Âşık Paşa, whose real name was Alâeddin Ali, was a Sufi poet of the first half of the fourteenth century, remembered in Turkish literature for the Garibnâme, a mesnevi of more than ten thousand couplets. He was the grandson of Baba İlyâs-ı Horasânî, founder of the Babaî movement, and the son of Muhlis Paşa. His connection with Amasya, however, is disputed among the sources. In his Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya), Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar regards him as born in Amasya, writes that he served for years as sheikh of the Mesudiye Hankah (dervish hospice) in the city, and states that "the first to compose poetry in the pure Turkish tongue in Anatolia was Babazâde Âşık Paşa of Amasya." The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, on the other hand, relying on the hagiography written by his son Elvan Çelebi, presents him as a sheikh born in Kırşehir in 1272, raised in Kırşehir and buried there. On this page the two views are set side by side, and the source behind each piece of information is shown separately. Hüsameddin's own entry can also be read in the Hüsameddin encyclopedia section of the site; for the poet's place in the literary life of Amasya, see the article Divan Poets of Amasya and Their Literary Milieu.

Hüsameddin's Entry

In the eleventh volume of the Amasya Tarihi, Hüsameddin devotes a separate entry to Âşık Paşa under the heading "Âşık Ali Paşa-Mevlânâ Alâeddîn." The original text of the entry reads:

Amasya civârında İlyâs köyünde medfûn olan Baba İlyâs Horasânîzâde Muhliseddîn Mûsâ Paşa'nın mahdûmudur. 670'de Amasya'da doğdu. Asrı ulemâsından ve hâssaten Babâiyye Tarîkatı'nın pîri olan olan Şemseddîn Ahmed Baba'dan ulûm-ı edebiyye, şer'iyye ve sûfîyyeyi ahz ederek 708'de şeyhinin vefâtıyla Amasya'da Mes'ûdiye zâviyesi şeyhi oldu. 711'de itmâm etdiği "Maârifnâme"si sonunda "Ali Âşık Baba" imzâsı görüldü. Amasya'da on beş yıl kadar zikir ve ibâdet, te'lîf-i âsâr-ı vahdet ile iştigâl ederek be-nâm oldu. 723'de Sivas vâlisi olan Emîr Çobanzâde Timurtaş Bey'in da'veti üzerine Sivas'a gidip vâlî-i müşârün-ileyhin mu'tekad ve müsteşârı oldu. 727'de Sultân Ebû Saîd Bahadır Hân'ın havfından Timurtaş Bey'le beraber Mısır'a gitdi. Orada Timurtaş'ın katli üzerine bu da diğer refîkleriyle beraber İskenderiye Kalesi'nde hapsedildi. 732'de Melik Nasır Muhammed'in mazhar-ı afvı olduğundan rüfekâsıyla birlikte avdet etdi. Fakat yolda hasta olup Kırşehir'e vüsûlünde tedâvî edilmek üzere orada kaldığı esnâda 733 recebinde vefât etdi. Fâzıl, gâyet edîb, natûk, kâmil, müteşerri olduğuna "Maârifnâme"si şâhiddir. Şâir olup Divân-ı eş'ârı vardır. Muahharan Kırşehir'de üzerine muazzam bir türbe yapılmıştır. Nazmen "Etvâr-ı Mülûk"u da terceme etmişdir. Mazınne-i kirâmdan bir pîr-i muhterem idi.

In English: He was the son of Muhliseddin Mûsâ Paşa, son of Baba İlyâs-ı Horasânî, who lies buried in the village of İlyas near Amasya. He was born in Amasya in 670 (1271-72). He studied literary, religious and mystical sciences with the scholars of his age, above all with Şemseddin Ahmed Baba, master of the Babaî order, and when his sheikh died in 708 (1308-09) he became sheikh of the Mesudiye zaviye (dervish lodge) in Amasya. The signature "Ali Âşık Baba" was seen at the end of his Maârifnâme, completed in 711 (1311-12). For about fifteen years he became known in Amasya for remembrance of God, worship and the writing of works on the unity of being. In 723 (1323), at the invitation of Emir Timurtaş Bey, son of Çoban and governor of Sivas, he went to Sivas and became the trusted confidant and counsellor of that governor. In 727 (1327), out of fear of the Ilkhanid ruler Ebû Saîd Bahadır Han, he went to Egypt together with Timurtaş Bey. When Timurtaş was killed there, he too was imprisoned with his other companions in the fortress of Alexandria. In 732 (1332) he was pardoned by the Mamluk sultan al-Nâsır Muhammad and returned together with his companions. On the way, however, he fell ill; arriving at Kırşehir, he stayed there for treatment and died in the month of Rajab 733 (March 1333). His Maârifnâme bears witness that he was virtuous, highly cultivated, eloquent, mature and devoted to the sharia. He was a poet and had a divan of poems. Later a great tomb was built over him in Kırşehir. He also translated the Etvâr-ı Mülûk into verse. He was a venerable elder believed to work wonders.

