Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Neden dostluk umarsın bu işikden
Ayırasın beni sevdük işimden
Benüm râhatum olmaya cihânda
Ki yollar gözleyem yaz u kışumdan
Ogul kız 'avratum benden cüdâdur
Ya lezzet mi bulam ben cünbüşümden
Sebeb sen olasın bu furkatuma
Ne togrulık umarsın bu tuşumdan
Bâyezîd dostlık umma Tahartin'den
Ki eydür sen ayırduñ yoldaşumdan

In English

1. Why do you hope for friendship from this threshold; so that you may part me from the work I love.

2. So that I may have no rest in the world; so that summer and winter I may watch the roads.

3. My son, my daughter, my wife are apart from me; shall I then find pleasure in my revels.

4. You be the cause of this separation of mine, and then hope for loyalty from my flight.

5. Bayezid, hope for no friendship from Taharten; for he says, "You parted me from my companions."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Amasya and Sivas

One of the few chapters in the work that deal directly with Amasya, the sixty-fifth bears the heading "This tells in what manner Bayezid Han conquered Amasya and Sivas". In its first sentence the author says: "Its own lord gave this Amasya to Bayezid Han." At the time Kadı Burhaneddin had harassed the lord of Amasya; while Amasya was in Bayezid's possession Kadı Burhaneddin died. His son was left a child, and a daughter was sent to Nasreddin Beg of Dulkadır. The notables of Sivas send men to Bayezid saying "come"; Bayezid comes to Sivas, the notables meet him, and Sivas is given to his son Emir Süleyman. Then they reach Erzincan; its lord Taharten meets them in submission and is left in place, but his wife, son and daughter are sent to Bursa. Divriği, Malatya, Derende and Behisni are also taken. Bayezid returns to Bursa, sends Taharten back to Erzincan and keeps his "horanda", his family.

Taharten's Voice

The speaker is a father whose wife and children are held hostage in Bursa. Bayezid expects friendship; but a man parted from his family watches the roads summer and winter and takes no pleasure in revels. The fourth couplet states the reproach openly: one who causes the separation cannot expect loyalty. The verdict comes in the fifth couplet: "Bayezid, hope for no friendship from Taharten." What later pages of the chronicle will tell, Taharten's going to Timur and inciting him against Anatolia, is thus announced in advance. When the author names the two causes of the defeat at Ankara as "two cripples", he will count Taharten as one of them. The refrain is "-umdan/-ımdan", and the rhyme is built on the sounds "-şikden/-şimden/-şumdan": işikden, işimden, kışumdan, cünbüşümden, tuşumdan, yoldaşumdan. That Amasya's joining the Ottomans is told this way, at its own lord's wish, makes it one of the earliest records about Amasya in the work.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 405 (transliterated text, bâb 65).
  • Abdülkadir Özcan, "Âşıkpaşazâde", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 4, Istanbul 1991, pp. 6-7. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/asikpasazade

Online sources