Photo: Zeynel Cebeci, CC BY-SA 4.0

Manzume 188 — Ne devrân oldı devrân Han Muhammed

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

Four couplets on Mehmed II and Bayezid II, closing a list of Ottoman-era saints and scholars from Baba İlyas and Âşık Paşa to Hacı Bayram and Akşemseddin.

Contents 4

1Original Ottoman Turkish Text
2In English
3Literary and Historical Commentary
4Bibliography

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Ne devrân oldı devrân Han Muhammed
Kim oldı Rûm'a hem cân Muhammed

Anuñ eyyâm-ı devlet zamânında
Ziyâde oldı hem edyân Muhammed

Bu Âl-i 'Osmân'uñ ol serveridür
Beyânı hem yidi 'unvân Muhammed

Sekizinci okundı Bâyezîd Han
Yidi yir ma'mûr itdi ân Muhammed

In English

1. What an age was the age of Muhammed Khan; Muhammed (Khan) became the soul of Rum.

2. In the days of his reign the faith of Muhammed (the Prophet) also increased.

3. He is the chief of this House of Osman; the meaning of the seven titles is Muhammed too.

4. Bayezid Khan was proclaimed as the eighth; at that moment Muhammed made seven places flourish.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A List of Saints

This time the author is asked, "O dervish", whether there were no scholars and dervishes in the time of the House of Osman. The answer is a long list naming the scholars and dervishes of each sovereign's reign. In the time of Ertuğrul Baba İlyas Dîvâne and his deputy Koçum Seydî are named; his connection with Amasya is told on his page on the site. In Osman's time there are Tursun Fakı, Baba Muhlis and Edebalı. In Orhan's time come Dâvud-ı Kayserî, Tâceddîn-i Kürdî, Âşık Paşa, from whom the author descended and whom he calls "my lord Âşık Paşa", Giyüklü Baba, Yûnus Emre, Şeyh Tapduk Emre, Ahi Evren and Karaca Ahmed Sultan. In later reigns come names such as Şemseddîn-i Fenârî, Seyyid Muhammed-i Buhârî, Hacı Bayram, Ahmed-i Gûrânî, Akşemseddin, Hüsrev and Hocazâde. Among the dervishes of the Conqueror's reign Şeyh Abdüllatîf-i Makdisî is named as well.

Seven Titles

The praise moves from the Conqueror's reign to Bayezid. In the first two couplets the name "Muhammed" is used in a play on words: Khan Muhammed became the soul of Rum, and in his days the faith of Muhammed, the Prophet, increased. In the third the Conqueror is named chief of the House of Osman, and "yidi 'unvân", the seven titles, are explained through him. In the fourth it is said that Bayezid Khan was proclaimed "the eighth". The edition's modern Turkish version explains these numbers "seven" and "eight" by the Conqueror being the seventh sovereign and Bayezid the eighth; they may also be understood as a pointer to the order of names read in the sermon. The exact sense of the last line is obscure. The same reservation about authorship applies here: the edition counts this section among the later additions. In the first three couplets every second line ends on the name "Muhammed".