Amasyalıdır. İlyâs bin Hamza oğludur. Lâdikli İsrâfilzâde Mehmed Çelebi hizmetinde ilm-i edvâr diye ma’rûf olan mûsikî fennini hakkıyla öğrendi. Pek güzel tanbûr çalar, gâyet sesi yanık bir hânende olduğundan Amasya vâlisi Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed’in nüdemâsından oldu.
Halk arasında Baba Tanburî diye meşhûr olup a’yâna hulûl ederek hayli servet ü sâmân edindi. Halkın efkâr ve şikâyâtını Sultân Ahmed’e ismâ’ edecek gazelleri besteler, huzûrunda terennüm ederek halkın işlerine de yarardı.
918’de şehzâdenin şem-i hayâtı söndüğünden pek ziyâde mükedder olup 921’de Sultân Süleyman Amasya’yı teşrifinde nâ’il-i iltifât ve ihsân olmuşdu. Şehzâde Sultân Mustafa’nın Amasya’ya vâlî olup geldiği zaman ber-hayât idi. [421]
Fakat ihtiyârlığından mahdûmu İlyâs Çelebi ve şâkird-i irfânı Ca’fer Çelebi şehzâdenin meclisini şenlendirdiler. Her hâlde 950 sâline doğru vefât etdi. Tab’an zarîf, me’ârif-âşinâ, halûk bir musîkîşinâs idi. Diğer mahdûmu Hamza Çelebi’dir. İmâm-ı Sultânî Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi, İlyâs Çelebi’nin hafîdidir.
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya. He was the son of İlyâs, son of Hamza. In the service of Mehmed Çelebi İsrâfilzâde of Ladik he learned thoroughly the art of music known as "ilm-i edvâr". Because he played the tanbur very beautifully and was a singer with a plaintive voice, he became one of the companions of the governor of Amasya, Prince Sultan Ahmed.
Becoming famous among the people as Baba Tanburî, he entered the circle of the notables and acquired considerable wealth and property. He would compose ghazals that conveyed the people's thoughts and complaints to Sultan Ahmed, and by singing them in his presence he also served the people's affairs.
When the prince's candle of life went out in 918 [1512-13], he was deeply grieved; in 921 [1515-16], when Sultan Süleyman honoured Amasya with his visit, he had been given favour and gifts. He was still alive when Prince Sultan Mustafa came to Amasya as governor.
But because of his old age, his son İlyâs Çelebi and his pupil in learning, Ca'fer Çelebi, enlivened the prince's gatherings. In any case he died around the year 950 [1543-44]. He was by nature refined, fond of learning and cultivation, gentle-tempered, a connoisseur of music. His other son was Hamza Çelebi. The İmâm-ı Sultânî Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi is a grandson of İlyâs Çelebi.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- ilm-i edvâr: the theory of music; books on this subject were called "Edvâr"
- tanbûr: a long-necked stringed instrument
- hânende: a singer, a reciter
- nüdemâ: companions of a sovereign or prince in conversation
- a'yân: the notables of a town
- efkâr ve şikâyât: thoughts and complaints
- gazel: a poetic form; here a poem set to music and sung
- şem-i hayâtı sönmek: to die
- nâ'il-i iltifât ve ihsân: one who receives favour and gifts
- ber-hayât: alive
- şâkird-i irfân: a pupil in learning, a student he trained
- hafîd: grandson
- musîkîşinâs: one who knows music
The Prince's Court in Amasya and Music
The Prince Sultan Ahmed of the entry is a son of Bayezid II and served in Amasya as sanjak governor. According to Ord. Prof. İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı, Ahmed loved music greatly and kept a salaried music ensemble in his retinue. The master Zeyn'el-âbidin, an Azeri ud player, joined Ahmed's gatherings between 1494 and 1512 and was assigned fifty akçe a day and also food; Korkud, governor of Manisa, asked for this famous master for a short time to be with him. Mehmed Çelebi İsrâfilzâde of Ladik, whom Hüsameddin names as Baba Tanburî's teacher, appears in the same article: in 893 [1488] he wrote a work on music, Fethiye, in the name of Bayezid II, and there is also another work of his, Zeynü'l-elhân. Baba Tanburî's name does not appear in the article. No information on this person was found in other sources.
According to Selim Özcan, from the second half of the fourteenth century until the end of the sixteenth Amasya was among the foremost sanjaks to which princes were sent to gain administrative experience, and it was the post of twelve princes. When Prince Mustafa was appointed sanjak governor in 1538, Amasya was separated from Sivas and became an independent province; with Mustafa's killing in 1553 it was again attached to the province of Rum. The words in the text, "He was still alive when Prince Sultan Mustafa came to Amasya as governor", point to this period.
Problems in the Dates
Hüsameddin gives the year of Prince Ahmed's death as 918 [1512-13]. In his struggle for the throne against Selim, Prince Ahmed was defeated near Yenişehir (Bursa) on 24 April 1513, was captured soon after and was executed; this date falls in 919. Hüsameddin's year seems about a year early, but it is close in terms of the event.
A more marked problem lies in the date 921 [1515-16]. Süleyman the Magnificent came to the throne in 1520, on his father's death on 21-22 September 1520; in the years before that he had been in Manisa. In 921 there was no "Sultan Süleyman" to honour Amasya. Süleyman came to Amasya as sultan only on 30 October 1554 and spent seven months of the winter there. If Baba Mehmed Çelebi is assumed to have died around 950 [1543-44], he cannot have been alive at that visit. Hüsameddin's date 921 or the name "Sultan Süleyman" may therefore have arisen from a confusion; this is an inference, and which sultan or prince is meant could not be determined from the sources read.
İmâm-ı Sultânî Mehmed Efendi
At the end of the text there is a person called a grandson of İlyâs Çelebi, "İmâm-ı Sultânî Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi", and there is a person with the same title: Mehmed Efendi, born in Ladik, which then belonged to the sanjak of Amasya, who drew attention by his skill in Qur'anic recitation and his beautiful voice, became the third imam of Mehmed IV in 1670, was şeyhülislam briefly in 1695 and a second time in 1703, and is called "imâm-ı sultânî"; he died in Bursa in 1728. This person's father is given as Mustafa Efendi, and no kinship to İlyâs Çelebi or the name "Evliyâ" is mentioned. Whether the two are the same could not be verified.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 390. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
- İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı, "Osmanlılar Zamanında Saraylarda Musiki Hayatı", Belleten, vol. 41, Türk Tarih Kurumu. https://belleten.gov.tr/tam-metin-pdf/1443/tur
- Selim Özcan, "Amasya'da Sancak Beyliği Yapan Şehzadeler Döneminde Amasya Şehri", Amasya Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/amauifd/article/21371
- Feridun Emecen, "Süleyman I", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 38, İstanbul 2010. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/suleyman-i
- "Mehmed Efendi, İmâm-ı Sultânî", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 28, İstanbul 2003, p. 453-454. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mehmed-efendi-imam-i-sultani
Other sources