In the village of Şeyh Cûî, west of Amasya, the three offices of the Mevlevî lodge founded there early in the fifteenth century came together in the hands of Âbidî Ahmed Çelebi, one of the founder's own descendants: he was trustee of his ancestor's endowment, read the Mesnevî in the lodge and held its sheikhdom. He died around the Hijri year 1000 (1591-92). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar describes him only as "a poet, pleasant in conversation, versed in literature" and says nothing more about his verse. The real value of the entry lies in the four generations it lists after him: one of his grandsons was the father of Abdî Pasha, governor of Tripoli in Syria, and another was the father of Ebû Saîd Ahmed Dede, who took the Şeyh Cûî lodge back into the family's hands.

The Entry in the History of Amasya

Hüsameddin places the entry in the "ayn" section of his eleventh volume, directly after that of the ancestor Âbid Çelebi:

Yukarıda tercemesi yazılan Âbid Çelebi ahfâdından Hasan Çelebi oğludur. Ceddi Şeyh Cûî vakfına mütevellî ve zâviyesinde Mesnevîhan ve şeyh olup bin hudûdunda vefât etdi. Şâir, hoş sohbet, edebiyâta vâkıf idi. Mahdûmu Ali Çelebi'dir. Bunun oğulları Mehmed, Osmân, Hasan Ağalardır. Hacı Mehmed Ağa Amasya eşrâfından olup mahdûmu Ebû Saîd Ahmed Dede'nin evlâdı zamanımıza kadar devam etmişdir. Osmân Ağazâde Sirâc Ömer Ağa İstanbul'da meşhûrdur. Hasan Ağazâde bostancıbaşı İbrâhim Ağa ve birâderi Haseki Abdî Ağa'dır. Bunlar "Ferâşet Defteri"nde mukayyed görüldü.

In modern English: He is the son of Hasan Çelebi, one of the descendants of Âbid Çelebi, whose life is given above. He became trustee of the endowment of his ancestor Sheikh Cûî, read the Mesnevî in his lodge and served as its sheikh; he died around the year 1000. He was a poet, pleasant in conversation and well read in literature. His son is Ali Çelebi, whose sons are Mehmed, Osman and Hasan Ağa. Hacı Mehmed Ağa was one of the notables of Amasya; the line of his son Ebû Saîd Ahmed Dede has continued to our own day. Osman Ağa's son Sirâc Ömer Ağa became well known in Istanbul. Hasan Ağa's sons are İbrâhim Ağa, head of the palace gardeners (bostancıbaşı), and his brother Haseki Abdî Ağa. Their names were found recorded in the Ferâşet Register.

The Şeyh Cûî Lodge and Âbidî's Offices

Âbidî's life turned on a single institution held by his family. The lodge's founder, Cû'î Mehmed Çelebi, had led the Mevlevî lodge in Amasya under Mehmed I (Çelebi Mehmed). In the village of Kelkis, granted to him by the sultan as freehold, he built a mosque, a Mevlevî lodge, a soup kitchen and his own tomb, endowed his property to them in 817 (1414-15) and died in 819 (1417). The village later took his name; today it is called Yuvacık. Hüsameddin writes that, under the terms of the deed, the trusteeship of the endowment and the offices of sheikh and Mesnevî reader in the lodge were reserved for Cûî's descendants. That Âbidî held all three posts at once follows naturally from this condition. Cûî's tomb beside the village mosque is known today as the Tomb of Sheikh Cui Baba.

The ancestor Âbid Çelebi was Cûî's son. Educated and trained by his father, he became sheikh of the village lodge after Cûî's deputy and son-in-law Yoğurtçu Ahmed Dede, and died around 868 (1463-64). According to Hüsameddin, Prince Bayezid, the later Bayezid II, used to visit his lodge from time to time while governing Amasya and showed him favour. How many generations lay between Âbid Çelebi and Âbidî is not known: the entry uses the word "ahfâd" (grandsons, descendants) and does not say whose son Hasan Çelebi was. The gap of some 130 years between 868 and 1000 suggests at least one or two intervening generations.

Trusteeship meant managing the endowment's income and property, the Mesnevî reader's task was to recite and expound Rûmî's Mesnevî, and the sheikh was responsible for the spiritual training of the dervishes. Teaching the Mesnevî requires good Persian, and Hüsameddin's phrase "versed in literature" may point to this. Whether Âbidî had any tie to the Amasya Mevlevî lodge in town, when he became sheikh and for how long he served all remain unknown.

