Photo: Elelicht, CC BY-SA 3.0

Manzume 45 — Gāziler geçdi kâfir milkine hôş

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

Three couplets on Süleyman Paşa crossing on a raft from Aydıncık to the Rumelian shore, taking Çimbini and Ayaşolonya and founding the Gallipoli frontier.

Contents 4

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

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gāziler geçdi kâfir milkine hôş
Niçe kâfir sarâyın itdiler boş

Çün Rûm iline kim geçdi Süleymân
Gāziler ıbrıkı hep oldı mevcûş

Gümiş altun çog oldı ellerinde
Melâmet gitdi oldı cümle bî-hûş

In English

1. The gazis crossed handsomely into the infidel's realm; many an infidel palace they emptied.

2. When Süleyman crossed into the land of Rûm, all the gazis' ewers became gilded.

3. Silver and gold grew plentiful in their hands; reproach was gone, all were beside themselves.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Crossing to Rumelia

Süleyman Paşa's crossing to Rumelia is told in this section of the chapter. At Aydıncık, at the place called "Temâşâlık", the Lookout, Süleyman Paşa gazes at the sea and thinks of crossing; with Ece Beg and Gazi Fâzıl a raft is made and they cross by night to the opposite shore. Near the fortress of Çimbini an infidel is seized, and under his guidance the fortress is taken; its people are given safety and its boatmen are put into boats to bring over more men. One night the fortress of Ayaşolonya is taken too. Süleyman Paşa has the houses of the infidel cavalrymen moved to the province of Karasi. The infidels of Gallipoli attack and are routed; Yakub Ece and Gazi Fâzıl are left as a siege force against Gallipoli and settle at Bolayır.

Golden Ewers

The three couplets tell the joy of booty. Infidel palaces have been emptied and gold and silver have multiplied in the gazis' hands. "Ibrık" in the second couplet is a water ewer; "mevcûş" can be read in this phrase as gilded or chased. The replacement of the gazis' plain vessels by gold-plated ewers is a small, concrete image of the passage from want to plenty. "Melâmet gitdi" in the last line means that reproach and hardship have gone, and "bî-hûş" means beside oneself, drunk with joy. In the rhyme hôş pairs with boş, mevcûş with bî-hûş. The crossing to Rumelia is one of the turning points of Ottoman history; Âşıkpaşazâde chooses to tell this moment through the gains of the gazis and leaves its strategic side untouched.