Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Kâfir itmez Temür itdügi işi
Ki neler çekdi irkek-ile dişi
Şerî'at ehlini turmaz kırardı
Bilinmez ne-y-idi tutdugı tuşı
Hânekâh mescid ü medrese yıkdı
Geçürdi Aydın ilinde o kışı
Temür'üñ zulmı çokdur 'âlem içre
Ne ola görmedi zulmını kişi
Ayagı basdugı iller yıkıldı
Yigidüñ kocanuñ kalmadı dişi

In English

1. An infidel does not do what Timur did; what did not man and woman suffer.

2. He kept slaughtering the people of the sacred law; no one knew what path he followed.

3. He pulled down hospice, mosque and medrese; he spent that winter in the land of Aydın.

4. Timur's oppression in the world is great; who is there that did not see his oppression.

5. The lands on which his foot trod were ruined; neither young man nor old was left a tooth.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Timur's Winter

After the battle of Ankara Timur roams Anatolia. The author tells how he wintered in the land of Aydın and pulled down hospices, mosques and medreses. Then Timur gives the lands back to their old lords and, at Bayezid's request, takes the Tatars of Anatolia away with him. Bayezid dies at Akşehir; the date is given as 804 (1402). According to Koca Nâyib's testimony, when Timur moved camp he had Bayezid carried before him on a moving throne like a cage, and when he halted he had him lodged in front of his own tent.

Worse Than an Infidel

Opening with "Kâfir itmez", the five couplets carry the work's harshest words against Timur; by the first line, even an infidel does not do what Timur did. The second couplet says that Timur slaughtered the people of the sacred law and that no one knew what "tuş", path, he followed; this casts doubt on Timur's Islam. The third couplet lists the destruction of religious buildings. The fifth says that the lands he trod were ruined and that neither young nor old was left a tooth; the idiom means both literally the breaking of teeth and figuratively the exhaustion of strength. The refrain is "-işi/-ışı": işi, dişi, tuşı, kışı, kişi, dişi. The use of the word "dişi" in two different senses in the first and last couplets (woman and tooth) is a pun. Despite his criticisms of Yıldırım Bayezid, Âşıkpaşazâde is plainly on the Ottoman side against Timur.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 413 (transliterated text, bâb 66).