AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · İKİNCİ FASIL

Bâkî Ahmed Çelebi — Cizyedâr

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 7, p. 391–392 • Edited by: Prof. Dr. Safi ARPAGUŞ- Prof. Dr. Ahmet Hakkı TURABİ

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Amasyalıdır. Sipâhî Kâsım Ağa’nın mahdûmudur. Tahsîl-i kitâbet ve inşâ ederek Şehir kethüdâlığı kâtibi oldu. Ba’dehû Cizye tahsîl me’mûru olup yıllarca bu hizmetinde kaldı. [426] Bunun için Cizyedâr, Cizyeci dendi. 1058 senesinde vefât etdi. Şâ’ir, kâtib, me’ârif-âşinâ idi. Abdî Efendi’nin tezkiresinde bu tercemesi zeylinde bir gazeli var idi. Hayfâ ki yandı.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was a native of Amasya. He was the son of Kâsım Ağa, a sipahi. Having learned writing and official correspondence and worked as a clerk, he became clerk to the Steward of the City. Then he became an official collecting the poll tax and remained in this post for years. For this reason he was called Cizyedâr, Cizyeci. He died in 1058 [1648-49]. He was a poet, a clerk, and a man close to learning and culture. In the tezkire of Abdî Efendi, in the part added after this biography, there was a ghazal of his. Alas, it was burned.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • tahsîl-i kitâbet ve inşâ: learning writing and the order of official correspondence
  • kethüdâ: steward, a person who runs the affairs of an administrator
  • cizye: the tax levied on non-Muslim subjects
  • tahsîl me'mûru: an official charged with collecting taxes
  • me'ârif-âşinâ: familiar with learning and culture
  • tercüme, zeyl: biography; a part added at the end of a text
  • gazel: a specific verse form in Divan poetry
  • hayfâ ki: alas

The Burned Tezkire

The "tezkire of Abdî Efendi" in the text is the Tezkiretü'ş-Şuarâ, in which the madrasa professor Abdî Efendi collected the poets of Amasya. According to Metin Hakverdioğlu's study, Hüsameddin says that he drew extensively on this work and on the supplementary tezkire of Şeyh Alizâde Hâfız Ahmed Rüştü Efendi for the poets of Amasya; he mentions both with the words "alas, it was burned". In volume 12 Hüsameddin describes Abdî Efendi as a scholar, an accomplished man, a poet, a calligrapher with a fine talik hand, and an Amasya historian familiar with history and deep subjects. He had obtained a copy of the tezkire in which Abdî collected the poets of Amasya and their verses together with some events, but that copy too was burned. That Bâkî Ahmed Çelebi's ghazal is unknown today is most probably connected with this loss; this is an inference.

The same study notes that nearly five hundred poets' names occur in the History of Amasya and that detailed information is given on about three hundred of them. Bâkî Ahmed Çelebi is among the poets whose names are listed for volume 7. His biography is not discussed separately in this study.

What Could Not Be Found in the Sources

No information on Bâkî Ahmed Çelebi's clerkship to the Steward of the City, his work as poll-tax collector, or his date of death was found in any source other than Hüsameddin. That the nickname "Cizyedâr" came from this office rests on the text alone.

Bibliography

Volume 7 contents