Kemahlıdır. Oranın emîri olan Sarımeddîn Mehmed bin Ebîbekr el-Kemahî mahdûmudur. Moğol askerinin Kemah’ı zabt ve istîlâsında firâr edib Amasya‘ya geldi. Tahsîl-i ulûm ederek tarîkat-ı Rifâiyye meşâyihinden eş-Şeyh Ali el-Hakkârî’den ahz-ı hilâfet etdi.
Ba’dehû (Sonica) Sonisa kazâsında Zûdây karyesinde bir zâviye binâsıyla 655’de Amasya mahkemesinde bütün emlâkını zâviyesi mesâlihine vakfedip hayli müddet Amasya’da ikâmet etdi.¹⁵⁶ Emîr Muineddîn Pervâne Bey’in teveccühâtına mazhar olup 675’de zâviyesine çekildi. Ba’dehû vefât etdi.
Âlim, sâlih, Rifâî bir zât olduğu vakfiyesinde mezkûr ve zâviyesi ittisâlinde binâ etdiği türbesinde medfûndur. Mahdûmu Emîr Alâeddîn Savcı Bey Amasya ve Niksar ümerâsındandır. Bunun mahdûmları Alp Arslan, Doğan Şâh Beylerdir.¹⁵⁷ Bunların evlâdı vardır.
In Modern English
He is from Kemah. He is the son of Sarımeddin Mehmed, son of Ebûbekir el-Kemâhî, the emir of that place. When the Mongol army captured and plundered Kemah, he fled and came to Amasya. After studying, he received the caliphate from Şeyh Ali el-Hakkârî, one of the sheikhs of the Rifâî order.
Then he had a zawiya built in the village of Zûday in the district of Sonisa (Sonica); in 655 [1257] he endowed all his properties to the needs of his zawiya in the court of Amasya and lived in Amasya for a good while. Having won the favor of Emir Muînüddin Pervâne Bey, he withdrew to his zawiya in 675 [1276-77]. Then he died.
He was a scholar, a pious man, and a Rifâî; he is described so in his waqf deed. He lies in his tomb, which he built adjoining his zawiya. His son Emir Alâeddin Savcı Bey is among the emirs of Amasya and Niksar. His sons are Alp Arslan and Doğan Şah Beys. They have descendants.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- zabt ve istîlâ: capture and occupation
- fîrâr: fleeing
- ahz-ı hilâfet: receiving the caliphate in an order, that is, the authority to act as the master's deputy
- zâviye: a small lodge where members of an order gather and stay
- mesâlih: needs, affairs
- mazhar olmak: to attain, to be granted
- teveccüh: favor, attention
- vakfiye: waqf deed
- mezkûr: mentioned
- ittisâl: adjacency
- medfûn: buried
The Alparslan Zawiya in Taşova
An encyclopedia entry on the Rifâî order cites the following record as evidence of the order's presence in Anatolia: the waqf deed drawn up for the Seyyid Nûreddin Alparslan Zawiya of the Rifâiyya in Taşova, Amasya, is dated Ramazan 655 [September 1257]. The Arabic text and translation of this deed were published by Sadi Bayram in 1994. The person Hüsameddin calls "Alp Arslan Çelebi, eş-Şeyh es-Seyyid Nûreddin" in the title matches the founder of this zawiya in name, order, and the year of the deed. Hüsameddin too mentions in his footnote a deed drawn up in the court of Amasya in 655 and writes that it was drawn up in the month of Ramazan. The only difference is that the deed points to the zawiya in Taşova, while Hüsameddin places the zawiya in the village of Zûday in the district of Sonisa.
According to one study, Sonisa lies on the border between Erbaa in Tokat and Taşova in Amasya, and its present name is Uluköy. Alpaslan, too, is a settlement in the district of Taşova, and was a belde until 2013. The two places appear to be close to each other, but the present equivalent of the village of Zûday could not be found in the sources read. It may be thought that the name Alparslan, the same as the founder's name, gave the present place name; this is an inference.
The name Alp Arslan occurs in two places in the text. In the title the sheikh himself is called "Alp Arslan Çelebi"; at the end of the text, Alp Arslan is one of the sons of the sheikh's son Savcı Bey. It is possible that the Alparslan of the deed is the same as the sheikh of the title and that the grandson also bore his grandfather's name; this is an inference.
Pervâne Bey and the Spread of the Order
The man Hüsameddin calls "Emir Muînüddin Pervâne Bey" may be Muînüddin Süleyman Pervâne, who served as vizier during the dissolution of the Anatolian Seljuks. In 1262 Pervâne retook Sinop from the Empire of Trebizond, received the city as an iqta, and had a madrasa built in Sinop. The sources do not state his relationship with the sheikh in Amasya; this too is an inference. The Rifâî order has been known in Anatolia since the middle of the thirteenth century; in the fourteenth century Ibn Battuta also mentions a Rifâî zawiya in Amasya, the zawiya of Ahmed Kuçek, son of Tâceddin.
The Tombs at Niksar
According to Hüsameddin's footnote, the tombs of Savcı Bey's two sons were found side by side at Niksar on the road to the Tomb of Melik Gâzi; this was established by excavation he carried out himself. No information was found in the sources read on the identities of Ali el-Hakkârî, Sarımeddin Mehmed, Savcı Bey, and his sons, or on the present condition of these tombs at Niksar.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 339–339. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
- Murat Alandağlı, "Hurufat Kayıtlarında Amasya Zaviyeleri", Turkish Studies, 19/1 (2024), p. 1–27, https://dx.doi.org/10.7827/TurkishStudies.72905
- M. E. Zümbül, "Temettuat Defterlerine Göre 19. Yüzyılda Sonisa Kazası", master's thesis, Necmettin Erbakan University, 2024, https://acikerisim.erbakan.edu.tr/items/0530fc66-875b-4f4b-a730-1040028243f4
Other sources