Âfitâbî was one of the poets who lived in Amasya in the second half of the fifteenth century and entered the circle of Prince (Şehzade) Bayezid during his years as governor (sanjak-bey) there. In the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) his name is mostly written Âftâbî; the pen name means "of the sun, sunlike", and the poet often plays on that meaning in his verse. Latîfî counts him a native of Amasya and mentions him as one of the "meşâhîr-i şuarâ ve a'yân-ı füsehâ", that is, one of the well-known poets and the foremost masters of fine speech. He is reported to have had a divan arranged with colourful poems, but no surviving copy of it is known.

Âfitâbî's tie to Amasya runs in two directions. In his youth he belonged to the literary circle of the prince's court in the city, and he spent the end of his life in and around Amasya as a Sufi preacher who kept away from people. What survives of his poetry consists of a few poems and couplets quoted in the anthologies of Latîfî, Âşık Çelebi, Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi and Beyânî, in the nazire anthology of Nazmî of Edirne, and in Hüseyin Hüsameddin's History of Amasya. Even these few texts show the skill that led the biographers to call one of his couplets "famous". The details of his life are told in his biography in the Historical Figures section of our site; here the emphasis is on his poetry.

Life and Years in Amasya

The anthologies do not record Âfitâbî's real name or family. They also differ over his birthplace. Latîfî says "from the city of Amasya"; Âşık Çelebi, followed by Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi, writes "he is from Merzifon". The entry in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Names in Turkish Literature) states that the anthologists other than Latîfî give Tosya; in the editions of Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde available to us, however, the reading is Merzifon, not Tosya. Both statements tie the poet to Amasya and its surroundings.

According to Âşık Çelebi, Âfitâbî first followed the path of learning and, after completing his madrasa education, turned to Sufism and acquired the "inner knowledge" in the service of the masters of the order. Latîfî relates that in the years when Sultan Bayezid was "Çelebi Sultan", that is, governor, in Amasya, Âfitâbî entered his private circle thanks to his learning and merit and won great esteem through the prince's favour. According to the biographer, however, the envious sowed discord and the poet was removed from the prince's side. Three couplets from a kaside written on that occasion, quoted by Latîfî, survive today. The Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, drawing on Latîfî and Gelibolulu Âlî, writes that the poet was pensioned off with a few akçe.

Âşık Çelebi, for his part, connects Âfitâbî's last years with Prince Ahmed: the poet entered his patronage, was granted a few akçe by way of retirement, and until his death lived a life of retreat in and around Amasya, preaching and giving counsel and keeping away from people. The biographer adds that during his sermons he was at times seized by ecstasy and stirred the gathering with his fervour. Kınalızâde and Beyânî also record that he lived in Amasya in seclusion, retreat and preaching. In the same place Âşık Çelebi tells of the poet's passion for a young man named Çerâğ; in his old age Çerâğ kept a bookshop in the Bedesten of Istanbul and went about reciting the ghazals Âfitâbî had written for him. Âşık Çelebi says that he saw him in person.

Hüseyin Hüsameddin gives in his History of Amasya a detailed life of the poet that is not found in the anthologies, but he does not state his source. According to him, Âfitâbî's name was Abdurrahman Çelebi; he was known as Şeyhîzâde and was the son of the scholar Şemseddin Mehmed Çelebi bin Şeyhî Çelebi and the brother of Hâtemî Abdülkerim Efendi. He studied the religious and rational sciences with the scholars of Amasya, became a public lecturer, and joined the companions of Bayezid, then governor of Amasya, by presenting kasides to him. According to Hüsameddin he too was harmed in the Halîmî affair of 883 (1478-79) and sent to Ankara, where he became a madrasa professor; when Bayezid came to the throne in 886 (1481) he was appointed to the Sultaniye Madrasa in Merzifon and then to the judgeships of Ankara and Sivas. In 903 (1497-98) he retired at his own request and became trustee of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid in Amasya and companion to Prince Ahmed, and he died early in the year 907 (1501). Hüsameddin adds that his son Abdülhay Efendi was among the eminent judges. Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun, on the other hand, argues that the poet must have lived until 1494. The anthologies give no date of death; they report that he lived a long life and died in Amasya.

Hüsameddin thinks that the Çerâğ mentioned by Âşık Çelebi must be Mirliva Çerâğ Bey, son of Yağlu Murad Bey, who lived in the Dârüsselâm quarter of Amasya. In another entry the same author writes that this Çerâğ Bey was very handsome in his youth, brought many, such as Âfitâbî, to grief, and was taken into Bayezid's palace in Amasya. This identification, too, cannot be confirmed by any other source; the differences between the life Hüsameddin gives and the information of the anthologies cannot be resolved as long as the sources he used remain unknown.

Works

Latîfî says that Âfitâbî had a "rengîn eş'âr ile müretteb Dîvân", that is, a divan arranged with colourful poems. No copy of this divan has been found to date. The poet's verse can therefore be collected only from secondary sources. According to the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, four of his poems appear in the great nazire anthology compiled by Pervâne Bey in the middle of the sixteenth century, and two in Nazmî of Edirne's Mecma‘u'n-nezâ'ir. One of the ghazals in Nazmî is the ghazal "Ka‘be-i kūyuña yol vir", which Âşık Çelebi also quotes.

From the anthologies and from Hüsameddin the following texts can be gathered today: a ghazal of eight couplets, three couplets from a kaside, a famous opening couplet, two single couplets and a kıt‘a of uncertain source. Each of these texts has been published on our site in a separate article, with the original text, a modern rendering and a commentary.

Literary Persona

The biographers' judgements of Âfitâbî are brief but favourable. Latîfî counts him among the well-known poets and says that he had a charming manner of expression owing to the sweetness of his words, "ʿuzûbet-elfâẓ ile şîrîn-beyân". Âşık Çelebi presents him as "zemânesinüñ ẕü-fünūnı", a man versed in many sciences in his time. Kınalızâde writes that the poet's opening couplet "Yine diş yārası var" became as famous as the sun and won the admiration of all who saw it. Beyânî, too, calls the same couplet a "famous ghazal". These judgements show that Âfitâbî was known in his own time and among later generations even for a single couplet.

The poems available today show a skill that confirms these judgements. Âfitâbî is a poet who loves plays on sound. In the ghazal "Ka‘be-i kūyuña" he sets "perīşāne" beside "perī şāne" (fairy and comb), uses the word "yaramaz" in rhyme position with two different meanings, and builds a play between "em" (remedy) and "emsem" (if I could suck). He also works the meaning "sun" of his pen name into the poem: the sun roams the city all day searching for the moon-faced beloved, and the closing couplet says "Āftābī ṭoġa devlet güneşi", Âftâbî, the sun of fortune will rise. In the likeness he draws between the reed flute and the breath, the house and its sounds, he supports the claim of the first line with a proverb-like saying in the second; this is an example of the manner that Latîfî credits his contemporary Cezerî Kasım Paşa with pioneering.

Another notable feature of his poems is the difference between two periods of his life. The biographers present him at the end of his life as a Sufi who preached, fell into ecstasy and kept away from people. Yet his most famous couplet is a playful, even daring one about a tooth mark on the beloved's apple-like chin and peach marks on her breast. Âşık Çelebi's story of Çerâğ also suggests that the poet's love poems were addressed to a real person. The admonitory kıt‘a quoted by Hüsameddin, by contrast, suits his Sufi period. The two sides show how the identities of scholar, Sufi and poet could coexist in a single person in fifteenth-century Ottoman literature.

Âfitâbî was one of the poets of Prince Bayezid's circle in Amasya. Among the leading figures of this circle were the prince himself, who wrote poetry under the pen name Adlî, his treasurer (defterdar) Tâcî Bey, and Cezerî Kasım Paşa (Sâfî), who also served as treasurer. Hüsameddin writes that Sa'dî Çelebi bin Hacı Mehmed Çelebi, treasurer of Amasya, was also among Çerâğ's admirers. No direct poetic exchange between Âfitâbî and the poets of this circle is documented in the sources.

Examples of His Poetry

Ghazal: Ka‘be-i kūyuña yol vir aña ki yol varamaz

Ka‘be-i kūyuña yol vir aña ki yol varamaz
Yitür anuñ dilegin kim yüz urup yalvaramaz
Ṭoḳunam dir dil-i ‘uşşāḳa perīşāne meger
Ol perī şāne ile zülfin anuñçün ṭaramaz
Āftābī ṭoġa devlet güneşi bir gün ola
Ḥaḳ Te‘ālā ḳulını ḳahr ile dā’im ḳaramaz

The lover, who asks that the way be opened into the street he holds as sacred as the Kaaba for one who cannot find the road, explains the beloved's uncombed hair by her fear that the comb would touch the distracted hearts entangled in her locks; in the last couplet he says that the sun of fortune will one day rise and that God will not darken His servant with affliction forever. The ghazal has eight couplets in Âşık Çelebi and seven in Nazmî of Edirne's anthology; the opening couplet, the third couplet and the closing couplet are given here (Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'ir, pp. 143-144; Nazmî, Mecma‘u'n-nezâ'ir, p. 1066).

