Photo: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0

Manzume 50 — Zî hôş dem devlet-i guzzât açıldı

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

Raiding by night from a small fort on the Maritsa, Hacı İlbegi traps the tekfur of Dimetoka and takes the town while Gazi Evrenez takes Keşan: four couplets.

Contents 4

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

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Zî hôş dem devlet-i guzzât açıldı
Bulara fazl-ı Hak rahmet saçıldı

Yöneldükleri yön bil Hakk'a togrı
Veger çok tag u taş biller geçildi

Cihet-i dünyâ 'ukbî cümle ma'mûr
Ne menzile ki Hak guzzât geçürdi

Veger İlbeg veger Evrân-ı Gāzi
Du'â bunlara bil makbûl geçildi

In English

1. What a happy time, the fortune of the gazis opened up; mercy from God's grace was scattered upon them.

2. Know that the direction they turned to is straight towards God, though many mountains, stones and passes were crossed.

3. Both the worldly side and the side of the hereafter are all flourishing, whatever stage God made the gazis pass.

4. Be it İlbeg or Gazi Evrenez, know that prayer for them was accepted.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Small Fort on the Maritsa

Hacı İlbegi, in the forty-third chapter, takes a small fort on the bank of the Maritsa. By day he enters this little fortress, by night he rides out with the gazis and harasses the infidels round about until morning. One night the tekfur of Dimetoka sets out to catch him; but Hacı İlbegi has learned of it in advance through his spies. He takes the tekfur unawares and seizes him, brings him to the foot of the fortress and shows him to the people; they pledge not to kill the tekfur and to let him go wherever he wishes with his son, daughter and wife. On this pledge the people of the fortress hand over Dimetoka. At the same time Gazi Evrenez has taken the fortress of Keşan and is battering İpsala.

The Stages of the Gazis

The successes of two frontier lords meet within a single frame of prayer. The second and third couplets use the language of the journey: direction, mountain, stone, pass, stage. Every road of the gazis leads to God, and every stage they pass is flourishing for this world and the next. The last couplet names the two together: İlbeg and "Evrân-ı Gāzi", that is Gazi Evrenez. Evrenez's name is written here in a form shortened for the metre. Açıldı, saçıldı, geçildi, geçürdi, geçildi: the refrain rests on the suffixes "-ldı/-ldi". The use of the verb "geçildi" twice with different meanings, was crossed and was accepted, is a small play on words.