Amasyalıdır. İğneci Mûsâ Çelebi bin Hamza’nın mahdûmu [363] olup “İğnecioğlu” demekle meşhûrdur. Veled-i İğneci diye görüldü. Meşâhîr-i fuzalâdan Fahreddîn İlyâs bin Aksarâyî ve Şerefeddîn Mehmed bin Vecîh Erzincânî gibi zevâtdan ahz-ı ulûm edib ders-i âm oldu.
Ba’dehû Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşa’nın binâ etdiği Sarachâne Câmii ittisâl-i şarkiyyesindeki dârü’l-ilm medresesi müderrisi olduğu hâlde 797 senesi hilâlinde vefâtı zann olunur. Kibâr-ı ulemâdan fâzıl, müteşerri’ bir zât idi.
Mahdûmu meşâhîr-i evliyâdan eş-Şeyh Şerefeddîn Hamza Çelebi Pîr İlyâs Halvetî hulefâsından iken 818’de vefât etdi. “İğnecizâde” demekle meşhûr bir pîr-i a’zam idi. Bunun mahdûmu melîkü’l-meşâyîh Seyidüddîn Ahmed el-Halvetî ve bunun mahdûmu da İğnecizâde Safiyyeddîn Mûsâ el-Halvetî’dir.
Bunun evlâdından Hâce-yi Sultânî Amasyalı Ömer Efendi ibn-i Mehmed Efendi bin Abdurrahman Çelebi kaz’askerdi. Bunun mahdûmu Abdullah Efendi ve hafîdi es-Seyyid Osmân Efendi bin Abdullah Efendi ve bunun mahdûmu es-Seyyid Ömer Efendi sudûr-ı kirâmdan idiler. [364]
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya. He is the son of İğneci Mûsâ Çelebi, son of Hamza, and is known as "İğnecioğlu." He was seen to be recorded in the records as "Veled-i İğneci" (son of the needle-maker). Having learned from well-known scholars such as Fahreddîn İlyâs bin Aksarâyî and Şerefeddîn Mehmed bin Vecîh Erzincânî, he became a professor with ders-i âm, that is, the authority to give lectures open to everyone.
Later, while professor of the house-of-learning madrasa adjoining the east side of the Saraçhane Mosque built by Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, he is thought to have died in the course of 797 [1394-95]. He was one of the great scholars, a virtuous man firmly attached to the rulings of religion.
His son, Sheikh Şerefeddîn Hamza Çelebi, one of the famous saints, died in 818 [1415-16] while he was one of the deputies of Pîr İlyâs Halvetî. He was a very great pîr known as "İğnecizâde." His son is "the sultan of sheikhs" Seyyidüddîn Ahmed el-Halvetî, and his son is İğnecizâde Safiyyeddîn Mûsâ el-Halvetî.
Descended from him, the son of Mehmed Efendi, son of Abdurrahman Çelebi, Ömer Efendi of Amasya, the sultan's teacher, was a kazasker. His son Abdullah Efendi, his grandson Seyyid Osman Efendi, son of Abdullah Efendi, and Osman Efendi's son Seyyid Ömer Efendi were worthy leading figures of the scholarly (ilmiye) class.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- ahz-ı ulûm: learning the sciences
- ders-i âm: the authority to give lectures open to everyone in a mosque or madrasa; a professor who has received this authority
- ittisâl-i şarkiyye: a place adjoining the east side
- dârü'l-ilm: house of learning, madrasa
- hilâlinde: in the course of, during
- müteşerri': firmly attached to the rulings of the sharia
- hulefâ: the deputies whom a sheikh has authorized to give guidance
- melîkü'l-meşâyih: sultan of sheikhs
- hâce-yi sultânî: teacher of the sultan
- hafîd: grandson
- sudûr-ı kirâm: the high-ranking, worthy leading figures of the ilmiye class
Şâdgeldi Pasha's Mosque and Madrasa
The madrasa where Ahmed Çelebi taught is next to the mosque built by the Emir of Amasya, Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha. This mosque, known today as the Saraçhane Mosque, was built in 1372 by Şâdgeldi Pasha. The building, which was originally square in plan and single-domed, later had a space added and its plan became rectangular. The mosque, called Şâdgeldi Pasha Mosque after its founder when built, changed its name to Saraçhane Mosque from the time of Çelebi Mehmed because of the saddlers' shops around it. The mosque stands today. The madrasa Hüsameddin calls "dârü'l-ilm" is also called "Medrese-i Şâdiyye" in another entry of the same book.
Fahreddin İlyas, named as Ahmed Çelebi's teacher, was also the teacher of Şâdgeldi Pasha. Present-day sources record that Şâdgeldi studied in Amasya with Mevlânâ Fahreddin İlyas and was a classmate of Aksarâyî. Thus İğnecioğlu and the emir of Amasya were raised in the circle of the same teacher; his being brought to Şâdgeldi's madrasa is not surprising in this respect.
The İğnecizades and the Tomb of İğneci Baba
The genealogy Hüsameddin gives is connected to a still-known place of visit in Amasya. İğnecizâde Safiyyeddîn, named at the end of the entry, is called in present-day research İğnecizâde Safiyüddin Mahmud (Musa) Halvetî and is recorded as having died in 893 [1487-88]. According to Kadir Özköse's study of the Halvetî tekkes in Amasya, this person studied with his father and the scholars of his age, attached himself to Sheikh Zekeriyya Halvetî, became his deputy, and after his death the sheikh of his zawiya. He won the trust of Prince Bâyezid while the latter was governor of Amasya; when Bâyezid came to the throne he did not accept the high state posts offered and lived on the inheritance left by his father. It is also noted that he taught Qur'anic exegesis and hadith at the Saraçhane Mosque. Thus the family's scholarly tradition at Saraçhane still continued about a century after his great-grandfather Ahmed Çelebi.
The tomb of this sheikh, known among the people as "İğneci Baba," is today in the Dere district, in the Kocacık Bazaar, opposite the Çıtak Business Center. Inside the rectangular-plan building are two sarcophagi, belonging to İğneci Baba and his son; the tomb was repaired in 1983 by a philanthropist. According to local tradition İğneci Baba made his living in Amasya as a shoemaker, while his brother Serçoban was a shepherd in the village of Karasenir. It is told that when Serçoban wished to show his elder brother his miracle of bringing milk placed in a handkerchief without letting it leak, the milk began to drip because of a thought that crossed his mind for a moment, and İğneci Baba said to him, "The miracle is not in attaining sainthood on a mountaintop, but in not letting the milk in the bundle drip." The trade of "needle-making," the source of the family name, appears to have turned into shoemaking in this legend; this relationship is an inference and is not explicitly established in the sources.
Hüsameddin counts Hamza Çelebi, who gave the family its name, among the deputies of Pîr İlyâs. According to another record Özköse relays, the tomb of Pîr Şerefeddin Hamza Halvetî, one of the deputies of Pîr İlyâs, is at the place formerly called Ok Meydanı, where the railway station stands today, and this person is the father of Akşemseddin, teacher of Mehmed the Conqueror. Whether these two persons, bearing the same name and the same order affiliation, are one is not explicitly stated in the sources; Hüsameddin too does not speak of such a link in this entry.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 116–116. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
Official sources
Other sources