Âşıkî, Manzume 75: İki kötrüm sebeb oldı fesâda

Manzume 75 — İki kötrüm sebeb oldı fesâda

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 14 October 2026 • 3 min reading

Ankara in four couplets and a witness: Bayezid captured, Mehmed withdrawing to Amasya with its troops, and the author's informant Koca Nâyib made warden of Amasya.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

İki kötrüm sebeb oldı fesâda
Ve hem İblîs safâ virür fesâda

Hased odına yandı Rûm u Şâm gör
Ne işler işledür oldı şurada

Vegerçi bu o Sâni' masnû'ıdur
Sebeb bu iki kötrümdür burada

Bularuñ uydugı nefs-i hevâdur
Âşıkî sen var uyma bu garaza

In English

1. Two cripples became the cause of mischief; İblis too delights in mischief.

2. See, Rûm and Syria burned in the fire of envy; what deeds they caused to be done here, (what) came to pass.

3. Though this (work) is the Maker's handiwork, the cause here is these two cripples.

4. What they followed is the passion of the self; Âşıkî, go, do not follow this rancour.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Battle of Ankara

Timur first takes Sivas, marches into Syria and winters in Karabagh; in this part of the chapter he turns back to Anatolia. When battle is joined at Ankara the Tatar troops and the Germiyan troops with Bayezid turn traitor. Prince Mustafa disappears, and the paşas take Emir Süleyman out of the battle. The author records this sentence: "Sultan Mehmed too took the Amasya troops and withdrew straight towards Amasya." Bayezid is left alone with the slaves of the Porte; a slave of his named Solak Karaca reproaches him bitterly: where are the sons he trusted, his provincial governors, his "drunken viziers"? Bayezid spurs his horse and fights; the lord of Germiyan recognises him and points him out, and the khan is captured. Timur receives him with respect, and the two sit on one carpet.

A Witness from Amasya

Right after the verse comes a question: "O dervish, you were not even in that battle in body; from whom do you relate this story?" The author answers: Bursa had a deputy judge called Koca Nâyib; he was one of Bayezid's own guards and was with the khan when he was captured and at his death in Akşehir. Âşıkpaşazâde questioned him in person and learned from him how Timur carried Bayezid about in a moving throne like a cage, fixed between two horses. After the battle Koca Nâyib went to Amasya, to Sultan Mehmed; Mehmed gave him the wardenship of the castle of Amasya. When he grew old Murad II brought him to Bursa and made him deputy judge. So the account of Ankara rests on the word of a witness who served in the castle of Amasya. For Mehmed Çelebi's use of Amasya as a base in this period see the pages Amasya in the Ottoman Interregnum and Çelebi Mehmed.

Two Cripples

The "two cripples" of the verse are Taharten and the lord of Germiyan, who incited Timur. "Kötrüm" means one whose hands and feet do not work, a cripple, and here is a contemptuous epithet. The author accepts that the event was God's decree, but ties its cause to these two and in the fourth couplet calls himself not to follow such rancour. The rhyme turns on the sound "-âda/-ada/-aza": fesâda, fesâda, şurada, burada, garaza.