgiving have mercy on you.

8. Those who came left many signs in the world; as his sign Osman left justice and generosity.

Literary and Historical Commentary

What Is Bac?

A kadı and a subaşı have been appointed in Karacahisar, a market set up and the Friday sermon read in Osman's name when, at the start of the fifteenth chapter, the people ask for a law. A man from Germiyan comes and asks Osman to sell him the bac of the market, the due levied on goods brought to it. Osman asks "what is bac?"; the man says he takes coin from every load that comes and that this is custom. Osman asks, "Is it God's command and the Prophet's word, or did those lords do it of their own accord?", and grows angry: whatever a man earns is his own property. When the people say that those who guard the market must be given something, a due of two akçe is set on whoever brings a load and sells it, nothing on whoever does not sell. Osman further orders that a timar he has granted must not be taken away without cause and that on the holder's death it must go to his son, even if the son is small, and he curses whoever breaks his law and whoever of his descendants changes it.

The Name Left by a Law

Sovereignty belongs to God and the sultan is only an occasion: so the first three couplets lay the foundation of the law. The speaker is not named as Osman; in the lines it is "the sultan" in general who speaks. From the fourth couplet the poem turns into a lesson on transience: sunken ships, vanished caravans and the prophet Solomon, of whom only a name remains. The last two couplets tie the lesson to the law: whoever does not wish his name to be cursed must be just; and the sign Osman left is "'adl u bezl", justice and generosity. The sound "-ân" keeps the rhyme going through every couplet (Sübhân, dîvân, bürhân, sultân, 'ummân, Süleymân, Gufrân), while the refrain "'Osmân" appears in the first and last. It may be supposed that in the author's own time this standard, the timar passing to the son and the lightness of the market due, was recalled as a measure against the practice of later sultans; the text does not say so explicitly.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 341-342 (transliterated text, bâb 15).