Amasya kadı’l-kudâtı İmâdzâde Mevlânâ Mü’eyyideddîn Mehmed Çelebi bin kadı’l-kudât Mevlânâ İmâdeddîn Ömer Çelebi bin kadı’l-kudât Mevlânâ Şemseddîn Mehmed Çelebi bin Mevlânâ Necîbeddîn Mûsâ bin Mehmed bin Mahmûd el-Hâllâtî mahdûmu ve Amasya emîr-i kebîri Gümüşlüzâde Tâceddîn Mahmûd Çelebi mahdûmu Emîr Burhâneddîn Ahmed Çelebi kerîmezâdesidir.
Amasya ve Kayseriye’de tahsîl-i ulûm edib ders-i âm ve pederinin zaman-ı kazâsında nâibi, ba’dehû Tokat kadısı oldu. Kadı Burhân’ın Tokat’a tasallutuyla bir müddet ma’zûl ve ba’dehû Ankara kadı’l-kudâtı olup 801’de ma’zûlen Amasya’ya geldi.
802’de Amasya’da mâlik olduğu Helkîs Bahçesi bütün müştemilâtıyla beraber vâlidesi tarafından ceddi olan Gümüşlüzâde Tâceddîn Mahmûd Çelebi’nin câmiine vakfedib sonra vefât etdi. Meşâhîr-i kudât-ı sütûde simâttan idi.
Bu zâtın vakfiyesi Sultân Bâyezîd hatîbi Fâzılzâde [365] Mustafa Âkif Efendi’nin hânesinde bulup istinsâh etmişdim. Pek târîhî bir vakfiye idi. Aynen buraya nakletmek isterdim hayfâ ki Taş musluk harîkinde yandı. Evlâddan olduğunu iddi’â eden Köprülü Bâkîzâde Hâfız Mehmed Muhyiddîn Efendi bu vakfiye için merhûm ile hayli nizâ’ etmişdi.
Bu vakfiyenin ta’rîf etdiği hudûda nazaran Amasya’da Sa’at Kulesi’nin önünden i’tibâren Leğen Kayası denilen yere kadar müşârün-ileyhin vakfetdiği bahçedir. Bugün Hükûmet Konağı, Belediye dâ’iresi ve havâlisi bu vakfın dâ’ire-i şümûlü dâhilindedir.
In Modern English
He is the son of İmâdzâde Mevlânâ Müeyyidüddîn Mehmed Çelebi, kadılkudât (chief kadı) of Amasya. Müeyyidüddîn Mehmed Çelebi was the son of the kadılkudât Mevlânâ İmâdeddîn Ömer Çelebi; he of the kadılkudât Mevlânâ Şemseddîn Mehmed Çelebi; he of Mevlânâ Necîbeddîn Mûsâ; he of Mehmed; and Mehmed was the son of Mahmûd el-Hâllâtî. On his mother's side he is also the daughter's grandson of Emîr Burhâneddîn Ahmed Çelebi, son of Gümüşlüzâde Tâceddîn Mahmûd Çelebi, the Emîr-i Kebîr of Amasya.
Having studied in Amasya and Kayseri, he became a ders-i âm professor. During his father's kadiship he was his deputy, and then became kadı of Tokat. Because of Kadı Burhân's attack on Tokat he was without office for a time; later he became kadılkudât of Ankara and, dismissed in 801 [1398-99], came to Amasya.
In 802 [1399-1400] he endowed the Helkîs Garden, which he owned in Amasya, together with all its dependencies, to the mosque of Gümüşlüzâde Tâceddîn Mahmûd Çelebi, his maternal ancestor, and then died. He was one of the well-known kadıs worthy of praise.
I had found and copied this man's waqf deed in the house of Fâzılzâde Mustafa Âkif Efendi, preacher of the Sultan Bâyezîd Mosque. It was a very historical waqf deed. I would have liked to reproduce it here verbatim; unfortunately it was burned in the Taşmusluk fire. Köprülü Bâkîzâde Hâfız Mehmed Muhyiddîn Efendi, who claimed to descend from the family, had quarreled considerably with the late Âkif Efendi over this waqf deed.
According to the boundaries described in this waqf deed, the area in Amasya extending from in front of the Clock Tower to the place called Leğen Kayası (Basin Rock) is the garden endowed by the said person. Today the Government House, the Municipality building, and their surroundings lie within the boundaries of this waqf.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- kadı'l-kudât: kadı of kadıs, chief kadı
- kerîmezâde: daughter's grandson, a daughter's child
- nâib: a kadı's deputy, assistant
- ma'zûl: removed from office, without office
- müştemilât: the dependencies of a property
- sütûde simât: possessing praised qualities
- istinsâh: copying by hand
- harîk: fire
- nizâ': dispute, quarrel
- dâ'ire-i şümûl: area of coverage
The İmâdîs
Ahmed Çelebi's family is a scholarly (ilmiye) family that held the office of kadı from generation to generation in Amasya in the age of the principalities. In the eleventh volume of the book Hüsameddin speaks of two great scholarly dynasties in Amasya: the İmâdîs and the Ziyârîs. According to him, the İmâdîs are the progeny of the Kazasker İmâdüddîn Ömer bin el-Hallâtî, and the kadılkudât of Amasya, Mevlânâ Müeyyedüddîn Mehmed bin İmâd Çelebi, is this man's son. In the same place Hüsameddin also gives a noteworthy political detail: the İmâdîs were opposed to Amasya's emirate joining Ottoman rule, while another family called the Muslihîs was a great supporter of this joining. Again in the same place he records that when the army of Yıldırım Bâyezid approached Osmancık in 788 [1386], Abdurrahman Celâleddîn of the Muslihî family, who was among those who met the prince, was appointed kadılkudât of Amasya because Mevlânâ Müeyyedüddîn had been dismissed.
This information helps to understand why the career described in the entry took place outside Amasya. That Ahmed Çelebi served as kadı in Tokat and then in Ankara, after his father's office passed to a pro-Ottoman family, suggests that the family's influence in Amasya weakened with Ottoman protection. But this is an inference; Hüsameddin does not draw an explicit link between the two events.
The Gümüşlü Mosque
The mosque to which the Helkîs Garden was endowed is the building known today as the Gümüşlü Mosque. The mosque was first built in 1326, and its builder was Tâceddin Mahmud Çelebi. The original wooden-roofed building collapsed in the earthquake of 1419 and was built a second time in 1491 by Defterdar Mahmud Bey. The mosque, heavily damaged in the fire of 1612, was repaired by Şemseddin Pasha, and its repair in 1688 was had done by Gümüşlüzâde İbrahim Bey; its present name became established after this last repair. The building suffered another fire in 1721 and was repaired by the waqf's administrator, Mustafa Ağa, and in 1903 a porch was added to the north façade. The mosque stands today opposite the Hükümet Bridge, on a small rise looking down on Yavuz Selim Square. That is, Ahmed Çelebi's garden and the mosque to which it was endowed are very close to each other, on the same stretch of the bank.
The Location of the Helkîs Garden
The name of the garden preserves an old place name of Amasya. The bridge called the Hükümet Bridge today used to be called the Helkıs Bridge; in some sources it is noted that this name comes from the Helkıs Gate of the inner fortress. The Clock Tower that Hüsameddin shows as a boundary is also on the west side of this bridge. The tower was built in 1865 by Şair Ziya Pasha, mutasarrıf of Amasya, soon suffered a fire, was demolished in 1940 when the adjoining wooden bridge was rebuilt in reinforced concrete, and was rebuilt faithful to the original in 2002.
The Government House that Hüsameddin means by "today" is the wooden building in this area built in Ziya Pasha's time. According to Nurcan Yazıcı's study based on archival documents, construction of the new government house in place of the old one began in 1864, was finished in 1865, and the building was used until it burned in 1946. Thus the area Hüsameddin describes corresponds to the section of today's city center between the Hükümet Bridge and the Gümüşlü Mosque. Because the original of the waqf deed and Hüsameddin's copy are lost, it was not possible to compare these boundaries with another document.
No information on İmâdzâde Ahmed Çelebi was found in other sources apart from what Hüsameddin gives.
Bibliography
Primary sources
Academic studies
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