Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Çözüldi sancak çalındı kösler
Bu begler birbirin gör niçe gözler
Yörüdiler gazâya niyyet idüp
Buluşmada vü oldı şimdi sözler
Gāziler kıldı at üzre namâzı
O han itdi Hak-ıla çok niyâzı
Didi Hakkā dîn-i İslâm senüñdür
İtâ'at hazrete togrı benümdür
Veger ben bahr-ı 'isyân-ıla garkam
'İnâyet lutfı hem ihsân senüñdür
Niyâz itdi vü küffâra buluşdı
İki 'asker biri birle turuşdı

In English

1. The banner was unfurled, the great drums were beaten; see how these lords watch one another.

2. They marched out intending gazâ; now words are left to the meeting.

3. The gazis prayed on horseback; that khan pleaded much with God.

4. He said: "O God, the faith of Islam is Yours; obedience towards Your presence is mine.

5. Though I be drowned in the sea of rebellion, grace, kindness and favour are Yours."

6. He prayed and met the infidels; the two armies stood face to face.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Lazar's Letter

Murad Han's contest with the king of the Laz, that is the Serbian king Lazar, is told in the fifty-sixth chapter. Lazar sends an envoy to the khan: "Come, let us meet at Kosovo, and bring your sons too"; he himself will bring his son. They will either fight or make peace; whatever God's decree may be will be accepted. In his letter he addresses the khan as "my brother khan", sends many gifts and says, "come well equipped". Murad takes his two sons with him: Bayezid, who held Kütahya and the sancak of Hamidili, and Yakub Çelebi, who held the sancak of Karasi. The lords of all the provinces are ordered to gather troops and come.

Prayer Before Battle

The next stage of the prose is told this time in verse: the unfurling of the banners, the beating of the drums, the march, the prayer said on horseback and the khan's plea. The fourth and fifth couplets are given as a prayer in Murad's own words: the faith is God's, obedience is the servant's; though the servant be drowned in the sea of rebellion, grace comes from God. This prayer draws the portrait of a ruler who before battle knows himself a sinner and ties victory to divine grace alone; it is a fitting last word for Murad, who will fall as a martyr at Kosovo. The rhyme is renewed from couplet to couplet: kösler with gözler, idüp with sözler, namâzı with niyâzı, senüñdür with benümdür. In this respect the couplets approach the mesnevi manner; "buluşdı" and "turuşdı" in the last couplet render the meeting of the two armies through likeness of sound.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 392-393 (transliterated text, bâb 56).