Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gereklüdür yiñiçeri kapuda
Ki hanı gözleyeler her tapuda
Bular mâl oglıdur hanlarına bil
Irakdur gayrı çeri bil ha bu da

In English

1. Janissaries are needed at the Porte, to watch over the khan at every threshold.

2. Know that these are the property-sons of their khans; other troops are far off, know this.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Fifth and the Janissaries

Murad Han's arrangements after he took his seat on the throne of Edirne are the subject of the forty-fifth chapter. Lala Şahin is sent towards Zağra and Filibe, Evrenez towards İpsala. One day a learned man from Karaman named Kara Rüstem comes to the military judge Çandarlı Halil and says, "Sir, why do you let so much of the khan's property go to waste?": of the captives the gazis take, one in five belongs to the khan according to God's command. Halil puts this before the khan, who says, "If it is in God's command, do it." Kara Rüstem settles at Gallipoli and takes twenty-five akçe for each captive; Evrenez too is told to take one fifth of the captives brought from his raids. For the boys collected Halil Paşa proposes a course: let them first be given to Turks to learn Turkish, then be brought to the Porte and made janissaries. So the janissaries increase, become Muslims and put on the white cap; their name, "having been ezel çeri, old troops, is made yeñiçeri, new troops". The introduction to the edition also notes that Âşıkpaşazâde gives ample space to custom and usage; this chapter records the birth of an institution.

"Property-Sons"

The function of the janissaries is defined in the two couplets: to be at the Porte and to watch over the khan everywhere. The phrase "mâl oglı", property-son, in the second couplet gives away the origin of the corps; it says that the janissaries come from the captives of the fifth, who count as the khan's property, that is, they are the khan's own slaves. "Irakdur gayrı çeri", other troops are far off: the other soldiers, the timar-holding cavalry and the frontier raiders, are not so close to the khan. These two couplets state concisely why a standing army of slaves was considered more reliable in its loyalty to a ruler.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 383 (transliterated text, bâb 45).
  • Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, "Önsöz" and "Hayatı ve 'Tarih'iyle Âşık Paşazade", in Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 25-48.