AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

Ahmed Kutbî Çelebi — Câmîzâde

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 126 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Mevlânâ Abdurrahman Câmî Hazretlerinin akrabâsından ve Amasya ulemâsından Mevlânâ Kutbeddîn Mahmûd Câmî mahdûmu olduğu kendi imzâsından anlaşıldı. Halk ve şu’arâ arasında “Kutbî Ahmed Çelebi” demekle meşhûr olduğundan tercemesi harf-i kâf’da gelir.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

It was understood from his own signature that he was the son of Mevlânâ Kutbeddîn Mahmûd Câmî, a relative of His Eminence Mevlânâ Abdurrahman Câmî and one of the scholars of Amasya. Since he was known among the people and poets as "Kutbî Ahmed Çelebi," his life story will come under the letter kâf.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • akrabâ: relatives, kin
  • mahdûm: son
  • şu'arâ: poets
  • terceme: here, life story, biography
  • harf-i kâf: the letter kâf; the section of the book's alphabetical order for names beginning with K

Molla Câmî and the Câmîzâdes in Amasya

Mevlânâ Abdurrahman Câmî, with whom Hüsameddin establishes a kinship, is one of the greatest names of fifteenth-century Persian literature and of Naqshbandi Sufism. He was born on 23 Şâban 817 [7 November 1414] in the town of Harcird, attached to the city of Câm in Khorasan, grew up in Herat, and died in 898 [1492]. He had a close relationship with the Ottoman court: Mehmed the Conqueror sent an envoy with gifts to invite him to Istanbul, he corresponded with Bayezid II, and he wrote the third part of his mesnevi Silsiletü'z-zeheb in his name. In Ömer Okumuş's entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, of Câmî's family only a brother named Mevlânâ Muhammed, who died young, is mentioned. The kinship of Kutbeddîn Mahmûd Câmî, who settled in Amasya, with the famous poet rests on the nisba in the signature Hüsameddin saw and could not be verified by another source. It should also be kept in mind that the nisba "Câmî" can be used for anyone who comes from the city of Câm.

Prince Ahmed's Nişancı

This short entry does not show the real importance of Kutbî Ahmed Çelebi; the information about him is scattered in other parts of the work. In the entry on Prince Ahmed, Hüsameddin writes that in 898 [1492-93] Ahmed bin Kutbeddîn el-Câmî, one of the "ulemâ-yı A'câm" (Persian scholars), became the prince's nişancı and was called "Kutbî Ahmed Çelebi." In the same entry it is related that after 904 [1498-99] the nişancı gained excessive standing with the prince and began to complain to him about the members of the divan, and that in 905 [1499-1500] he was dismissed and Sibekzâde Ahmed Efendi was put in his place. In the volume of the work that tells the general history of Amasya a more detailed picture is drawn: Prince Ahmed was very inclined toward Persian scholars and seyyids; his physician Kutb-ı Şirvânî and his nişancı Ahmed-i Câmî showed Persian literature, language, and statesmen as very lofty in the prince's eyes. Quoting from the historical compilation of Münîrî Mehmed Çelebi, Hüsameddin describes the nişancı as "a scholar, a man of letters, and a poet, but a bigoted, arrogant Persian," and relates that he did not get along with Tâceddin Pasha and the kadı of Amasya Ebussuûd Mehmed Efendi, that he complained about them to the prince, and that as a result Tâceddin Pasha was sent in 905 to the beylerbeyiship of Kefe. Hüsameddin also notes that he saw the signature "Ahmed bin Kutbeddîn el-Câmî" in the waqf deed of Tâceddin Pasha; the phrase "it was understood from his own signature" in the entry must refer to this document.

A small contradiction draws attention among this information. According to the entry on Prince Ahmed, Kutbî Ahmed Çelebi was dismissed in 905; in the entry on Sibekzâde Ahmed Efendi, however, it is said that Sibekzâde came to the nişancılık "on the passing (irtihâl) of Kutbî Ahmed Efendi," that is, upon his death. Which is correct could not be determined with the available sources.

The detailed biography that the entry says "comes under the letter kâf" could not be found as a separate entry in the published volumes we scanned. In the comparative lists of sixteenth-century poet tezkires, a poet with the pen name "Kutbî" appears in the tezkires of Ahdî and Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi; whether this poet is the Kutbî Ahmed Çelebi of Amasya could not be verified.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Volume 6 contents

Karekod · QR code

Bu sayfanın karekodudur. A5 olarak yazdırıp asabilir ya da yapıştırabilirsiniz; okutan kişi doğrudan bu içeriğe ulaşır.

This QR code links to this page. Print it on A5 and post it anywhere; scanning it opens this content.