Photo: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0

Manzume 42 — Sürüldi tedbîri Karasi gitdi

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

The Karasi heir flees to Bergama, his brother is shot before the fortress and Karasi passes to Orhan in 735 (1335), all told in four couplets in the language of chess.

Contents 4

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

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Sürüldi tedbîri Karasi gitdi
Yazıldı defteri Orhan'ı tutdı

Bu çarhuñ ferzini atdı Karasi
Çün Orhan şâhı sürdi mât itdi

Cihânda kende pîle kaldı tolaşdı
Ecel atın binüp kemendin atdı

Dürüldi Karasi defteri yandı
Yiñi defter ki Gāzi kâtib itdi

In English

1. Karasi's plans were played out, Karasi went; his register was written, it fell to Orhan.

2. Karasi threw away the vizier of this wheel; when Orhan moved the king he gave checkmate.

3. In the world he was left wandering with his elephant; he mounted the horse of death and threw his lasso.

4. Karasi's register was rolled up and burned; the new register the Gazi wrote as its scribe.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Death Before Bergama

When Orhan and the Karasi heir at his side reach Balıkesir, as the thirty-sixth chapter tells, the brother there flees into the fortress of Bergama. The brother with Orhan approaches the walls to speak with the one inside; but he is shot unawares with an arrow and falls dead without a sound. This weighs heavily on Orhan. At once it is proclaimed, "Know, this land is now, in safety and security, Orhan Gazi's"; the people submit and the old timar holders renew their warrants. The conquest is dated to 735 (1334-35).

A Game of Chess

The language of the couplets is taken from the chessboard. "Ferz" is the vizier, the queen, in chess; Karasi has thrown this piece out of the game, that is, lost his own family, his brother. Orhan moves the king and gives "mât", checkmate. "Pîl" in the third couplet is the elephant, the bishop; Karasi left wandering with only his elephant describes a player who has lost his strength. In the same line the images of "the horse of death" and "the lasso" move from chess to death. The image of the "register" in the first and last couplets is the most concrete expression of sovereignty in the language of the work: a province's register of timars. Karasi's register is rolled up and burned, and Orhan writes the new register as "scribe". This corresponds directly to the renewal of timar warrants in the prose. The work returns to the chess comparison in the hundred and twentieth chapter, in a longer verse on the occasion of Murad II marrying his son.