For generations the headship of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge and the office of Mesnevî reader had stayed in the family of es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ahmed Sâlim Dede: his father Mehmed Sâbit Dede, his grandfather Mehmed Kâmî Dede and their forebears had held them. This Mevlevî çelebi (a member of a sheikhly Mevlevî family) took the lodge's seat himself in the first half of the nineteenth century, also sat on the town's councils, and died in 1254 (1838-39). In the very first sentence of his entry Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar introduces him as one of "Amasya'nın şu'arâ ve urefâsı", the poets and men of spiritual learning of Amasya, and at its end calls him "şâir, zarîf, hâtır-şinâs bir çelebi", a poet, refined and considerate. No example of his poetry is known. The page Ahmed Sâlim Dede Efendi-Mevlevî Şeyhi es-Seyyid el-Hâc, which explains the Mevlevî terms, gives the entry as it stands.

Hüsameddin's Record

The entry is in the sixth volume and consists of two paragraphs:

Ahmed Sâlim Dede Efendi-Mevlevî Şeyhi es-Seyyid el-Hâc Amasya'nın şu'arâ ve urefâsından meşâyih-i mevlevîyeden es-Seyyid Mehmed Sabit Dede bin es-Seyyid Mehmed Kamî Dede bin eş-Şeyh Ahmed Dede Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. Amasya ve Konya'da tahsîl-i ilm ü marifet ve adâb-ı mevlevîyeyi tekmil ederek 1238'de pederinin vefâtı üzerine mesnevî-hân ve 1243'de ammizâdesi eş-Şeyh Mehmed Efendi'nin vefâtı ile Amasya mevlevî-hânesi şeyhi oldu. 1248'de a'yân-ı meclis ve 1251'de idare meclis a'zâsı olup 1254'de vefât etdi. Urefâ ve udebâdan şâir, zarîf, hâtır-şinâs bir çelebi idi. Mahdûmu Mustafa Sakıp Dede olup 1281'de ve bunun mahdûmu Ahmed Arif Dede 1313'de vefât etdi.

Rendered into English: he was the son of es-Seyyid Mehmed Sâbit Dede, one of the poets and men of spiritual learning of Amasya and one of the Mevlevî sheikhs; Sâbit Dede was the son of es-Seyyid Mehmed Kâmî Dede, and he the son of Sheikh Ahmed Dede Efendi. He studied in Amasya and Konya and completed the Mevlevî discipline. In 1238, on his father's death, he became Mesnevî reader, and in 1243, on the death of his cousin Sheikh Mehmed Efendi, sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge. In 1248 he became a member of the council of notables and in 1251 of the administrative council, and he died in 1254. He was a poet among the people of spiritual learning and letters, a refined and considerate çelebi. His son Mustafa Sâkıb Dede died in 1281, and that son's son Ahmed Ârif Dede in 1313.

The Family and the Lodge

Other entries by Hüsameddin take the family's history further back. In the entry on his father Sâbit Mehmed Dede the line is given thus: Sâbit Dede was the son of Kâmî Mehmed Dede, sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge, who died in 1227; Kâmî was the son of Gavsî Ahmed Dede, he of Saîd İbrâhim Dede, and he of Ebû Saîd Ahmed Dede; at the head stands Hacı Mehmed Çelebi. Hüsameddin adds that the family is "mervî", reported, to descend from Sheikh Cû'î Mehmed Dede, one of the early Mevlevî sheikhs of Amasya. According to the entry on Ebû Saîd Ahmed Dede, this branch was called the "Hacıoğulları" or "Hacı Dedezâdes". The lodge founded by Sheikh Cû'î and the family's office of Mesnevî reader there are described in the article Tomb of Sheikh Cui Baba, and Cû'î himself on the page Cû'î Mehmed Çelebi.

Ahmed Sâlim Dede's accession to the headship belongs to a rivalry between two branches of the same family. His father Sâbit Dede became sheikh of the lodge when his own father died in 1227, but according to Hüsameddin he was removed a year later through the efforts of es-Seyyid Mehmed Dede, son of his father's cousin Hüseyin Dede, and went to Konya. Mehmed Dede then held the headship for many years. Sâlim Dede could take the seat only after his death, and after Sâlim the headship passed back to Hüseyin Dede's branch, to Hasan Dede and his brother Ali Rızâ Dede. In the years when Hüsameddin was writing his book, the sheikh of the lodge was Cemâleddin Mehmed Dede of this branch.

State of the Sources

Three records of these years in the family's history do not agree. Ahmed Sâlim Dede's entry says that his father died in 1238 and that Sâlim became sheikh in 1243, when his cousin Sheikh Mehmed Efendi died. The entry on his father Sâbit Dede says instead that Sâbit died in 1243 after a long stay in Konya. In the first volume of the book, in the section listing the sheikhs of the lodges of Amasya, it is recorded that Sâbit Dede died in 1228 while Mesnevî reader of Sheikh Cû'î's lodge, that Seyyid Mehmed Dede, after about fifteen years as sheikh, was killed in 1244 on his way back from Konya, and that "Sâbit Dedezâde es-Seyyid Ahmed Sâlim Dede" succeeded him.

This yields 1228, 1238 and 1243 for the father's death, and 1243 and 1244 for Sâlim Dede's accession. The statement that Seyyid Mehmed Dede's headship lasted "about fifteen years" fits the span between 1228 and 1243-44; but Sâbit Dede dying in 1228 cannot be reconciled with the account of his long years in Konya. Which date is correct cannot be worked out from these records. A further difference is that Seyyid Mehmed Dede's death is an ordinary "vefât" in the entry but a killing on the road in the first volume.

His Poetry

Hüsameddin twice calls Sâlim Dede a poet, and says of his father Sâbit Dede too "urefâ-yı Mevleviyyeden şâir, edîb", a poet and man of letters among the Mevlevî people of spiritual learning. Neither the father's entry nor the son's quotes a couplet, and no divan or poem is named. Not a single line by Sâlim Dede has been found.

Chronology

1227 (1812): His grandfather Kâmî Mehmed Dede dies; his father Sâbit Dede is briefly sheikh.

1238 (1822-23): According to his own entry, he becomes Mesnevî reader on his father's death.

1243-1244 (1827-29): He becomes sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge.

1248 (1832-33): He joins the town's council of notables.

1251 (1835-36): He becomes a member of the administrative council.

1254 (1838-39): He dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources