Âşıkî, Manzume 181: Kanı bunlar ki sûret baglamışdı

Manzume 181 — Kanı bunlar ki sûret baglamışdı

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

Four couplets signed Âşıkî ending the chapter on the viziers' works, which records that Bayezid Paşa and Hızır Ağaoğlu Mehmed Paşa each built an imaret in Amasya.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Kanı bunlar ki sûret baglamışdı
Bulardan niçe gülen aglamışdı

Bular milk kendünüñ oldı sanurdı
Yalan hayâle göñül baglamışdı

Bular gitdi hayâli bunda kaldı
Bu hayâl niçe cânlar taglamışdı

'Âşıkî bu menâkıbı ki yazduñ
Niçeler buña târîh baglamışdı

In English

1. Where are they who had taken on a form; of them many a one who laughed had wept.

2. They thought the realm had become their own; they had bound their hearts to a false fancy.

3. They are gone, their fancy has remained here; this fancy had seared many a soul.

4. Âşıkî, to these legends that you wrote, many had composed a chronogram.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Viziers' Works

The viziers of the Ottoman court are counted one by one, with their names and works, in the hundred and sixty-sixth chapter. It begins with Hayreddin Paşa: under Orhan he was kadı of Bilecik, he founded the janissaries, and he built a mosque and an imaret at İznik. Of his sons, İbrahim Paşa has this note: "When Sultan Muhammed was in Amasya he was his chief judge. When he came to Bursa he became vizier." That is, he served as chief judge to Çelebi Mehmed in his Amasya years. Amasya appears twice more in the list. One is Bayezid Paşa: "Works of Bayezid Paşa: he built an imaret in Amasya. He built a medrese in Bursa." The other is near the end of the list: "Works of Hızır Agaoğlu Muhammed Paşa: he built an imaret in Amasya." The list also names Mahmud Paşa's gift to the poor of Medina, and the overturning of endowments by Rûm Mehmed and Nişancı Paşa. Here the author records his own question too: "Why were the endowments and properties made under the law of Muhammed abolished?" The answer he receives is a harsh rebuke: "What have they taken of yours, that you ask such a question?" The list ends with Fenârîoğlu Ahmed Paşa, of whom it is said, "he too has it in mind."

The Fancies That Remain

After the long list the viziers' transience is recalled. It opens with the question "where are they": where are these men who once took on a form, a being? Many of them who laughed have wept. The second couplet says they thought the realm was their own and bound their hearts to a false fancy. In the third they themselves are gone, and their fancy, that is the works they built and their names, has remained here. The last couplet turns to the author's own work: many have composed chronograms for the legends he wrote. The pen name appears here too, but the chapter itself lies in the apparently added part, so authorship remains an open question. Baglamışdı returns three times; with aglamışdı and taglamışdı it builds the "-lamışdı" refrain.