Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Kānûndur pâdişâhlar sürgün ide
Ki ya'nî bir dahı il ma'mûr ide
V'eger halk incinür evvel seferde
Bu Tañrı takdîridür dahı n'ide
Gözetsüñ takdîri hôş mutî' olsa
Olur râhat ki ol nasîbüm ide

In English

1. It is the law that sovereigns deport, that is, so that a land may once again flourish.

2. Though the people are hurt at the first move, it is God's decree; what else can be done.

3. Let him heed the decree and obey with good grace; if he says "this was my lot", he finds ease.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Sarhan Beglü

Running on as far as the battle of Ankara, the sixty-sixth chapter is a long one. At its beginning it tells how the nomadic people of the province of Saruhan were deported to the district of Plovdiv. These nomads winter on the plain of Menemen; there is a ban on salt in that district and they do not obey it. When this is reported to Bayezid, the khan sends word to his son Ertuğrul: let all the nomad households be firmly seized, entrusted to reliable slaves and taken to the Plovdiv district. Ertuğrul does more than he was told and sends every household without exception. The author says that those called "Sarhan Beglü" at Plovdiv in his day descend from them and that Paşa Yiğit Beg was their chief.

Law and Decree

"Kānûndur", it is the law, says the opening line, defending deportation as a law of state: sovereigns deport so that a land may flourish again. The second couplet admits the people's pain: they are hurt at the first move. But this is presented as God's decree. The third couplet proposes an attitude for the deported: whoever submits to the decree and says "this was my lot" finds ease. Recall the pain of exile and homelessness in earlier verses, and the author is seen moving between two feelings: on one side pity for people uprooted from their homes, on the other an idea of the state that sees Ottoman settlement policy as legitimate. The settlement of Rumelia with nomads brought from Anatolia is a practice that began in the work with Süleyman Paşa bringing nomads from Karasi.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 406 (transliterated text, bâb 66).