Âşıkî, Manzume 175: Fethi şâhuñ olınsun dâyim

Manzume 175 — Fethi şâhuñ olınsun dâyim

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

Five couplets signed Âşıkî on Bayezid II's taking of Kilia and Akkerman in 889, just before the closing note of 26 Receb 890 that ends the S manuscript.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Fethi şâhuñ olınsun dâyim
'Ömri uzun devleti kāyim

Şâh pîr görsün ogullarını müdâm
Bu du'âdur o tertîb dâyim

Sen kabûl it du'âmı yâ Allâh
Nezrüm olsun olam bir ay sâyim

Âşıkî yaz menâkıbını hanuñ
Dimesünler saña gâfil ü nâdim

Kim okursa bu târîhi bir dem
Göñline girmesün anuñ hîç gam

In English

1. May the shah's conquests ever be; his life long, his reign enduring.

2. May the shah see his sons grown old, ever; this prayer is ever in this order.

3. O God, accept my prayer; let it be my vow that I will fast a month.

4. Âşıkî, write the legends of the khan, that they may not call you heedless and regretful.

5. Whoever reads this history for a moment, let no grief at all enter his heart.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Kilia and Akkerman

Kilia and Akkerman fall to Bayezid II during the Moldavian campaign of the hundred and sixty-first chapter. The Wallachian army joins the campaign; the khan of the Steppe has also come to serve and is given gifts too. The sovereign's banner of Islam is planted at Akkerman and the drums of Islam are beaten; trusted men enter the town and bring out the captives to be taken from the fortress. The sovereign grants some of them to the troops and deports some to Constantinople and some to Eski Biga in Anatolia. Churches are made mosques, the empty houses of the deportees are given to the gazis, a kadı is appointed, the sermon is read and the Friday prayer performed. Here the author pronounces a judgement on the dynasty: "Of the line of the House of Osman, each who comes has ever had greater fortune than the one before"; the proof is that God grants to the sons the fortresses their fathers could not take. The date is 889 (1484).

The End of the Work

This verse holds a special place in the structure of the work. Right after it comes the closing note: "The completion of these legends was finished in the year of the Hegira eight hundred and ninety, on the twenty-sixth day of the month of Receb, on a Sunday." According to the edition's introduction, the S manuscript ends with this note; the chapters after it are taken from another manuscript (A1) and give the impression of additions by other hands. In that case this verse is the last poem of the text as closed by the author's own hand. The couplets are a prayer: may the shah's conquests ever be, his life long, his reign enduring; may he see his sons grown old. The third couplet carries a personal vow: if his prayer is accepted, the author will fast for a month. In the fourth he counsels himself to write the legends, so that no one may call him heedless and regretful. The last turns to the reader: may no grief enter the heart of whoever reads this history for a moment. Dâyim, kāyim, dâyim, sâyim and nâdim meet on the "-âyim/-âim" rhyme.