Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gör imdi ne'yleyiser Gāzi Orhan
O himmet alpı vü o bahr-ı 'ummân
Hareket itse kâfir mahv olurdı
Turamaz karşuya Rüstem-i Destân
Çü kal'ayı ki Bursa anı gördi
Bu Orhan'a ol oldı bâg u bostân
Ne ceng itdi ne cidâl itdi anda
Yarılmadı baş u dökülmedi kan
Asân aldı vü Bursa'yı ol Gāzi
Menâkıbı ki yazdum oldı bürhân

In English

1. See now what Gazi Orhan will do; that champion of resolve, that boundless ocean.

2. Were he to stir, the infidel would be wiped out; even Rüstem son of Destân cannot stand against him.

3. When the fortress, that is Bursa, saw him, it became a garden and an orchard to Orhan.

4. There he waged neither battle nor strife; no head was split and no blood was shed.

5. That Gazi took Bursa with ease; the legends I have written became proof (of it).

Literary and Historical Commentary

From Atranoz to Pınarbaşı

The infidels of Bursa, worn down by hunger, are looking for a pretext to give up the fortress; with this news the twenty-third chapter opens; but they wish to surrender only to a sovereign. Osman sends Orhan, and first directs him against Atranoz (Orhaneli), because the father of the tekfur of Atranoz had caused the death of Bay Hoca in the gazâ of Dinboz. With him go Köse Mihal, Turgut Alp, Aha Şeyh Mahmud and Ahı Hasan, Edebali's nephew. Hearing that the Turks are coming, the tekfur leaves the fortress empty and flees to Mount Alata; Orhan follows him on foot, and as he flees the tekfur falls from a cliff and is dashed to pieces. The castle of Atranoz is pulled down and the people are given safety. From there Orhan comes to Bursa and camps beyond the water at Pınarbaşı.

Without Bloodshed

No battle and no blood: before the news of Bursa's surrender arrives, the poem gives away its outcome. The opening "Gör imdi ne'yleyiser", see now what he will do, is a narrator's formula that draws the reader into the event and is often used in the work. In the second couplet Orhan is compared with Rüstem-i Destân, the hero of the Shahnameh; this hero of the Iranian epic is the measure of valour in Ottoman praise poetry. In the third couplet the fortress becoming "bâg u bostân", garden and orchard, to Orhan describes a besieged city turned into a garden that bears fruit. In the last couplet the author cites his own legends as proof; the effort to vouch for the truth of what he tells goes on here too.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 351-352 (transliterated text, bâb 23).