In the early Ottoman period there lived a man from Amasya who devoted his pen to the upbringing of children and to the rules of everyday conduct: Ali bin Hüseyin al-Amâsî, known as Alâeddin Çelebi. He was neither a vizier nor a commander. He taught at a sıbyan mektebi, the primary school where children received their first education. His best-known work, the Tarîku'l-Edeb written in 1453, made him one of the early and notable figures of Turkish educational thought. What we know about his life is limited, yet the pages of his book show quite plainly what a teacher believed, what he expected of pupils and parents, and even why he complained of his own times. Manuscript copies of the work are scattered across libraries stretching from Tehran to Baku.

His Name, His Nisba, and the Authors Confused with Him

The sources mention two different people under the name Ali bin Hüseyin al-Amâsî. One lived in the fifteenth century and wrote the Tarîku'l-Edeb; the other lived in the seventeenth century and wrote a treatise on prosody. This distinction, reported by Bursalı Mehmed Tâhir, Menderes Coşkun and Halil Çeçen, arose because the two authors were frequently confused with each other. The full name of the fifteenth-century author is Ali bin Hüseyin al-Amâsî Alâeddin Çelebi. The nisba al-Amâsî in his name shows that he was from Amasya; the author recorded this name and nisba himself in the prefaces of his works.

The prosody treatise at the root of the confusion is titled Risâletün mine'l-arûz ve ıstılâhât-ı şi'r. In four sections it treats poetic terms, the riddle (muamma), the figures of rhetoric and the metres of aruz. In the copy in the Nafiz Paşa collection of the Süleymaniye Library, which Menderes Coşkun published, the author's name appears as Ali bin Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin al-Amâsî; another copy at Istanbul University gives only Ali b. Hüseyin al-Amâsî. This second record explains well why two separate authors came to be taken for one person. Mehmet Şeker and Ahmet Naim Çiçekler, in the new edition they published in 2023, list the treatise among the works of the author of the Tarîku'l-Edeb, but they also note that its language bears the features of late Old Anatolian Turkish. Given that the copies of the treatise differ from one another and that no critical edition has yet been made, the view that there were two separate authors is the more widely accepted one today.

What Is Known of His Life

His years of birth and death are unknown. Nihad Sami Banarlı gives the date of death as 875 AH (1470-71), but in the same passage he notes that the reports describing him as the teacher of Börkçü Paşazâde Hızır Bey, who fell as a martyr at the Battle of Nicopolis, are accounts in need of examination. Halil Çeçen, who prepared the work for publication, asks that this date be treated with caution, because by his own account the author was already quite old in 1453, when he wrote the Tarîku'l-Edeb. His remarks in the book show that he lived through the reigns of Murad II and Mehmed II (the Conqueror). The arrangement of the work, its sources and its quotations show that besides a sound training in Arabic and Persian he had also studied the Islamic sciences.

The clearest clue to his profession lies in the work itself. Kâtip Çelebi records that the book was written for the child of one of the statesmen of Mehmed II's reign, which strengthens the view that the author was a teacher or a madrasa professor. The wording of the preface of the Tâcü'l-Edeb, the second form of the book, likewise suggests that he taught the children of distinguished families. What he says about himself, however, is far from cheerful. In one passage of the Tarîku'l-Edeb he writes that he toiled and strove from childhood to old age, yet found neither loyalty in a friend, nor news from an intimate, nor a token of favour from a patron. He likens loyalty to the phoenix that does not exist and the mine of generosity to the elixir that stays hidden; he says that where he hoped for peace he met discord, where he looked for unity he met division, that he received evil from those he had helped, and that even those who had been his pupils ended by denying him and turning into his enemies.

The Family of Yörgüç Pasha and Hızır Bey

Bursalı Mehmed Tâhir, without citing a source, names Alâeddin Çelebi as the teacher of Yörgüç Paşazâde Hızır Bey of the Mihaloğlu line. Şeker and Çiçekler, relying on Bursalı's information, write that Yörgüç Pasha was appointed sanjak governor of Amasya in 826 (1423). It is possible that the author who gave lessons to the pasha's son was in Amasya in those years. This connection does not rest on any firm document and remains a possibility.

The sources disagree about Yörgüç Pasha's lineage. While some studies following Bursalı link him to the Mihaloğulları, Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar, in his Amasya Tarihi, presents the family of Yörgüç Pasha as a branch of the "Atabeg dynasty" descended from Nâsıreddin Ahmed Bey, atabeg of the Seljuk sultan Mes'ud II; the Hoca Mehmed Paşazâde and Hızır Paşazâde families are other branches of the same line. The inscription over the door of the Yörgüç Pasha Mosque in Amasya also states that the building was erected in 834 (1430) by "Atabeg Yörgüç Pasha." This inscription can be read as a document supporting Hüsâmeddin's view; where the Mihaloğlu connection comes from, on the other hand, is unclear.

Hızır Bey's life acquires a clearer outline from what Hüsâmeddin relates. Hızır Bey, son of Yörgüç Pasha, governor of Amasya, entered the ranks of the emirs while his father was still alive and became sanjak governor of Samsun in 831 (1427-28). In the same years, during the campaign against Hüseyin Bey of Canik, who refused to recognise Murad II, the forces of Yörgüç Paşazâde Hızır Bey supported Taşanoğlu Hasan Bey. In 838 (1434-35), during the governorship of Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed) in Amasya, Hızır Bey was attached to his retinue and became warden of Amasya. He fell as a martyr while fighting at the Battle of Varna in 1444; among the men of Amasya who lost their lives at Varna, Hüsâmeddin names Yörgüç Paşazâde Hızır and Mustafa Beys in particular.

This information does not agree with Banarlı's statement that Hızır Bey died a martyr at Nicopolis. The Battle of Nicopolis was fought in 1396, and it seems unlikely that a son of Yörgüç Pasha was then of an age to take lessons from a teacher, or in a position to fight; Hüsâmeddin, for his part, clearly gives Varna as the place of his death. If Alâeddin Çelebi did teach Hızır Bey, that teaching must fall in the years before the 1420s, when Hızır Bey was still young; this is an inference. That the family of Yörgüç Pasha took care over the education of its children is known from another record as well: the Baghdad-born astronomer Şemseddin Ahmed Çelebi came to Amasya during Yörgüç Pasha's governorship, became tutor to the sons of the Yörgüç Paşazâde household, and is recorded in the city until 851 (1447). It may be supposed that more than one teacher served the same household; Alâeddin Çelebi's connection with this circle, however, cannot be confirmed by any document.

The Teacher of the Primary School

The sıbyan mektebi was the first-level school that taught children the letters, reading, the Qur'an and the basics of religion. In fifteenth-century Ottoman lands education began in the neighbourhood school and continued at various levels up to the madrasas. The Tarîku'l-Edeb shows clearly that at this first level education was shaped largely by the personality of the teacher, which is also why the author devotes a separate chapter to the qualities of the teacher. Alâeddin Çelebi was a teacher at such a school. Having done this modest work, which demands patience, gives his book an air close to a set of lesson notes. The author does not build an abstract theory of education; he speaks of situations met in the classroom and of the obligations of pupil, parent and teacher towards one another.

Small but valuable details of the daily routine of the school also emerge from the text. The teacher is assisted by a mektep halîfesi, an assistant; tasks are distributed among the children, and a job the teacher has given to one child is not to be passed on to another. There are girls in the school as well, and the author wants them seated on a separate side or near the small children, not next to the older boys. From these lines Şeker and Çiçekler conclude that in those years girls and boys were taught in the same room, but that this was arranged with a certain care.

Why the Book Was Written and Its Two Titles

The story told about the reason the work was written shows well how close the book is to its author's profession. A parent hands his child over to al-Amâsî to be educated. Some time passes and the child shows no visible progress. In the middle of a gathering the parent rounds on the teacher: "O teacher, did your own master never teach you manners, that you have not taught manners and upbringing to this son of mine?" In other words, he unjustly and unkindly criticises the teacher by claiming that he never received a proper upbringing from his own master. A man of eloquence who is present says that no one can educate those without aptitude, and that a teacher's influence is limited by the child's capacity. Al-Amâsî is grieved by these words but bears them patiently; he courteously closes the argument and writes this book to show the education he had received from his master. In his own words, he plunged the diver of reason into the sea of thought, brought up and gathered the jewels of good manners and the pearls of wisdom, so that the ignorant man "might know whether my master gave me an upbringing." This account comes from the preface of the work; there is no independent record of the incident.

The fact that the book circulated under two titles and with two different prefaces adds a second layer to the story. The author first wrote the work under the title Tarîku'l-Edeb. In a copy in the Süleymaniye Library, however, the text bears the title Tâcü'l-Edeb and the reason for its writing is told quite differently: this time a distinguished father, a man of feeling who loves the learned, brings his precious son to the author and asks him to teach the boy knowledge and manners, not to neglect his instruction in writing, and to guard him from evil. For the sake of this "old friend" the author offers his book as a guide on the path of good manners to the boy and to young men like him, and gives it the title Tâcü'l-Edeb "after the name of that noble line." Kâtip Çelebi recorded the work in his Keşfü'z-Zunûn under this second title; a passage published by Ali Emîrî Efendi bears the same name. Şeker and Çiçekler believe that the author, finding no patron to whom he could present the Tarîku'l-Edeb and receive a reward, altered the text slightly and dedicated it to a family under a new title.

The same scholars suggest that the father who brought his child was a man named Tâcî, and that this may have been Hacı Beyzâde Tâceddin İbrâhim Pasha, known in Amasya as Tâcî Bey. Hüsâmeddin's Amasya Tarihi presents this man as the founder of the "Tâcî Beyzâde" branch, known in Amasya and Istanbul, of the Şirvânî family, descended from Sheikh Alâeddin Ali Şirvânî, a figure of the years around 800 AH. According to Hüsâmeddin, Tâcî Bey entered the service of Şehzade Bayezid, governor of Amasya, in 866 (1461-62), then became the prince's nişancı (chancellor), and in 898 became emir of the divan and received the title Tâceddin Pasha; the same work relates that he built a mosque, an imaret (public kitchen) and a bath in Köprü (present-day Vezirköprü). Latîfî and Âşık Çelebi mention him as a poet, stylist and calligrapher; it is also recorded that he served in Amasya as Şehzade Bayezid's treasurer and as military commander of Amasya. The sources disagree about the date of his death: the chronogram verses in the letter collection of his son Sâdî Çelebi show that he died in 890 (1485), whereas Hüsâmeddin still mentions Tâceddin Pasha in office in 898 and 904.

Both of Tâcî Bey's sons were among the well-known figures raised by Amasya: the poet Câfer Çelebi, later chancellor and kadiasker, was born in Amasya in August 1452, and his brother Sâdî Çelebi around 871 (1466-67). When the Tarîku'l-Edeb was written, Câfer was only one year old. If one takes into account the school-starting age the author recommends, four years, four months and four days, it may be supposed that the Tâcü'l-Edeb version dates from after 1456-57; this is an inference drawn from comparing the two sources, and the identification of Tâcî itself remains a conjecture of the scholars.

The Date of Composition and the Conquest Couplet

Whichever title he uses, the author states clearly in the closing section the year in which the book was completed: "Praise be to God for its completion and thanks for His bounty; this book was composed and written in the eight hundred and fifty-seventh year of the Hijra, at the date of the conquest of Constantinople." The date of composition is thus fixed as 857/1453. Immediately afterwards he quotes a chronogram couplet composed for the conquest of Istanbul: "Those of old found no chance to conquer Constantinople; Sultan Muhammad conquered it, and those who came after wrote its date." The sources state both that this couplet was composed by Mehmed II himself and that it was composed for the conquest by someone named Hızır Bey.

The Sources and Contents of the Tarîku'l-Edeb

The author's best-known surviving work is the Tarîku'l-Edeb, written in Turkish prose. It is a didactic treatise aimed at the education of children, and it presents the rules of manners and morals to be observed from birth to death as a kind of handbook of life. It opens with praise of God and blessings on the Prophet, is divided after a preface into chapters whose Arabic headings are accompanied by Turkish equivalents, and ends with a conclusion. Some studies give the number of chapters as twenty-five; with Mehmet Şeker's addition twenty-seven chapters are spoken of, and the 2023 edition also follows the arrangement of preface, twenty-seven chapters and conclusion.

As the author himself states in the preface, the main foundation of the work is the Qur'an; twelve verses are quoted in the text. The second source is the hadith of the Prophet, and eighty-one hadiths appear in the book. Twelve sayings of Ali are quoted, and one saying each of Husayn and Imam al-Shafi'i also finds a place in the book. Besides these there are wise sayings of physicians, Persian verses taken mostly from the Gulistan of Sa'di of Shiraz, and here and there Arabic and Turkish poems. Without naming them, the author also quotes from works of jurisprudence called the Muhît and the Hulâsa; Şeker and Çiçekler suppose these to be one of the Muhîts of al-Sarakhsi or Radiyy al-Din al-Sarakhsi and the Khulasat al-Fatawa of Tahir b. Ahmad al-Bukhari.

The book's subjects are wide-ranging. Among them are the ranks and rights of parents, upbringing within the family, which teacher to choose when a child is sent to school, the teacher's method, the etiquette of reciting the Qur'an, service and respect towards the teacher, learning manners, learning to write, the excellence of knowledge, the etiquette of giving and returning greetings and of speech, words that bring a person close to unbelief, the etiquette of eating, drinking water, walking and sitting, the etiquette of ablution, the call to prayer and entering the mosque, the explanation of the obligatory and the customary, the necessary and the recommended, the Friday and funeral prayers, the etiquette of entering the bathhouse, wise sayings, and the natures of various peoples. The book thus serves at once as a treatise on education, a book of social etiquette, and a handbook containing the basic religious knowledge every Muslim should have. Bursalı Mehmed Tâhir attributed two further works to Alâeddin Çelebi, a verse work called Nasâyihu'l-Müslimîn and a Turkish commentary on Sura Yasin; no further information about them has been found.

Language and Style

Al-Amâsî uses a plain Turkish, mindful of the children who would read the book and of the teachers who would instruct them. The text reflects the features of fifteenth-century Turkish and is supported here and there by Persian couplets. Almost every chapter refers to Sa'di and to religious and mystical sources, above all the Qur'an. This shows that the author had a command of Arabic and Persian and was widely read. In his ideas he chose to convey familiar religious teachings in intelligible language rather than to build an original theory. In the prefaces, by contrast, an ornate chancery prose full of rhymed phrases appears.

The linguistic value of the work has also been studied separately. Halil Çeçen wrote an article listing one by one the idioms found in the book. Among them are some still in use today, such as ad çıkarmak, and içmek, dile gelmek, emek çekmek, gazaba gelmek and düşman tutmak. Expressions such as can Hakk'a ısmarlamak, can Hakk'a vâsıl olmak or fesâda varmak, on the other hand, have been forgotten over time. According to Çeçen, these idioms show how speech grew more refined over the centuries, moving away from coarseness, and hence how literary courtesy worked its way into the language. İnci Kasımlı, who studied the Baku copies, also draws attention to archaic Turkish words in the text that are no longer used in the Turkish of Turkey but survive in some dialects. The book is therefore a valuable source both for the history of education and for the historical development of Turkish.

Child Rearing and the Family

For al-Amâsî the first educational institution is the family, and the first educators are the mother and father. Education begins in the family and continues at school under the teacher's supervision; family and school are two separate institutions that complement each other. When a child is born into a Muslim family, three duties fall to the parents: to give it a good name such as Abdullah, Abdurrahman or Abdürrahim, to have it circumcised before sending it to school, and to start it on reading. The author advises that the child be raised gently from an early age, that wrong behaviour not be overlooked, that not every wish of the child be granted, and that it not be dressed and fed without measure. He does not approve of a child spending the night at other people's houses, because he says it might be abused there. The child's obedience to its mother and father is also part of this order.

The author also distinguishes which part of upbringing falls to the father and which to the teacher. He lists such rules of conduct as rising respectfully for someone who sneezes or drinks water, kissing hands on leaving the bathhouse, sitting on one's knees, refraining from sulking and insolence, standing up when someone arrives, turning his shoes around for him when he leaves and opening the door for him, and says: "These points of upbringing are the father's duty; they have nothing to do with the teacher." In the same chapter he recommends that children be accustomed to giving away something they hold, so as to learn generosity. He considers it harmful to let them loose at a young age in the street and the market, to have them present in the crowded entertainments of adults, or to make them keen on musical instruments. A child who reaches seven should be started on prayer, table manners should be taught at this age, and a child who has turned ten should sleep apart from its mother and sisters. Until the age of twelve, until it reaches the maturity to tell good from bad, it is to be warned against keeping company with strangers and people of bad character.

The circle of friends is another subject the author dwells on. He believes that a child's friendship with children more advanced than itself will help it develop; this view has been compared with the idea of peer teaching in modern educational science. He says that whoever befriends the good is spoken of well and whoever keeps company with the bad is spoken of badly, and that a person is judged by the people he is with even if he does not do what the bad man does. His advice about money is also noteworthy. He wants small children not to be accustomed to spending much money, but wants their pocket money not to be lacking once they are older; otherwise, he says, the child will look to the hands of others and draw close to strangers.

What he says about daughters is particularly striking among the texts of the period. The author wants fathers to love their daughters more and to show them abundant tenderness; his reason is that girls cannot express their wishes openly and cannot assert themselves by behaving boldly as boys do. He also quotes a hadith saying that for parents who raise their daughters while enduring hardship, the daughters will be a veil between them and hell on the Day of Judgement. In the chapter on the rights of parents he recalls the verse which says that one should not say even "uff" to one's mother and father, and he tells the story of the man in Mecca who had carried his aged mother on his back around the Kaaba seven times. The sheikh tells him that even if he lived a thousand years, he could not repay the right of a single night on which his mother broke her sleep to nurse him. The story of Uways al-Qarani, who gave up seeing the Prophet in his house for the sake of serving his mother, is among the examples told in the same chapter.

Teacher and Pupil

The author asks that a parent who is going to send his child to school first choose a good teacher. In his view the teacher should be devout, calm and forgiving, should keep away from sin and be learned; he should not be angry or unbalanced, should be trustworthy, and many should benefit from him. He should not occupy himself with any other work, such as trade, and his sole occupation should be teaching. He should not attach himself to sultans, emirs or judges, should not fall under anyone's influence, least of all that of the great men of the state, and should treat his pupils without discrimination. Among his counsels is also that the teacher should not accept any gift or help that would leave him under an obligation to the pupil or the pupil's family.

The recommended age for starting school is four years, four months and four days; the child should be handed over to the teacher on a blessed day, and Wednesday, which scholars regard as auspicious for beginning study, is the most suitable day for this. The author also quotes a tradition that whoever begins a book on a Wednesday will have his death postponed until he finishes the book, even if his appointed hour has come. When the child first arrives he should be approached patiently for three days. This counsel has been read in different ways: according to Cem Topsakal, the author wants the child to be treated kindly for the first three days and no discouraging word to be spoken to him; Şeker and Çiçekler, however, render the text as saying that during these three days the child should be neither lavishly indulged nor have his ears pulled and be scolded, since children are at first as skittish as a wild wolf.

Individual differences have an important place in al-Amâsî's approach. The teacher should first come to know the pupil's nature; it is wrong to give a clever child too little to learn or to teach him the same lesson as a slow child. Assignments should be given according to the child's level and capacity, knowledge should be offered little by little, and no child should be given up on. A child should not be beaten for failing to know a letter or a word; the subject should be made easier and taught. He expresses in verse how hard it is to deal with pupils lacking interest and ability; yet he says that with temrin, that is, practice, the minds of children who seem dull can open, and that sometimes they may even surpass clever children. Assessing these views, Yahya Akyüz notes that the ideas of knowing the child, educating according to individual differences, and the belief that with extra effort by the teacher nearly all pupils can succeed correspond to basic principles of present-day pedagogy. He reinforces the point that one should not move on to another subject until a subject has been fully learned with the couplet "a half-jurist ruins your faith, a half-physician your life"; Cem Topsakal interprets this understanding as a view that in places overlaps with the mastery learning model developed in the twentieth century by Benjamin Bloom.

What is expected of the pupil is also clear. The teacher should be respected even if he taught only a single letter; wherever he is seen, the pupil should rise and kiss his hand; even if in later years the pupil surpasses him in learning, he should not belittle him or throw his ignorance in his face, and he should bear the teacher's wrong behaviour as one bears a doctor. Unless asked to do something contrary to religious law and justice, the pupil carries out the task his teacher commands willingly and without delay; in the author's view, a service not performed at the moment it is commanded earns no gratitude. When the teacher asks a question, the person asked should answer, and another child should not get in ahead of him. Apart from separate subjects, he prefers that a child not be taken from one teacher to another, and that a pupil at primary level be taught by the same teacher; he also accepts that the Qur'an teacher and the writing teacher may be different people. This idea of continuity has been compared with the notion of the class teacher in modern educational science.

The parent's attitude completes this order: if the pupil is in the wrong, the parent should stand by the teacher. The author illustrates this with the story of Emir Süleyman, son of Bayezid I (Yıldırım Bayezid). The teacher is strict for the sake of the prince's good upbringing, pulls his ears and now and then frightens him with the stick. One day, hurt, the prince goes to his father: "You are the sultan of Rum and I am your son, so why does this teacher of mine beat me at the rate of slaves?" The next morning the sultan sends word to the teacher in advance, then takes his son by the hand, comes to the school and remonstrates. The teacher, waiting prepared, drives him out of the door by striking his school stick now against the sultan's skirt, now against the wall, then pulls the child by the arm and sits him back in his place. In the evening Bayezid tells his son, "My son, what a fierce man that teacher of yours is, he beat me too; go, sit with good manners and study," and Emir Süleyman finally turns to his lessons. In the author's view, if the child is not warned by his father and disciplined by his teacher, the purpose is not achieved.

Punishment, Discipline and the Conditions of the Age

Al-Amâsî takes a smiling face and gentle speech as his principle. He wants no violence used against a pupil who makes a mistake, and the error pointed out in kind words; he also notes that violence is no solution for some children, that some wake at a single call, while the sluggish do not become bold through beatings. He advises that small children be given little to learn, so that their temper is not hurt and their hearts do not fill with aversion. On the other hand, he accepts that the teacher may be strict with a pupil who is ill-mannered, lazy or fails to do the task given. He considers it necessary that the child should stand somewhat in awe of the teacher; he wants a child who runs away from school and comes home to be sent back, if need be after a beating, so that he grows attached to the teacher and does not run away again. A punishment given to someone who misbehaves in class should be carried out in view, so that the other pupils see it and learn from it. He says that a pupil who misbehaves in front of the teacher should be put out of the door, and one who does so at the door should be sent to the stable.

Even in the matter of punishment he draws certain limits. He writes that a child should not be beaten at random at school, that the bastinado belongs to the teacher alone, and that without the teacher's permission neither the school assistant nor the other children may put a pupil to the bastinado. Girls should not be given the bastinado nor have their ears twisted; if necessary they should be struck on the palm with a rod. These rules do not fit modern views; scholars assess them within the conditions of the period and note that the author's real aim was to stress good manners, respect and obedience to rules. The editors of the 2023 edition also make a point of reminding readers that some of the text's convictions may run counter to today's prevailing views, and that the work should be read within the value judgements of its own time.

His Views on Learning and Teaching

Al-Amâsî regards learning as a lifelong activity; reading, writing, repetition, lessons before the teacher and listening to the conversation of scholars continue from the cradle to the grave. In his view every person should have a mürebbî, an educator, from whom to learn upbringing, manners and decorum, modesty and good character; this educator teaches a person how to behave where, and what to say where and in what way, and thereby a person's understanding, reason and discernment increase. He demands perseverance in the pursuit of knowledge: whoever wants a pearl must dive into the sea, and the treasure of knowledge is not found without toil. The pupil should be open enough to find something to learn even from an enemy. He also stresses separately the importance of lexicography and grammar for anyone who wishes to become a teacher.

To show the value of thinking he turns to two stories. In one, the faith of an ignorant worshipper who prays a great deal but does not think is compared with that of a scholar regarded by the people as a sinner but who does think, and the preference goes to the latter. In the other, the elder of two brothers, considering worship alone sufficient, settles in one place, while the younger sets out to pursue knowledge; the author praises the younger brother's choice. Şeker and Çiçekler see in such passages a reflection of the importance given to knowledge and to men of learning in the author's time.

He also makes room for practical learning. He wants skills such as writing, swimming and archery to be learned by doing; he says that writing will give a person distinction, strength to the eye and peace to the heart, that it can be a means of livelihood, and that it keeps the writer's name alive. He advises speaking briefly and to the point, speaking truthfully and gently, hurting no one, and not speaking in a loud and harsh voice. His use of stories to strengthen his teaching is also striking. One of these stories tells how Imam al-Ghazali, having gone to the madrasa and failed to learn, saw water wearing through stone drop by drop, returned to the madrasa and succeeded. Topsakal likens the author's approach to the case-study method and thinks that the teacher may have followed a similar path in his own lessons; this is an inference, not certain knowledge.

Daily Life and Rules of Conduct

The Tarîku'l-Edeb is also read as one of the few Turkish sources on everyday life in the fifteenth century. The author divides conversation among people into two kinds: the "sohbet-i nifâkıyye," in which people given to vice and amusement come together, he regards as a companionship that wastes one's life and ends in longing and regret; the "sohbet-i ittifâkıyye," in which people of feeling, discerning and refined friends gather and gladden one another's hearts, he praises, while reminding the reader that it too ends in parting. By a saying he attributes to Ali, each day of the week has its own task: Saturday is suitable for hunting; Sunday for building, planting trees, having new clothes made and beginning a wedding; Monday for setting out on a journey or on trade; Tuesday for bloodletting and cupping; Wednesday for taking medicine and syrups; Thursday for visiting sultans and emirs and paying debts; and Friday for marrying.

In the chapter on manners the author says that good manners and good character were left by the Prophet, and that learning manners is a duty for every believer. He relates that when Bozorgmehr was asked "From whom did you learn manners?" he answered "From the ill-mannered," and that he learned wisdom from the blind, because they first feel out carefully the place where they will set their feet. He holds it a duty for every person to guard the tongue from lies, backbiting and idle talk; in his words, "speech in its moment, a word in its season and a deed at its opportunity are fine." In table manners one is advised to begin a meal by washing the hands, to sit close to the table, to eat with the right hand and to take small mouthfuls. Walking in the street has its etiquette too: one should not walk fast in the city streets, should not shout in the street, should not say "Make way" to one's elders, should not walk ahead of the teacher, the father and the elders without permission, and should take care not to tread even on the small creatures underfoot.

The last chapter of the book describes the natures of various peoples and reflects the prejudices of the age just as they were. The author characterises the Arabs as cold-tempered, the Persians as scorpion-natured and hasty, the Kurds as vengeful and the Turcomans as wolf-natured, while praising the Turks as loyal, compassionate and companionable, a people attached and obedient to one another "like sheep." Elsewhere he advises Muslims to avoid imitating the feasts and customs of Christians, saying that this would harm their faith. These lines cannot be read by today's standards; they are valuable as a record of how a schoolmaster in fifteenth-century Anatolia classified the world.

Complaint about the Times

The author at times directs sharp criticism at the social life of his own day. He laments that men of skill are not esteemed and that respect has turned towards wealth and the wealthy: "But in the present age, which is our own time, the skilled have become abased and their worth small. Regard has gone to the love of wealth, and honour and respect to the rich. The company of the skilled has become poor and the band of poets despised and contemptible." In his view knowledge has been exchanged for jesting and perfection for buffoonery, and earning a copper coin has become more valued than displaying a thousand skills. He also writes that he rose from the gatherings he joined to dispel his grief and sorrow with a heavier burden than before. These complaints should be read together with the grievances in the preface.

The Manuscript Copies

The manuscript copies of the Tarîku'l-Edeb show that the work was read and copied over the centuries. The oldest copy known today is registered as no. 2575 in the collection of the Kitâbhâne-i Millî-yi Melik (Âsitân-ı Kuds-i Rızavî) in Tehran. The copying of this manuscript of 192 folios, written in eleven lines of vocalised naskh, was completed on the last Sunday of Ramadan 870, in the forenoon (May 1466). Written thirteen years after the date of composition, this copy may have been made fair either by the author himself or by a scribe working from the author's copy; for this reason the 2023 edition took it as its base.

Among the copies in Türkiye, a 48-folio manuscript in the Laleli collection of the Süleymaniye Library was copied by Ali b. Ya'kub on a Friday forenoon in the last days of Ramadan 904 (May 1499). A copy dated 1622 in the Istanbul University Library differs from the others and contains additional poems not found in them; among these is a passage of mesnevi verse by a poet named Cemâl, urging that the principles of religion be taught to a child while young. There is a copy dated 1061 (1650-51) in the Nuruosmaniye Library, a copy dated 1768 in the Kasîdecizâde collection of the Süleymaniye whose ornamental heading gives the title as Vesîletü'l-Edeb, and one copy each in the Istanbul Municipal Library and within a miscellany in the Reşid Efendi collection of the Süleymaniye. The version bearing the title Tâcü'l-Edeb survives in two copies, in the Yazma Bağışlar collection of the Süleymaniye and the Ali Emîrî collection of the Millet Library. Three copies registered under the title Tac-ı Edeb are also reported in the Fuzuli Institute of Manuscripts in Baku; İnci Kasımlı, who studied these copies, writes that eight copies have been identified in Türkiye and three in Azerbaijan. According to Şeker and Çiçekler's comparison, the Tehran, Laleli, Nuruosmaniye, Kasîdecizâde and Reşid Efendi copies descend from the same branch.

Editions and Assessments of the Work

One of the first studies of the work is Mehmet Sarı's text and index of the Tâcü'l-Edeb, prepared at Istanbul University in 1978. It was followed by three master's theses written from the perspectives of education, hadith and language. The Tarîku'l-Edeb was published by Mehmet Şeker in 2002 by the Presidency of Religious Affairs, and by Halil Çeçen in 2010 as a text-and-glossary edition based on the Laleli copy. In 2007 Yahya Akyüz presented a paper at the First Amasya Studies Symposium held in Amasya, comparing the educational views in the work with those of Western educators. In the following years articles appeared on teacher-pupil relations in primary schools and on the author's understanding of education, and in 2019 Esma Dumanlı Kadızade and Can Sakar published a book devoted to the child and education in the work. Finally, Mehmet Şeker and Ahmet Naim Çiçekler published a new and expanded edition based on the Tehran copy in 2023, in the Turkish-Islamic Scientific and Cultural Heritage series of the Turkish Academy of Sciences.

Yahya Akyüz's assessment in his Türk Eğitim Tarihi supports the view that the work and its author deserve to be remembered in the history of Turkish education. In studies from the standpoint of educational science, the book has been linked with fields such as educational psychology, principles of instruction, classroom management, values education and school-family relations. Many of these comparisons are readings made through present-day concepts; it cannot be said that the author used these concepts knowingly. The work belongs to the tradition of works on the etiquette of teacher and pupil that begins with Ibn Sahnun and al-Zarnuji, and to the books of counsel written in Anatolia under Murad II and Mehmed II.

The year in which the work was written, 1453, is the year Istanbul was conquered. Topsakal sees a scholar's writing a book on the upbringing of children in a year of military struggle as a sign that Anatolia was made a homeland as much through learning, art and culture as through conquest. Alâeddin Çelebi's dates of birth and death are unknown, but his book is one of the few written proofs we have of Amasya's intellectual life in the fifteenth century. If his possible connections, reaching from the household of Yörgüç Pasha to that of Tâcî Bey, are true, then this primary-school teacher also taught the children of the city's most powerful families; this last point remains a possibility, as far as the sources allow.

Chronology

826 / 1423: According to Bursalı Mehmed Tâhir, Yörgüç Pasha is appointed sanjak governor of Amasya.

831 / 1427-28: Yörgüç Paşazâde Hızır Bey becomes sanjak governor of Samsun.

834 / 1430: According to its inscription, Atabeg Yörgüç Pasha builds his mosque in Amasya.

838 / 1434-35: Hızır Bey becomes warden of Amasya in the retinue of Şehzade Ahmed.

1444: Hızır Bey falls as a martyr at the Battle of Varna.

856 / 1452: Câfer Çelebi, son of Tâcî Bey, is born in Amasya.

857 / 1453: Date of composition of the Tarîku'l-Edeb.

866 / 1461-62: Tâcî Bey enters the service of Şehzade Bayezid in Amasya.

870 / 1466: The Tehran copy, the oldest known, is written.

875 / 1470-71: Possible date of death given by Banarlı, to be treated with caution.

890 / 1485: Death of Tâcî Bey according to his son's chronogram verses.

904 / 1499: The Laleli copy is written by Ali b. Ya'kub.

1978: Mehmet Sarı's text and index of the Tâcü'l-Edeb.

2002: Mehmet Şeker's edition of the Tarîku'l-Edeb.

2010: Halil Çeçen's text-and-glossary edition.

2023: Şeker and Çiçekler's TÜBA edition based on the Tehran copy.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Hüsameddin, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 1-4, pp. 180-181, 474, 478-479.
  • Hüsameddin, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 6-8, pp. 123, 128, 585.
  • Hüsameddin, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 9-12, pp. 113, 264.

Academic studies

  • Çeçen, Halil. "Ali bin Hüseyin el-Amâsî'nin Tarikü'l-Edeb'inde Deyimler". Journal of Turkish Language and Literature 2 (1), 2016, pp. 93-102.
  • Topsakal, Cem. "Ali b. Hüseyin el-Amasî'nin Tariku'l Edeb Adlı Eserinin Günümüz Eğitim Bilimleri Açısından İncelenmesi". Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı II, Amasya, 2017.
  • Kasımlı, İnci. "Tac-ı Edeb Adlı Eserin Bakü Nüshaları". Atatürk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 2016.

Official sources

  • Banarlı, Nihad Sami. Resimli Türk Edebiyatı Tarihi. Istanbul: Ministry of National Education Publications, 1998.

Books

  • Şeker, Mehmet; Çiçekler, Ahmet Naim (eds.). Osmanlı Eğitim-Öğretim Tarihinin Kaynaklarından Tarîku'l-Edeb, Ali b. Hüseyin el-Amâsî. Ankara: Turkish Academy of Sciences, 2023, introduction pp. 35-64.
  • Çeçen, Halil (ed.). Alî bin Hüseyin el-Amasî, Tarîku'l-Edeb, Metin-Sözlük. Ankara: Bizim Büro Yayınları, 2010.
  • Şeker, Mehmet (ed.). Alî bin Hüseyin el-Amasî ve Tarîku'l-Edeb'i. Ankara: Presidency of Religious Affairs Publications, 2002.
  • Bursalı Mehmed Tâhir. Osmanlı Müellifleri. Vol. 1. Istanbul: Meral Yayınları, 1972.

Other sources

  • Tanyıldız, Ahmet. "Alî bin Hüseyin el-Amasî". Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (TEİS), 2014, updated 2020.
  • Dönmez, Emine Naza. "Yörgüç Paşa Camii". TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 2013. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Erünsal, İsmail E. "Tâcîzâde Câfer Çelebi". TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 39, Istanbul, 2010. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr

Online sources