Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gazâyı Bâyezîd Han bunda itdi
Kalan kâfirlerüñ hep ödi sıtdı
Vilâyet-i Bosna Laz hem virdi harâc
Ve Arnavud'a bil çok gāzi gitdi
Didi İflak'a tîz gel çâkerüm ol
Gine İstanbol'a bir niyyet itdi

In English

1. Bayezid Han waged gazâ here; the gall of all the remaining infidels burst.

2. The province of Bosnia and the Laz too paid tribute; know that many gazis went to Albania too.

3. He told Wallachia, "Come quickly, be my servant"; once again he set his intention on Constantinople.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Siege Engines and Hungary

Why Bayezid first turned against Constantinople is told in the fifty-ninth chapter. Someone tells Bayezid that the tekfur of Constantinople is a "most mischievous" infidel and asks what this infidel city is doing among his lands; if Alaşehir was taken, this one must be taken too. Constantinople is besieged by sea and land, and siege engines are set up on the land side. The author adds a detail here: at that time "they did not know the cannon well"; cannon became numerous in the time of Mehmed the Conqueror. While the siege goes on, news comes that the Hungarians have crossed the Danube and are marching on Sofia. Bayezid burns the siege engines, sets out and fights near Alacahisar. The infidels split their army in two; the Ottomans too have formed two divisions, and the khan lies in ambush. When the infidels see the khan in ambush they take fright and break; so many are killed that in the end the gazis tire of killing and take captives.

A Witness's Word

In this chapter the author names his source plainly: "There was a son of Kara Temürtaş called Umur Beg. It was he who told the poor author of this gazâ." Umur Beg said that among his own people alone there were more than two thousand captives. That the battle was related on the authority of Umur Bey is also recorded in the TDV article. The couplets list the general outcome of the victory: the remaining infidels' gall bursts, Bosnia and the Laz pay tribute, gazis go to Albania, Wallachia is told to become a servant. The last line turns again to Constantinople and prepares the subject of the next chapter. "Ödi sıtdı", his gall burst, is the old form of an idiom of fear still used today.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 398-399 (transliterated text, bâb 59).