His Line and Descendants

Each of the three sons of Âbidî's son Ali Çelebi left his mark in a different field. The entry on Abdî Paşa-Şeyh Abdîzâde in the twelfth volume traces the same lineage, this time from descendant back to ancestor: Abdî Pasha was the son of Hasan Ağa, a cavalryman and one of the deputy governors of Amasya; Hasan Ağa was the son of Ali Ağa, and Ali Ağa the son of Sheikh Âbidî Çelebi. Raised in the palace school, Abdî left the post of head of the palace sergeants to become a customs superintendent. With the support of the grand vizier Kara İbrâhim Pasha he was made beylerbey of Erzurum at the end of Zilhicce 1096 (October-November 1685), governor of Basra in 1097, then governor of Tripoli in Syria with the rank of vizier, and he died there in Şaban 1099 (June 1688). In that entry Hüsameddin mentions the ancestor once again: "Ceddi Âbidî Çelebi Şeyh Cû'î ahfâdından olup Amasya'da evkâfına mütevellî ve zâviyesinde mesnevîhân olarak evlâdı vardır."

The pasha's entry also records a confusion of names. The pasha's name is written "Abdî" in the Islamic court registers and some chronicles, "Âbidî" in the ferâşet registers, and "Abdî" and "Âbidîn" in the history of Silahdar. The "Haseki Abdî Ağa" named in Âbidî's entry, his grandson's son, is evidently this man. The confusion shows that "Âbidî" was used in the family almost as a name passed down from ancestor to descendants. The name at the head of Âbidî Ahmed Çelebi's entry may therefore be a pen name, or it may be an epithet marking descent from his ancestor Âbid Çelebi. Hüsameddin does not say which.

The other branch returned to the lodge. Ebû Saîd Ahmed Dede, son of Ali Çelebi's son Hacı Mehmed Ağa, was trained under Kudsî Hasan Dede, head of the town's Mevlevî lodge, and became its leader of the dhikr. In 1095 (1683-84) he became sheikh and Mesnevî reader of the Şeyh Cûî lodge, and a year later took on the sheikhdom of the Amasya lodge as well. Removed from the latter post in 1099, he died early in 1114 (1702) still sheikh of the Şeyh Cûî lodge. His own entry in the sixth volume introduces his father only as "Mehmed, one of the dervishes of the lodge"; Âbidî's entry states plainly that this Mehmed was Hacı Mehmed Ağa, a notable of Amasya, and links him to the line of Sheikh Cûî. Ebû Saîd's son Sa'dî Efendi, a Mevlevî poet, led the same lodge from 1129 to 1153, and the "Hacı Dedezâde" branch of the family lasted into Hüsameddin's own time. The offices Âbidî had held thus came back, after a gap of nearly a century, to his grandson's son.

The entry also records that Sirâc Ömer Ağa, son of the third grandson, became known in Istanbul, and that Hasan Ağa's other son İbrâhim Ağa rose to be bostancıbaşı. Hüsameddin saw these names in the ferâşet registers, the books in which appointments to mosque and lodge services were entered, which suggests that the family's tie to the endowment's services lasted for generations.

His Poetry

None of Âbidî Ahmed Çelebi's poems has come down to us. Hüsameddin passes over his poetry in the same breath as his conversation and his literary learning, one epithet among several, and admits not a line of verse into the entry. Metin Hakverdioğlu, who arranges the poets named in Amasya Tarihi volume by volume, also counts him among those given a biography in the eleventh.

Chronology

817 (1414-15): Cû'î Mehmed Çelebi sets up the endowment for his mosque, lodge and soup kitchen in the village of Kelkis.

c. 868 (1463-64): Âbid Çelebi dies.

c. 1000 (1591-92): Âbidî Ahmed Çelebi dies.

1095 (1683-84): His grandson's son Ebû Saîd Ahmed Dede becomes sheikh of the Şeyh Cûî Mevlevî lodge.

Zilhicce 1096 (October-November 1685): His grandson's son Abdî Pasha becomes beylerbey of Erzurum.

Şaban 1099 (June 1688): Abdî Pasha dies as governor of Tripoli in Syria.

Early 1114 (1702): Ebû Saîd Ahmed Dede dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources