Âşıkî, Manzume 98: Begüñ kim ola yanındagı hâyin

Manzume 98 — Begüñ kim ola yanındagı hâyin

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

A treacherous tutor: Murad's young brother Mustafa settles at İznik while the paşas secretly promise his tutor Şarabdar İlyas a governorship. Six couplets.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Begüñ kim ola yanındagı hâyin
Hıyânetle geçüre yılın ayın

Diye kim fursatın bulam bunuñ ben
Ki yüzin düşüre karvaya pâyın

Diler kim tutıban elin ayagın
Uşada okların u sıya yayın

Cihânuñ kende pîlin oynayanlar
Bunuñ bigi kodı erkân u âyin

Ferâgat emr-i Hak erkân u dînden
Diler kendüyi ide dünyâ bayın

Şarâbdâr İlyâs ol hâyinlık itdi
Giderdi Mustafâ'nuñ hûy u hâyın

In English

1. Whoever is the traitor at a lord's side spends his years and months in treachery.

2. He says, "Let me find my chance against him, that I may throw him on his face and seize his foot."

3. He wishes to seize his hands and feet, to splinter his arrows and break his bow.

4. Those who move the elephant on the chessboard of the world have set down rule and rite like this.

5. He gives up God's command, rule and faith; he wishes to make himself rich in this world.

6. Şarabdar İlyas committed that treachery; he did away with Mustafa's nature and his good.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Prince at İznik

With the Pretender gone, the turn comes to Murad's young brother Mustafa, whose moves the eighty-eighth chapter follows. Mustafa is in Hamidili; the lords of Germiyan and Karaman support him. As he approaches Bursa, the notables of the town collect much silver and a hundred pieces of cloth and send Ahi Yakub and Ahi Kadem from among the ahis. Mustafa accepts the ransom. The ahis go to Mustafa's tutor Şarabdar İlyas: he too is our sovereign's son, but his brother has come and fortified the citadel; let him not have his father's land ruined by foreign troops, nor bring them into the town, for Karaman has long been hostile. Şarabdar İlyas finds this "very reasonable", since it was he who closed the bargain; he takes the sum and clasps it to his breast. Mustafa goes to İznik, lodges in İbrahim Paşa's palace and hands out timars. Meanwhile Murad's paşas secretly send word to the tutor: the khan has given him the governorship of Anatolia, and the warrant is sent too; let him hold the boy back until they arrive. Şarabdar İlyas does as he is told.

The Treacherous Tutor

The first and the last rhyme words are both "hâyin", traitor; between them is drawn the portrait of the traitor at a lord's side. He spends his years and months in treachery, wishes to find his chance to throw his master on his face and seize his foot, to splinter his arrows and break his bow. The fourth couplet returns to the image of chess: those who move the elephant on the chessboard of the world have set down this rule and rite. The fifth names the traitor's true aim: to become rich in the world. The sixth couplet gives the name: Şarabdar İlyas. This harsh judgement announces the event to be told in the next chapter: Şarabdar İlyas will take Mustafa in his arms and hand him over to his brother. The refrain is "-ayın/-âyın": hâyin, ayın, pâyın, yayın, âyin, bayın, hâyın.