Photo: Zeynel Cebeci, CC BY-SA 4.0

Manzume 49 — 'Acabdur bu cihânda 'akl-ı insân

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

Five couplets on reason, patience and anger, in the chapter where Murad Han, after his brother's death, crosses to Rumelia, takes Banatoz, Çorlu and Misini and burns Bırgoz.

Contents 4

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

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

'Acabdur bu cihânda 'akl-ı insân
Kimi kâmil ü râhat kimi noksân

Bularda lutf u hiddetdür karışmış
Câhile hiddeti tîz oldı bürhân

Şuña kim fazl-ı Hak yoldaş olupdur
Tecellî eyledi göñlinde îmân

Yaramaz tîzlik itmek her kişiye
Ki alpuñ sabrı olur aña âsân

Yiri var sabr u tîzligüñ karındaş
Anuñ ehlini bul kim gide gümân

In English

1. Human reason in this world is a wondrous thing; some are perfect and at ease, some are lacking.

2. In them grace and anger are mixed; for the ignorant his anger was quick proof.

3. Whoever has God's grace as companion, faith has shone forth in his heart.

4. Haste does not become everyone; a champion's patience makes things easy for him.

5. Brother, patience and haste each have their place; find one who knows them, so that doubt may go.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Murad Han's First Campaign

What Murad Han turned to after the death of his brother Süleyman Paşa is the subject of the forty-second chapter. Murad comes to Bursa and gathers a great army from Karasi and his own lands. He makes Çandarlı Halil, who had been kadı of Bilecik, İznik and Bursa, his military judge and takes his tutor Şahin with him. He crosses from Gallipoli; the fortress of Banatoz surrenders without a fight. Çorlu resists; when the tekfur is struck in the eye by an arrow the defenders weaken, and the fortress is sacked and pulled down. The tekfur of Misini brings his son and the key of the fortress, surrenders and offers gifts; Murad gives them all to the gazis. The infidels of Bırgoz have fled; the gazis burn the empty fortress.

The Place of Patience and of Anger

The two faces of this campaign, the mildness shown to those who surrendered and the severity shown to those who resisted, become counsel about reason in the couplets. The author divides people by their reason into "perfect" and "lacking"; grace and anger are mixed in everyone, but the anger of the ignorant shows itself at once. The fourth and fifth couplets strike a balance: haste does not become everyone, and a champion's patience brings him ease; but patience and haste each have their place, and one must consult someone who knows this. "Anuñ ehlini bul", find one who knows them, in the last line can be read as an allusion to advisers such as Çandarlı Halil and Lala Şahin, whom Murad took with him. The rhyme words are insân, noksân, bürhân, îmân, âsân and gümân, all ending in "-ân".