[409] Amasyalıdır. İstanbul’da Fâtih civârında mahallesi ve câmii olan Amasyalı Çıkrıkçı Kemâleddîn Mehmed Çelebi bin Ahmed bin Yahyâ mahdûmudur. Amasya’da doğdu. Sultân Bâyezîd Hân’ın cülûsundan sonra pederi ile beraber İstanbul’a gitdi. Orada tahsîl-i ulûm edib ders-i âm oldu.
Ba’dehû müderris olup silk-i kudâta girdi. Sancaklara kadı iken 931’de Sivas Defterdârı olup birkaç defa Beylerbeyliğine vekâlet etdi. 938’de vefât eyledi. Âlim, hüsn-i idâreye vâkıf, muhâsib bir zât idi. Biraderi Yahyâ Efendi’dir. Mahdûmu Şâm Defterdârı Mehmed Efendi 970’de ve hafîdi Yahyâ Efendi de Şâm Defterdârı iken 1000’de vefât etdikleri “el-Kevâkibü’s-sâira fî ayâni’l-mieti’l-âşira” da yazılıdır.
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya. He was the son of Çıkrıkçı Kemâleddîn Mehmed Çelebi, son of Ahmed, son of Yahyâ, of Amasya, whose neighbourhood and mosque are in the vicinity of Fatih in Istanbul. He was born in Amasya. After Sultan Bayezid Han came to the throne, he went to Istanbul with his father. There he pursued learning and became a ders-i âm (a scholar authorised to teach in a madrasa).
Later he became a müderris (madrasa professor) and entered the career of kadı (judge). While serving as a kadı in various sanjaks, he became treasurer (defterdar) of Sivas in 931 [1524-25] and several times acted as deputy to the beylerbeyi (provincial governor-general). He died in 938 [1531-32]. He was a learned man, skilled in administration and well versed in matters of accounts. His brother was Yahyâ Efendi. It is recorded in the work "el-Kevâkibü's-sâire fî a'yâni'l-mieti'l-âşira" (The Wandering Stars on the Notables of the Tenth Century) that his son Mehmed Efendi, treasurer of Damascus, died in 970 [1562-63], and that his grandson Yahyâ Efendi, also treasurer of Damascus, died in 1000 [1591-92].
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- tahsîl-i ulûm: learning the sciences, pursuing education
- ders-i âm: a scholar authorised to teach in a madrasa
- silk-i kudât: the career of the judges
- vekâlet etmek: to act temporarily in someone's place
- hüsn-i idâre: good administration
- muhâsib: one versed in accounts, an accounting expert
- hafîd: grandson
His Father's Mosque in Istanbul: Sarıgüzel or Çıkrıkçı Kemaleddin Mosque
The building constructed by the man Hüsameddin calls "Çıkrıkçı Kemâleddîn Mehmed Çelebi of Amasya, whose neighbourhood and mosque are in the vicinity of Fatih in Istanbul" is known today in Istanbul's historical records as the Sarıgüzel Mosque. Its other name is the Çıkrıkçı Kemaleddin Mosque, and this mosque in the Fatih district has a waqf deed dated 1485. The date of the deed agrees with the information Hüsameddin gives: Bayezid II came to the throne in 1481, and Kemâleddîn Mehmed Çelebi settled in Istanbul with his son after that. The waqf of the mosque appears to have been established about four years later.
The reason the mosque was later called Sarıgüzel is Sarıgörez Nûreddin Efendi, a well-known scholar of the time of Bayezid II and Yavuz Selim. Because this scholar's house stood at Kıztaşı in Istanbul, near the mosque built by Çıkrıkçı Kemâleddin, the mosque and the market around it came to be known by his name; Nûreddin Efendi and some members of his family were also buried in the cemetery of this mosque. The name of the Sarıgüzel district of Istanbul comes from this. The name Sarıgörez has been wrongly read in some studies as Sarı Gürz, Sarı Kerez or Sarı Gez. The mosque was demolished in 1944 and turned into a vacant lot; it was registered in 2018 upon an application by the Society of Friends of Istanbul Historical Monuments (İSTED). Today the name of the building survives in the district, while its founder, Çıkrıkçı Kemâleddin of Amasya, is mentioned only in old waqf records.
The Family's Profession and the Treasurership of Damascus
Ahmed Efendi's life is a typical example of the sixteenth-century Ottoman officials who rose through the learned (ilmiye) career and passed to financial offices: after serving as müderris and kadı, he became treasurer of Sivas in 931 [1524-25] and acted for the province in the absence of its beylerbeyi. Hüsameddin's description of him as "muhâsib" points to his skill in accounts and finance. Through the Damascus treasurerships of his son and grandson, the family also held office in Syria, which had passed under Ottoman rule after Yavuz Selim's conquests of 1516-1517.
The el-Kevâkibü's-sâire, from which Hüsameddin takes this information, is an Arabic biographical work by the Damascene scholar Necmeddin el-Gazzî (977-1061 / 1570-1651), collecting the lives of important figures who lived in the tenth (sixteenth) century. Gazzî compiled his information on people from Syria, Cairo and the Haramayn largely orally, while he summarised the biographies of Ottoman statesmen from Taşköprizâde's eş-Şakâiku'n-Nu'mâniyye and the travelogue of his father Bedreddin el-Gazzî. It is therefore natural that two Ottoman treasurers who served in Damascus appear in this work. The entries on Mehmed Efendi and Yahyâ Efendi could not be separately verified against the text of the work.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 130–130. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
Other sources