His Life

Most of what is known about Âşık Paşa's life rests on the Menâkıbü'l-kudsiyye, a hagiography in verse written by his son Elvan Çelebi. According to Günay Kut, author of the entry in the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the poet was born in Kırşehir in 670 (1272); his real name was Ali and his pen name (mahlas) Âşık. The title "Paşa" is said to indicate that he was his father's first son. His grandfather Baba İlyas came from Khorasan and settled in Amasya, and after the uprising known in the chronicles as the Baba Resul Revolt he was captured and imprisoned in the castle of Amasya. His father Muhlis Paşa, according to the hagiography, was rescued during this uprising as a baby in swaddling clothes, taken to Egypt, and returned to Anatolia years later.

Âşık Paşa studied first with Sheikh Süleyman-ı Kırşehrî and then with Sheikh Osman, one of Baba İlyas's deputies, and at his father's request married Sheikh Osman's daughter. Hüsameddin, too, writes in the second volume of the Amasya Tarihi that he received the outward and inward sciences from "eş-Şeyh Süleyman el-Kırşehrî," who had been trained under Rumi; on this point the two accounts agree. In Hüsameddin's entry in the eleventh volume, however, his teacher is the Babaî sheikh Şemseddin Ahmed Baba. Âşık Paşa later entered the service of Timurtaş, the Ilkhanid governor of Anatolia. The TDV entry calls him Timurtaş's vizier and reports that he went to Egypt after becoming involved in certain political events, fell ill at Kırşehir on his way back to Amasya and died on 13 Safar 733 (3 November 1332). His tomb in Kırşehir was built, according to his will, on a hill to the north-east of the town.

Hüsameddin describes this period in more detail. When Timurtaş rose against the Ilkhanid ruler in 1327 and took refuge in Egypt, Âşık Paşa went with him, and when Timurtaş was killed by the Mamluks he was imprisoned with his companions in the fortress of Alexandria. In Hüsameddin's eighth volume, the entry on Gümüşlüzâde Tâceddin Mahmud Bey, one of the governors of Amasya, describes the same imprisonment and states that the two men were released in 732. In the second volume, Karamanoğlu Yahşi Bey is said to have sent two of Timurtaş's counsellors, Gümüşlüzâde Tâceddin Mahmud and "Babazâde Alâeddin Ali Âşık Paşa," to Egypt after taking Amasya in 727. For his death, the two sources give the same year but different months: Hüsameddin gives Rajab 733, the TDV Safar of the same year. All the sources agree that he died in Kırşehir.

His Connection with Amasya and the Dispute

Âşık Paşa's connection with Amasya is disputed, and the two sides of the dispute must be kept clearly apart. Hüsameddin's view is this: Âşık Paşa was born in Amasya in 670, became sheikh of the Mesudiye zaviye in Amasya, stayed in the city for about fifteen years, and went from there to Timurtaş in Sivas. The historian repeats this view in many places in his work. In the section on poets in the first volume he names him as the first to compose poetry in Turkish in Anatolia and says that the path he opened was continued by the people of Amasya; in the same volume he writes that because "Muhlis Babazâde Alâeddin Ali Âşık Paşa" was sheikh of the Mesudiye Hankah, the Babaî way prevailed over the Mevlevî order in the city. In the second volume he records that after Muhlis Paşa died in the Egyptian town of Qus, his sons Ali Âşık Paşa, Gıyâseddin Mahmud and Oğuz Çelebi returned in 709 to Amasya, "to their homeland."

The opposing view is found in the present-day encyclopedia and research. The TDV entry says that Âşık Paşa was born and raised in Kırşehir and that his mystical personality was shaped in the lively dervish and futuwwa milieu of Kırşehir; Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, who wrote the second part of the entry, also notes that he gathered a considerable following of disciples in Kırşehir. These entries make no mention of Âşık Paşa being born in Amasya or serving as sheikh of the Mesudiye Hankah. The same divergence has been noted in the Hüsameddin research on this site. As far as we know today, there is no source other than Hüsameddin showing that Âşık Paşa was born in Amasya.

Hüsameddin's account also contains internal contradictions. According to his entry in the eleventh volume, his sheikh Ahmed Baba died in 708 and Âşık Paşa became sheikh of the Mesudiye that year; in the entry on Ahmed Baba in the sixth volume, however, Ahmed Baba dies in Dhu al-Qa'da 711 and Âşık Paşa succeeds him. His departure to Timurtaş is placed in 723 in the eleventh volume and in 721 in the entry on Ahî Ahmed Baba Nahcuvânî in the seventh volume. The work that Hüsameddin calls the "Maârifnâme" and says was completed in 711 does not appear in the list of works in the TDV entry either. The TDV states that Âşık Paşa's most important work, the Garibnâme, was written in 730 (1330). Whether the "Maârifnâme" is another name for the Garibnâme or a separate work is not explained in the sources.

