Original Ottoman Turkish Text
'Adûya varmaga er gerekdür
Hem adın sakınur server gerekdür
Sakına dîninüñ gayretini hôş
Kemâl-i lutfa ol mazhar gerekdür
Sirâc-ı İslâm ol han gāziye
O Türkmân ne'yledi bilmek gerekdür
In English
1. To go against the enemy a man is needed; and a chief who guards his good name is needed.
2. Let him guard well the zeal of his faith; he must be one on whom the perfection of grace is shown.
3. That gazi khan is the lamp of Islam; it is needful to know what that Turkmen did.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The Reign of Sultan Bayezid
The hundred and seventy-seventh chapter bears the heading "the reign of Sultan Bayezid Han Gazi". Cem goes to Egypt; the Egyptian does not let him settle at the Kaaba, and Cem ends up in the land of the infidels. Bayezid counts this a fault of Egypt. The sultan of Egypt sends troops against Alâeddevle many times and is beaten each time. At last he brings out a great army and sends Arab tribes too, paying them. Alâeddevle clings to Bayezid's skirt: if he is given a sancak force as companions, he will conquer the Arab province and bind it to the sovereign. Bayezid trusts him and gives him a sancak force. Near the fortress of Horman there is a great battle with the Arab army from morning till mid-morning; the governor of Aleppo is beheaded, and the great chamberlain, the lords of Rumkale, Birecik and Antep and many Arab lords are taken and sent to Bayezid. The sultan's slaves who came from Egypt go off towards Malatya without fighting. Alâeddevle says to the governor, "These sultan's slaves are our prey," and sets off after them. In the pass of Malatya the slaves have laid an ambush; Alâeddevle notices it and flees without warning. The governor is caught off guard and routed, and his camp is plundered by Alâeddevle's Turkmens. The date is 887.
That Turkmen
The betrayal is held up to a measure. To go against the enemy a man is needed, and a chief who guards his good name. The second couplet says such a chief must guard the zeal of his faith and be one on whom the perfection of grace is shown. The last names Bayezid the lamp of Islam and ends with a warning: it is needful to know what that Turkmen did. "That Turkmen" is Alâeddevle; the author condemns his flight without warning without naming him. The Yavuz and Saraç edition places this piece in its appendix. The refrain is "gerekdür" again, repeated in every couplet.
Bibliography
- Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 580 (transliterated text, bâb 177).
