Câbî Ahmed Çelebi's pen name is the name of a job. This man of Amasya was the collector, the câbî, who gathered the revenues of the endowments of Hüseyin Ağa and Fîrûz Ağa, and he carried the title of his post into his verse; he died in 1064 (1653-54). All that is known of him fits into a forty-six-word entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi. Hüsameddin himself took the information on his poetry from the anthology of Abdî Efendi, of which no copy is known today. No specimen of his verse has come down to us.

Life

In the eighth volume of the book, the sixth section, which gathers people whose names begin with the letter "cim", opens with Câbî's entry:

Amasyalıdır. Tokatî Resûl Efendi’nin mahdûmudur. Biraz tahsîl-i ma’âriften sonra Hüseyin Ağa ve Fîrûz Ağa evkâfı câbîsi olduğu münâsebetle “Câbî” mahlasını kabûl etdi. Cibâyette istikâmet gösterdiğinden hayli müddet câbî oldu. 1064 sâlinde vefât etdi. Şâ’ir, latîfe-gû, hoş-sohbet olduğunu Müderris Abdî Efendi Tezkiresinde yazıyor. Birâderi Mehmed Efendi ulemâdandır.

In English it reads: He is from Amasya, the son of Resûl Efendi of Tokat. After some schooling he became collector of the endowments of Hüseyin Ağa and Fîrûz Ağa, and for that reason adopted the pen name "Câbî". Because he was honest in collecting, he remained collector for a long time. He died in 1064. Müderris Abdî Efendi writes in his anthology that he was a poet, a wit and pleasant company. His brother Mehmed Efendi was one of the ulema.

Most of Hüsameddin's few lines go to Câbî's honesty in money matters. The câbî was the official who collected an endowment's rents and other income and accounted for them to the trustee; Hüsameddin's phrase "honest in collecting" says that he was never touched by suspicion over this money and could therefore keep his post for many years. His year of birth, his teachers and whether he held any other post before or after his time as collector are not in the entry.

Which Hüseyin Ağa, Which Fîrûz Ağa

Hüsameddin names the founders of the endowments only by their first names. The two names occur together in the first volume of the book: Great Hüseyin Ağa, gate agha in the palace of Bayezid II during his years as prince in Amasya, built a large bedesten in 890 (1485) in the quarter whose old name was Kaya Paşa, and Fîrûz Ağa, agha of the women's quarters, set up a second bedesten in the same quarter; both made endowments for these buildings. In 900 (1494-95) Fîrûz Ağa also built a small mosque in the Saray quarter below the Kızlar Sarayı and endowed it. Hüseyin Ağa's bedesten was endowed for the upkeep of the madrasa he had completed in 888 (1483) to the north-east of the Şamlular quarter, which the people call the Büyük Ağa Madrasa. That the revenues Câbî collected belonged to the endowments of these two palace aghas is the most likely possibility; still, since Hüsameddin does not identify the founders, the match cannot be taken as certain. The later fortunes of the madrasa are the subject of the article Kapıağası (Büyük Ağa) Madrasa.

His Father and Brother

In the tenth volume Hüsameddin gives a separate entry to Şeyh Hacı Resûl Efendi, son of Mehmed of Tokat. This Resûl Efendi studied in Amasya, became sheikh of the Hâce Sultan lodge and trustee of its endowment, was forced to give up the post in 1017 (1608-09) when a shortfall was found in his accounts, and later returned to head the same lodge, dying around 1027 (1618). At the end of the entry his only son is named as İsmâ'îl Efendi, and İsmâ'îl's sons as Mehmed and Ahmed Efendi; the family was called the "Hacı Resûlzâdes".

If this sheikh was Câbî's father, the two entries do not agree. The eighth volume makes Ahmed the son of Resûl Efendi and Mehmed his brother; the tenth volume lists Mehmed and Ahmed as Resûl Efendi's grandsons. So close a match of names suggests that Câbî Ahmed Çelebi and his brother Mehmed Efendi may in fact have been the sons of İsmâ'îl Efendi. No sentence in the source joins the two; Hüsameddin did not link the entries, and it is impossible to say which is correct. The sheikh's entry is given in full under the title Resûl Efendi-Tokatî eş-Şeyh el-Hâc.

His Poetry

The source that makes Câbî a poet is itself a lost book. Abdî Efendi, teacher at the Abdullah Paşa Dârülhadis, had gathered the poets of Amasya between 1000 and 1081 in an anthology; Hüsameddin's copy burned, and no other copy is known. Hüsameddin says himself that he took the description "poet, wit, pleasant company" from it, yet he copies out no couplet. None of Câbî Ahmed Çelebi's poems has been found. His place in that book is the only testimony that he was counted among the city's poets in the middle of the seventeenth century; Metin Hakverdioğlu, too, listing the poets of Amasya Tarihi volume by volume, puts him in the eighth. The other known poets of the anthology are brought together in the article Abdî Efendi's Anthology of Amasya Poets.

Chronology

890 (1485): The gate agha Hüseyin Ağa and the agha of the women's quarters Fîrûz Ağa each build a bedesten in the same quarter of Amasya and set up their endowments.

1017 (1608-09): Şeyh Resûl Efendi of Tokat leaves his post when a shortfall is found in the accounts of the Hâce Sultan lodge.

Around 1027 (1618): Resûl Efendi dies.

1064 (1653-54): Câbî Ahmed Çelebi dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources