Âsafî Ahmed Bey was a bağlama poet and destan singer of the second half of the eighteenth century, from the Amasya family of seyyids (descendants of the Prophet) known as the Çırçırlıoğulları. According to the Amasya Tarihi of Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, in his youth he held a zeamet and served as an alaybey; he was removed from office for deserting the Russian campaign of 1184 (1770-71), turned to the dervish life, squandered the fortune left by his ancestors in pleasure and lived on as a "coffeehouse poet" in a coffeehouse near the Tomb of the Princes until 1210 (1795-96). He was famous among the janissaries and was also called "Destancı" (the Destan Singer). He is said to have received the nickname "Âsafî" because he descended from the Amasya-born vizier Firârî Seyyid Hasan Pasha. No example of his poetry has come down to us.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Hüsameddin introduces the poet in the sixth volume of the Amasya Tarihi, in the section on natives of Amasya whose names begin with the letter "elif":

Âsafî Ahmed Bey-Çırçırlıoğlu Amasyalıdır. Eşrâf ü sâdât-i Hüseynîyyeden Çırçırlı ve oğlu es-Seyyîd Abdullah Bey bin es-Seyyîd Mehmed Bey'in mahdûmudur. Vezîr Firârî es-Seyyîd Hasan Paşa'nın torunu olduğundan "Âsafî" lakabını aldı. Evâil-i hâlinde züamâdan olup alaybeyi de olmuşdu. 1184'de me'mûr olduğu Rus harbinden firâr etmekle açığa çıkarıldı. Sonra dervişliğe bozdu. Güzel bağlama çalardı. Âbâ u ecdâdından kalan servetini sefâhatla tüketdi. Kahve şâiri olup şehzâdeler türbesi civârında Fethullah Ağa'nın kahvehânesinde 1210 sâline kadar yaşadı. Ba'dehû vefât etdi. Yeniçeriler ve Bekrîler arasında şöhreti vardı. "Destancı" da denirdi.

In modern English the entry reads: Âsafî Ahmed Bey of the Çırçırlıoğlu is a native of Amasya. He belongs to the notable and seyyid families descended from Husayn; he is the son of Seyyid Abdullah Bey of the Çırçırlıoğlu and the grandson of Seyyid Mehmed Bey. He received the nickname "Âsafî" because he was the grandson of the vizier Firârî Seyyid Hasan Pasha. In his early life he was among the holders of zeamets and had also been an alaybey. In 1184 he was dismissed for deserting the Russian war to which he had been assigned. Afterwards he took on the guise of a dervish. He played the bağlama well. He spent the fortune left by his fathers and forefathers in pleasure and extravagance. He was a coffeehouse poet and lived in the coffeehouse of Fethullah Ağa near the Tomb of the Princes until the year 1210, after which he died. He had a reputation among the janissaries and the "bekrîs". He was also called "Destancı".

The site's rendering of the entry and its notes can be read in the Hüsameddin encyclopedia.

Life

Âsafî's date of birth is unknown. On the information Hüsameddin gives, his life falls into two parts. In the first he is a son of the notables with a place in the military order of the sanjak: he holds the large fief called a zeamet and becomes an alaybey. The dictionary of the Turkish Language Association defines the alaybey as the commander to whom the timar-holding sipahis were attached outside campaign seasons and to whom they answered before the sanjak governor. In 1184 (1770-71) he was dismissed for deserting the Russian campaign to which he had been assigned.

The second part begins after this fall. Hüsameddin writes that he "dervişliğe bozdu", that is, took on the guise of a dervish and turned to that life, that he played the bağlama well and that he consumed the family fortune "sefâhatla", in pleasure and extravagance. Âsafî spent the last years of his life as a "coffeehouse poet" in the coffeehouse of Fethullah Ağa near the Tomb of the Princes and lived until 1210 (1795-96). Hüsameddin's words "Ba'dehû vefât etdi" (afterwards he died) show that his death came after this date.

The poet's fame rested on two circles. One was the janissaries; the other Hüsameddin calls the "Bekrîler". The Turkish Language Association dictionary explains the word "bekri" as an obsolete term meaning "drunkard"; on this reading Hüsameddin may be saying that Âsafî was known among people fond of drinking parties. The encyclopedia rendering and the article on the minstrel tradition on this site have read the word as "Bektaşîler" (Bektashis). The family did have a real connection with the Bektashi order: according to Hüsameddin, Arslan Ali Baba of the Çırçırlıoğulları received his authorization (hilafet) from the Pîrî Baba lodge in Merzifon and in 1230 (1814-15) founded a Bektashi lodge in Amasya at the Çırçır site near Gökmedrese. The word in the source is nonetheless "Bekrîler", and which of the two readings is right cannot be settled.

Family

The Çırçırlıoğulları were a family living in the Gökmedrese quarter of Amasya, near the Çırçır spring. According to Hüsameddin's entry on Firârî Seyyid Hasan Pasha, the family name comes from Çırçırlı Hacı Abdullah Ağa, who rose from the guild of farriers into the ranks of the notables of Amasya. His son Seyyid Hasan Pasha (in Turkish) held offices such as steward to the grand vizier (sadaret kethüdası) and the governorships of Şehrizor and Rumelia, and was executed at Fenerbahçe on 22 Cemâziyelâhir 1119 (1707). As Hüsameddin tells it, the pasha escaped at Şehrizor from Kara Bayram Ağa, who had been sent to kill him, fled to Istanbul in disguise and hid there for a time; the nickname "Firârî" (the Fugitive) may be thought to recall this flight, but Hüsameddin does not state its origin explicitly.

On Âsafî's relation to this vizier, Hüsameddin's two entries differ slightly. The Âsafî entry calls him Hasan Pasha's "grandson". The Hasan Pasha entry gives the lineage in more detail: the pasha's sons were Seyyid Mehmed and Ali Beys and Seyyid Abdullah Pasha, who also served as grand vizier; and "Âsafî Ahmed Bey is the son of Seyyid Abdullah Bey, son of Gâzi Mehmed Bey". On this account Âsafî was the grandson of Hasan Pasha's son Mehmed Bey, that is, the son of the pasha's grandson. The word "grandson" in the Âsafî entry appears to be used in the broad sense of descendant. The long interval between the pasha's death in 1707 and Âsafî's living on until 1795 supports this reading. According to Ömer Faruk Harman's article in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Âsaf b. Berahyâ is the person whom Islamic sources present as the scribe or vizier of Solomon, and his name came to be used in the Islamic world as an equivalent of "vizier" or as an epithet of viziers. The nickname "Âsafî", "belonging to the vizier", recalls the family's vizier ancestor.

Connection with Amasya

Âsafî's connection with Amasya is clear: he was the son of an Amasya family of notables; although it is not stated in which sanjak he served as alaybey, he probably did so in Amasya; and he spent his last years in Amasya, in the coffeehouse near the Tomb of the Princes. In the line of poets who played the saz and recited destans in the coffeehouses of Amasya, he stands between Celâlî Mehmed Ağa, who sang in the "Yüksek Kahve" at Meydan Köprü in the seventeenth century, and Âşık Mehmed Ağa, who gathered his friends in a coffeehouse at Selağzı at the beginning of the nineteenth. This milieu is described on the site in the articles Coffeehouses and Conversation Culture in Amasya and The Minstrel Tradition in Amasya.

Poetry

No poems of Âsafî Ahmed Bey have come down to us. Hüsameddin says he was a bağlama poet, a coffeehouse poet and a destan singer, but gives no example of any destan or quatrain of his. Cavit Güzel, in his study of the minstrel destan tradition in Amasya, likewise states that there is no specimen of the works of the minstrels named in the Amasya Tarihi and that he found no work by them in other sources. The subjects of Âsafî's destans, and when and on what events they were sung, are unknown.

State of the Sources

All that is known about Âsafî rests on Hüsameddin; his name has not been found in any other source. There is a confusion over the date of his death. Güzel's study gives 1770 as the year of Âsafî's death, and the site's article on the minstrel tradition follows this date. According to Hüsameddin, however, 1184 (1770-71) is the year in which the poet deserted the Russian campaign and was dismissed; his death came after 1210 (1795-96). The date 1770 appears to have arisen from a confusion of these two records. The information mentioned in the site's encyclopedia rendering, that Âsafî sang in a coffeehouse at Selağzı, is not in Hüsameddin either; the Selağzı coffeehouse occurs in the entry on Âşık Mehmed Ağa. According to Hüsameddin, Âsafî's coffeehouse was near the Tomb of the Princes.

Chronology

22 Cemâziyelâhir 1119 (1707): Firârî Seyyid Hasan Pasha, the family's vizier ancestor, is executed at Fenerbahçe.

1184 (1770-71): The alaybey Âsafî Ahmed Bey is dismissed for deserting the Russian campaign to which he had been assigned.

1210 (1795-96): Âsafî lives until this year in the coffeehouse of Fethullah Ağa; his death comes after this date.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

Online sources