Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Cihana Hak halîfe itdi hanı
Kemer-beste kulı şâhān-ı cihânı
Hilâfet tahtı üzre han-ı guzât
Münevver idici milk-i îmânı
Muhammed Han oglı Bâyezîd Han
Giderdi dünyeden şekk ü gümânı
'Arab hem 'Acem ve Hind ü Bulgar
Mutî'idür bu mahlûk bu zamânı
Dinildi dürlü diller 'âlem içre
'Âşıkî'dür menâkıb tercümânı

In English

1. God made the khan caliph over the world; the shahs of the world are his slaves with girded loins.

2. The khan of the gazis, on the throne of the caliphate, is the one who lights up the realm of faith.

3. Bayezid Khan, son of Muhammed Khan, removed doubt and supposition from the world.

4. Arab and Persian, Indian and Bulgar; the people of this age have submitted (to him).

5. All manner of tongues were spoken in the world; the interpreter of the legends is Âşıkî.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Medrese in Amasya

The heading of the hundred and sixty-fifth chapter is short: "Âsâr-ı haslet-i Sultân Bâyezîd Han-ı Gāzi", the works and virtues of Bayezid II. The chapter begins by listing the buildings he had built, and Amasya comes first: "In Amasya he built a lofty medrese and an imaret." Then come the bridge over the Kızılırmak at Osmancık, the imaret at Tokat, and at Edirne a medrese, an imaret, an asylum and a bridge over the Tundzha. That the list opens with Amasya takes on meaning when one recalls that Bayezid spent his years as prince there. Bayezid's works in Amasya and his years as prince are told on the Bayezid II page. The chapter also records that Bayezid reversed a practice of the Conqueror's reign: the honours that "the Greek vizier" had abolished were set up again according to Ottoman law, and the poor who came went away rich. The endowments and properties that the vizier called "of a slanderous line" had overturned were also returned to their owners. At the end of the chapter it is told that envoys from the Hungarians, the Poles, Wallachia, the Franks, the Tatars and the Circassian lords, from the sultan of Egypt and the sovereign of India came before the sovereign at the same time.

The Interpreter of the Legends

Here Bayezid is caliph of the world: the shahs of the world are his slaves with girded loins, and on the throne of the caliphate he lights up the realm of faith. The fourth couplet links to the list of envoys in the prose: Arab, Persian, Indian and Bulgar have submitted to him. The last ends with a bold claim: all manner of tongues have been spoken in the world, but the interpreter of the legends is Âşıkî. Though it bears the pen name Âşıkî, the piece belongs to chapters the edition's introduction assigns to other hands. After hanı, cihânı, îmânı, gümânı and zamânı the series ends on "tercümânı", the title the pen name claims for itself.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 559-560 (transliterated text, bâb 165).