Âhû Hatun is a lady of Amasya recorded in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya) under the heading "Âhû Hâtun-Hevâyî". Everything known about her rests on this single, short entry: she was the daughter of Yûsuf Bey, son of Âsâyiş Bey (Âsâyiş Beyzâde), it is not known whose wife she was, and she endowed an estate to the tomb (türbe) she had built in Amasya. The word "Hevâyî" in the heading looks like a poet's pen name (mahlas) and has led to her being counted among the women poets of Amasya; yet the text of the entry says nothing of her poetry and quotes no couplet of hers. The same pen name also occurs for one of the poets known in early seventeenth-century Amasya as "the four elements of letters". There is no record that these two Hevâyîs were the same person, and the dates make such an identification difficult. This page sets out, with its sources, what is known about Âhû Hatun and why her poetic activity remains uncertain.

Life

Âhû Hatun's dates of birth and death, her husband and her children are unknown. Hüsameddin writes that she was from Amasya and the daughter of Âsâyiş Beyzâde Yûsuf Bey. He states plainly that he himself could not establish whose wife she was. The only concrete information about her comes from endowment records: Âhû Hatun endowed her Kuyucak estate in the Geldiklan district of Amasya to the tomb she had built in Amasya, and from the income of the endowment assigned wages to the reciters (cüzhan) who read the Qur'an in the tomb. Whether the tomb still stands, in which quarter of the city it was, and the present state of Kuyucak are unknown; the article on Âhû Hatun on this site that examines this entry likewise found no other record.

When Âhû Hatun lived can be inferred only from the identity of her father. According to Hüsameddin's records on the family of Âsâyiş Bey, the family's ancestor Âsâyiş Bey was the son of Sunkuroğlu İsâ Bey and the brother of Yahşî Bey, father of the grand vizier Bâyezîd Paşa; he was taken captive in 783 (1381) in the battle with Kadı Burhaneddin and fell as a martyr in Rumelia around 798 (1396). His sons were Yûsuf and Hamza Bey; Hamza Bey died in 804 (1402) at the Battle of Ankara, and his sons Sinâneddîn Yûsuf and Bedreddîn Dâvud Paşa were known as "the sons of Âsâyiş Bey". Elsewhere Hüsameddin mentions Yûsuf Âsâyiş Bey, known as "Enişte Âsâyiş Bey", as head of the delegation that invited Çelebi Mehmed (Mehmed I) to Amasya during the Interregnum, and speaks of Âsâyiş Beyzâde Sinan Paşa, beylerbey (governor-general) of Rumelia in the reign of Murad II. These records show that there was more than one Yûsuf in the family, and the kinship ties between them do not fully agree across Hüsameddin's different volumes. Even so, all the persons who could be "Âsâyiş Beyzâde Yûsuf Bey" lived between the end of the fourteenth century and the middle of the fifteenth. On this basis it may be supposed that Âhû Hatun lived in the fifteenth century; this is our inference.

Connection with Amasya

That Âhû Hatun was from Amasya is stated plainly in Hüsameddin's entry, and her endowment supports it. The entry reads:

Âhû Hâtun-Hevâyî Amasyalıdır. Âsâyiş Beyzâde Yûsuf Bey'in kızıdır. Kimin zevcesi olduğu anlaşılamadı. Ancak Geldiklan nâhiyesinde kâin Kuyucak mâlikânesini Amasya'da yaptırdığı türbesine vakfetdiği ve hâsılât-ı vakfiyesinden türbesi cüz-hânlarına vezâ'if ta'yîn eylediği kuyûd-ı vakfiyeden anlaşıldı.

In English: Âhû Hatun (Hevâyî) is from Amasya. She is the daughter of Âsâyiş Beyzâde Yûsuf Bey. Whose wife she was could not be ascertained. It is learned from the endowment records, however, that she endowed the Kuyucak estate in the Geldiklan district to the tomb she had built in Amasya, and from the income of the endowment assigned wages to those who recited the Qur'an at her tomb.

Âhû Hatun's family was among the leading Turkish beys of the period when Amasya passed under Ottoman rule. Bâyezîd Paşa, son of Âsâyiş Bey's brother Yahşî Bey, served as grand vizier in the reigns of Mehmed I and Murad II. Âsiye Hatun, daughter of Yahşî Bey and wife of Âsâyiş Bey's son Hamza Bey, also built a mescid (small mosque) east of the Upper Bath in İçerişehir, according to Hüsameddin. Women building tombs and mosques and founding endowments is a tradition that shows the family's place in the city.

The State of the Sources and the Debate

Is Hevâyî a Pen Name

The only ground for counting Âhû Hatun as a poet is the word "Hevâyî" in the heading of Hüsameddin's entry. The headings in the volumes of Hüsameddin's work containing the biographical entries follow a certain pattern: first the person's known name, then, after a short dash, a nickname, family name or title. Examples are "Bilâlî Mehmed Çelebi-Kara Kadı", "Âsiye Hâtun-Hâtun Paşa", "Bekî Hâtun-Hundî Paşa" and "Âsâyiş Bey-Sunkûrî". For poets the pen name usually stands in the first part of the heading: "Ânî Ahmed Çelebi-Mevlânâ Şemseddîn", "Âhî İbrâhim Efendi-Yeniçerizâde". In Âhû Hatun's entry, however, "Hevâyî" stands after the dash, in the place of a nickname. Judging by this pattern, the word could be a pen name but could equally be a nickname. For women he counted as poets Hüsameddin uses descriptions such as "şâirât-ı nisâdan" (among the women poets) or "şâire" (poetess); no such description appears in Âhû Hatun's entry. These observations are ours and do not prove that Hevâyî was not her pen name; they show only that her poetic activity is not documented in the source.

The Hevâyî of the Four Elements of Letters

In the entry on Âbî Mehmed Çelebi, Hüsameddin quotes the following sentence from the now lost tezkire (biographical anthology of poets) of Abdî Efendi: "Bu zamanın üdebâsından Âzerî, Türâbî, Hevâyî ile musâhabât ve mutâyebâtı vardır. Bunlara anâsır-ı erbaa-i edeb denirdi." The four poets with the pen names Âbî (water), Âzerî (fire), Türâbî (earth) and Hevâyî (air) were called "the four elements of letters" because their pen names matched the four elements of the old conception of nature. Of these four poets Âzerî died around 1025 (1616), Âbî in 1039 (1629-30) and Türâbî in 1040 (1630). Who Hevâyî was, however, cannot be learned from the lines quoted from the tezkire.

The article on Abdî Efendi's tezkire on this site, and the biographies of Âbî and Âzerî, drew attention to Hüsameddin's entry on Âhû Hatun with the pen name Hevâyî, but noted that there is no record that she was the Hevâyî of this foursome. The dates strengthen this caution. If Âhû Hatun's father was Âsâyiş Beyzâde Yûsuf Bey and this person was one of the candidates listed above, Âhû Hatun must have lived in the fifteenth century; the circle of the four elements, by contrast, belongs to the first quarter of the seventeenth century. The gap of nearly two centuries between them makes it almost impossible that the two Hevâyîs were the same person. This is our assessment; because of the uncertainty in Hüsameddin's genealogical records, no definite judgement can be given.

Another Poet with the Same Pen Name

The pen name Hevâyî was also used by other poets in Ottoman poetry. Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi and Beyânî describe a Hevâyî named Mustafa who in their own day was preacher (hatib) at the Abdülmü'min Mosque in Bursa and wrote commentaries on Sa'di's Gulistan and Bustan; Beyânî writes that he chose this pen name because the word "hevâ" means love, and both quote couplets of his. This poet of Bursa lived in the middle of the sixteenth century, and no connection with Amasya is shown for him. His poems should not be counted as the work of Âhû Hatun or of the Hevâyî of Amasya.

Poetry

Âhû Hatun's poems have not come down to us. No couplet of hers is quoted in Hüsameddin's entry; her name has not been found in the tezkires, the encyclopedias or the studies devoted to women poets. Whether she wrote poetry at all is not documented. Âhû Hatun thus remains, among the women poets of Amasya, a name whose poetic activity is unconfirmed, known only through a single word in Hüsameddin's heading. For the women of Amasya whose poetry is certain, see the article on the women poets of Amasya on this site.

Family and Circle

The Sunkuroğulları, to whom Âhû Hatun belonged, were among the leading families of Amasya in the period of the beyliks and the early Ottomans. According to Hüsameddin the family goes back to Sunkuroğlu İsâ Bey, whose sons were Yahşî Bey and Âsâyiş Bey. Yahşî Bey's son Bâyezîd Paşa became grand vizier, and his daughter Âsiye Hatun married Hamza Bey, son of Âsâyiş Bey. Âsâyiş Bey's grandsons Sinan and Dâvud Paşa rose as high as beylerbey and vizier. To which generation of this family Âhû Hatun belonged is unclear, because her father Yûsuf Bey cannot be identified with certainty.

Chronology

783 (1381): According to Hüsameddin, Âsâyiş Bey, ancestor of the family, is taken captive together with Hacı Şadgeldi Paşa in the battle with Kadı Burhaneddin.

798 (1396): The year in which Âsâyiş Bey is thought to have fallen as a martyr in Rumelia.

804 (1402): Hamza Bey, son of Âsâyiş Bey, dies at the Battle of Ankara.

1025 (1616): Death of Âzerî, one of the four elements of letters.

1039 (1629-30): Death of Âbî Mehmed Çelebi, one of the four elements of letters.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources