AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

Alagöz Baba — Şemseddîn Ahmed Şâmî

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 23 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Şamlıdır. Orada tahsîl-i ilm ü hâl etdikden sonra Şamlılarla beraber Amasya’ya hicret edib Şamlılar Mahallesi’nde ikâmet ederek orada yaptırdığı zâviyesinde şeyh oldu. Otuz yıl kadar irşâd-ı sâlikîn ile iştigâl ederek halkın mu‘tekadı olduğu halde 829’da vefât etdi. Âlim, kâmil, mazınne-i kerâmet bir zât idi. Şamlılar Mahallesi’nde kâin türbesinde medfûndur. Mahdûmları İbrâhim, Halîl, Ali Çelebilerdir.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was from Damascus. After receiving an education in scholarship and Sufism there, he migrated to Amasya together with the people of Damascus, lived in the Şamlılar Quarter, and became sheikh of the zaviye (lodge) that he had built there. For about thirty years he guided those seeking the path, and as a person in whom the people believed he died in 829 [1425-26]. He was a scholar, a mature man, a figure known for his miracles (keramet). He lies in his tomb in the Şamlılar Quarter. His sons are İbrâhim, Halîl and Ali Çelebis.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • zâviye: a tekke; a small religious building where a sheikh gathers his students and disciples
  • irşâd-ı sâlikîn: guiding those who enter an order
  • mu'tekad: a person who is believed in and trusted
  • mazınne-i kerâmet: one thought to possess miracles
  • medfûn: buried

The Şamlılar Quarter and Alagöz Baba

Hüsameddin gives Alagöz Baba the name "Şemseddîn Ahmed Şâmî"; "Şâmî" is a nisba indicating that he came from Damascus. In the same book's entry on Ak Şemseddin it is written that his father Sheikh Nûreddîn Hamza came to Amasya in 799 [1396-97] and lived in the Şamlılar Quarter. This information shows that people of Damascene origin settled in Amasya at the end of the 14th century. The relation of Alagöz Baba's migration to the same period is not clearly established in the text; this is an inference.

The date of death is 829 [1425-26]. If Hüsameddin's "about thirty years" of guidance is counted backward, his arrival in Amasya falls around 1395. This calculation is not an exact date but an estimate based on the wording of the text. The quarter is today called the "Şamlar Quarter" in Amasya. No reliable detail was found on the present state of the tomb. No independent information on this sheikh was found in other sources.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Other sources

Volume 6 contents