On the other hand, the family's connection with the Amasya region is beyond dispute and makes Hüsameddin's view easier to understand. Baba İlyas is known to have settled near Amasya, and his grave lies in the village of İlyas near Amasya. According to Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, Âşık Paşa's son Elvan Çelebi left Kırşehir and settled in the Mecitözü district between Çorum and Amasya, the homeland of the founder of the line. In the following centuries the descendants of Elvan Çelebi also rose in Amasya as sheikhs, judges, treasurers and calligraphers. Hüsameddin's treatment of Âşık Paşa as a native of Amasya can largely be seen as a product of this family tradition and of the Babaî memory in the city; this is an inference.

His Poetry and Works

Âşık Paşa's chief work is the Garibnâme. According to the TDV, this mesnevi, written in 730 (1330), of about twelve thousand couplets and ten chapters, is composed in the aruz (quantitative metre) pattern "fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün." It is a religious, mystical and didactic work, written in Turkish for the instruction of the people. Thanks to its plain language it reached a wide readership over the centuries, and many copies survive in libraries. Hüsameddin's phrase "the first poetry in the pure Turkish tongue in Anatolia" is also connected with this work's deliberate choice of Turkish; yet the historian never mentions the Garibnâme by name in his own entry.

Besides the Garibnâme, the TDV entry lists minor works belonging or attributed to Âşık Paşa: the Fakrnâme of 161 couplets, the Vasf-ı Hâl of thirty-one couplets, the Hikâye of fifty-nine couplets, a Kimya Risâlesi (Treatise on Alchemy) of doubtful authorship and the equally doubtful Risâle fî beyâni's-semâ. Hüsameddin, for his part, speaks of the "Maârifnâme," a divan of poems and a verse translation of a work called the Etvâr-ı Mülûk; this last work is not mentioned in the present-day encyclopedia entry. According to the TDV, sixty-seven poems of the poet found in nazire anthologies, apart from the ghazals in the Garibnâme, were published by Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun and Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı.

Âşık Paşa's poems have come down to us, but none of them is associated with Amasya in the sources, and Hüsameddin quotes no couplet of the poet in his work. For this reason no separate poem pages have been opened in this category. For readers who wish to read his poems, the main editions are: Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun, Türk Şairleri (I, pp. 129-144); Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı's article "Aşık Paşa'nın Şiirleri" (Türkiyat Mecmuası, V, 1936, pp. 87-100) and his book Yunus Emre ve Tasavvuf (Istanbul 1961, pp. 295-346); Agâh Sırrı Levend's article publishing the Fakrnâme and the Vasf-ı Hâl (TDAY Belleten, 1953, pp. 205-253) and his article publishing the Hikâye and the Kimya Risâlesi (TDAY Belleten, 1954, pp. 265-276).

Family and Descendants

According to Hüsameddin, Âşık Paşa's brothers were Gıyâseddin Mahmud and Oğuz Çelebi; the grandsons of Oğuz Çelebi, who has a separate entry under the name Oğuz Han Bey, also appear among the emirs of Amasya. His son Elvan Çelebi is the author of the Menâkıbü'l-kudsiyye, which tells his father's life, and the Elvan Çelebi zaviye that bears his name stands between Amasya and Çorum. Hüsameddin also names Süleyman Çelebi as a son of Âşık Paşa and says that Süleyman Çelebi, author of the Mevlid, "must surely" have been his son, since the language of the Mevlid closely resembles that of Âşık Paşa. This is a conjecture unsupported by any source, and the historian himself does not speak with certainty.

The best-known member of the family is the Ottoman historian Âşıkpaşazâde Ahmed Çelebi. Hüsameddin describes him in the seventh volume under the heading "Pîr Ahmed Çelebi-Âşık Paşazâde": he was the great-great-grandson of Elvan Çelebi, was born in the Elvan Çelebi district, grew up in Amasya, later settled in Istanbul and wrote the history of the Ottomans in Turkish; the place where he lived in Istanbul is known "by the name of his ancestor Âşık Paşa." Sheikhs descended from Elvan Çelebi, such as the Nefîszâdes and Âşıkpaşazâde Tâceddin Mahmud Çelebi, were also well-known figures of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Amasya. Hüsameddin's treatment of Âşık Paşa as a native of Amasya should be assessed together with this documented family connection.

Chronology

670 (1271-72): Born, according to the TDV in Kırşehir, according to Hüsameddin in Amasya.

708 or 711 (1308-1312): According to Hüsameddin, becomes sheikh of the Mesudiye zaviye in Amasya.

721 or 723 (1321-1323): According to Hüsameddin, goes to Timurtaş in Sivas.

727 (1327): Goes to Egypt with Timurtaş; after Timurtaş is killed, he is imprisoned in Alexandria.

730 (1330): According to the TDV, writes the Garibnâme.

733 (1332-33): Dies in Kırşehir on the way back; according to the TDV on 13 Safar (3 November 1332), according to Hüsameddin in the month of Rajab.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

  • Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun, Türk Şairleri, I, pp. 129-144 (as cited in the TDV entry).
  • Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı, "Aşık Paşa'nın Şiirleri", Türkiyat Mecmuası, V, 1936, pp. 87-100; idem, Yunus Emre ve Tasavvuf, Istanbul 1961, pp. 295-346 (as cited in the TDV entry).