Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Bu 'ömür seksen altı oldugında
Bâyezîd Han Bogdan'a agdugında
Çözüp sancakları kösler çalındı
Gönilüp devletilen gitdüginde
Hücûm-ı devleti tutdı cihânı
Turup İstanbol'dan çıkdugında
Menâkıb yazmaga defter çıkardum
Beyân itdüm nişânın buldugumda
Yidi hutbe sekiz han Bâyezîd'de
O cum'a gün gazâya gitdüginde
Kalem tutdum menâkıbı ki yazdum
Kulak tut sen Âşıkî didüginde

In English

1. When this life reached eighty-six, when Bayezid Han set out for Moldavia,

2. When the banners were unfurled and the great drums were beaten, when he set forth with fortune and departed,

3. When the onset of his fortune filled the world, when he rose and left Constantinople,

4. I took out a register to write the legends; I told them when I found their traces.

5. In Bayezid there are seven sermons and eight khans; when he went out to gazâ on that Friday,

6. Lend your ear to the legends I wrote, pen in hand, when Âşıkî speaks.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Birth Date of the Book

What became of the tekfur of Aydos and his daughter is told in the twenty-seventh chapter. Gazi Rahman hands both over with their wealth to Orhan at Yenişehir, and Orhan gives the girl to Gazi Rahman. The author adds a note here: the Karaca Rahman spoken of in his own day is of Gazi Rahman's line, and did such deeds against Constantinople that when children cried their mothers would frighten them with "Don't cry, look, Karaca Rahman is coming." Then he turns to the reader: "O dear ones, by God, all these legends I have written I wrote from what my knowledge reaches; do not think I wrote idle tales." The couplets are added to this oath.

Eighty-Six Years and the Moldavian Campaign

One of the rare records of when the work was begun lies in these couplets. The author is eighty-six; Bayezid Han has turned towards Moldavia, the banners are unfurled, the great drums beaten, and the sultan has left Constantinople. This is the campaign of 889 (1484), told in the hundred and sixty-first chapter of the work, in which Kilia and Akkerman were taken. It agrees with "heştâd u şeş", eighty-six years, in the published Mesnevi 1. The entry in the TDV encyclopaedia likewise puts the author at about eighty-five in 1484, when he completed his history. "Yidi hutbe sekiz han", seven sermons and eight khans, in the fifth couplet may be read as a count of the eight rulers from Osman to Bayezid and the sermons read in their names; at the end of the work too it is said of Bayezid that "the eighth was read". Setting out to gazâ on a Friday stresses that the campaign began on an auspicious day. In the closing couplet the pen name stands as the signature of the book's owner and calls the reader to listen. This and other information on the author's life is gathered on the page Âşıkî (Âşıkpaşazâde).

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 359 (transliterated text, bâb 27).
  • Abdülkadir Özcan, "Âşıkpaşazâde", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 4, Istanbul 1991, pp. 6-7. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/asikpasazade

Online sources