Kaside: Müjeñ tîrine cân itmek hedef devlet nişânıdur

Müjeñ tîrine cân itmek hedef devlet nişânıdur
Velî benüm gibi ḫâkînüñ ol devlet ne şânıdur
Yeter düşdüm ırâġ oḳ gibi ḳurbân olduġum raḥm it
Ḫam-ı ebrûlaruñdan kim yed-i ḳudret kemânıdur

To make one's soul the target of the eyelash's arrow is a sign of good fortune, but how could one as lowly as dust aspire to such happiness; the poet compares himself to an arrow that never reached the target and fell far away, and asks for mercy for the sake of the brows that are the bow of the hand of divine power. According to Latîfî the couplets come from the kaside Âfitâbî wrote to present his situation to Prince Bayezid after his removal from the prince's circle; Hüsameddin, however, takes the kaside as having been sent from Ankara on Bayezid's accession in 1481 (Latîfî, Tezkire, pp. 135-136; Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'ir, p. 144).

Opening Couplet: Yine diş yârası var sîb-i zenaḫdânuñda

Yine diş yârası var sîb-i zenaḫdânuñda
Yine şeftâlü yimişler gibi pistânuñda

Once again there is a tooth mark on the beloved's apple-like chin, and marks on her breast as though peaches had been eaten. The couplet rebuilds divan poetry's familiar image of the "apple of the chin" through the eyes of a jealous lover, with a concrete detail. Kınalızâde and Beyânî read the last word of the second line as "bostan", garden (Latîfî, Tezkire, p. 135; Kınalızâde, Tezkire, p. 196; Beyânî, Tezkire, p. 26).

Single Couplet: Dilde kim sûz ola ney gibi nefesden bilinür

Dilde kim sûz ola ney gibi nefesden bilinür
Ḫânenüñ şenlügi içindeki sesden bilinür

The fire in the heart is known, as with the reed flute, from the breath and the sigh; the merriment of a house, too, is known from the sound coming from within. The second line supports the claim of the first with an observation everyone knows (Latîfî, Tezkire, p. 135).

Single Couplet: Geldi bir nāme ki efsūn oḳımış ḫāmesine

Geldi bir nāme ki efsūn oḳımış ḫāmesine
Ki gören ‘āşıḳ olur ṣūret-i ser-nāmesine

A letter has come whose writer seems to have cast a spell on his pen; whoever sees the heading of the letter falls in love with the beauty of the writing. The couplet appears only in Âşık Çelebi, with a "Ve lehu" note missing from some manuscripts (Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'ir, p. 144).

Kıt‘a: Gafleti ko gözün aç ey gâfil

Gafleti ko gözün aç ey gâfil
Elde iken koma reh-i talebi
Vaktine hâzır ol ki çalındı
Penç-gâh-i Muhammed-i ‘Arabî

The poet counsels waking from heedlessness and not abandoning the path of seeking God while the chance is at hand, and likens the call to the five daily prayers to a nevbet sounded at the Prophet's gate. The kıt‘a is attributed to Âfitâbî only by Hüsameddin, who gives no source; since it is not found in the anthologies, its attribution could not be confirmed (Hüsameddin, Amasya Tarihi 6, p. 21).

Chronology

1454-1481: Prince Bayezid's governorship of Amasya; according to Latîfî, Âfitâbî entered his private circle in these years and was later removed from it.

883 (1478-79): According to Hüsameddin, he was harmed in the Halîmî affair, sent to Ankara and became a madrasa professor there.

886 (1481): Accession of Bayezid; according to Hüsameddin, Âfitâbî became professor at the Sultaniye Madrasa in Merzifon and then served as judge in Ankara and Sivas.

903 (1497-98): According to Hüsameddin, he retired and became trustee of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid in Amasya and companion to Prince Ahmed.

907 (1501): According to Hüsameddin, he died in Amasya early in the year. The anthologies give no date; Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun argues that he lived until 1494.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Latîfî, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ ve Tabsıratü'n-nuzamâ, ed. Rıdvan Canım, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), pp. 135-136, entry on Âftâbî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), pp. 143-144, entry on Âftâbî.
  • Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Aysun Sungurhan, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), pp. 196-197, entry on Âftâbî.
  • Beyânî, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Aysun Sungurhan, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), p. 26, entry on Âftâbî.
  • Abdizâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi 6-8. Cilt, ed. Songül Keçeci Kurt - Recep Orhan Özel - Metin Hakverdioğlu, Amasya: Amasya Belediyesi, 2022, pp. 20-21 (Âfitâbî Abdurrahman Çelebi) and the entry on Çerâğ Bey.

Books

  • M. Fatih Köksal, "Âfitâbî", Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, 2013, https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/afitabi (with a sample ghazal from Edirneli Nazmî, Mecma‘u'n-nezâ'ir, ed. M. Fatih Köksal, KTB e-book 2012, p. 1066).